Question about carb cleaning:

[aosmith]

I took the intake boots off yesterday and the carb internals look brand new... this isnt to say I'm a carb expert (I've never worked on anything but efi) floats are completely clean and jets are still gold... I'm assuming they are fresh off a rebuild from how clean they are. Any reason i should take them out and inspect them?

[Nessism]

The argument in favor would be that the o-rings dry out (or soon will) and will not seal properly. I took apart one set of fairly clean carbs and the 0-rings on the vent tubes connecting the carbs together literally fell apart and crumbled when I touched them.

[chuckycheese]

No!

If your bike runs good, I would suggest you LEAVE 'EM ALONE!!!!:-D

[BassCliff]

I took the intake boots off yesterday and the carb internals look brand new... this isnt to say I'm a carb expert (I've never worked on anything but efi) floats are completely clean and jets are still gold... I'm assuming they are fresh off a rebuild from how clean they are. Any reason i should take them out and inspect them?

Mr. aosmith,

That may depend on your mechanical aptitude and time available. I try to adhere to the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If you suspect air leaks or are having other symptoms then it may be necessary to take them off and inspect. But like Mr. chuckycheese said (and I've been told this before by Ms. SqDancerLynn1), if it's running good, don't touch 'em. You may open up Pandora's box. But then again, maybe you like that sort of stuff. :-D

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[chuckycheese]

Mr. aosmith,

That may depend on your mechanical aptitude and time available. I try to adhere to the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If you suspect air leaks or are having other symptoms then it may be necessary to take them off and inspect. But like Mr. chuckycheese said (and I've been told this before by Ms. SqDancerLynn1), if it's running good, don't touch 'em. You may open up Pandora's box. But then again, maybe you like that sort of stuff. :-D

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Please, Mr. Cliff.....just call me Chucky....(after all, we're all friends!):-D

[GNAHT-2]

Please, Mr. Cliff.....just call me Chucky....(after all, we're all friends!):-D

But being more importantly, both of you can be calling me "Sir!":-D

[Nightmare]

If your bike runs good, I would suggest you LEAVE 'EM ALONE!!!!:-D

Sounds like they are pretty clean, if you don't see any residue your fine, and I rather loudly second the above statement... Fouled plugs? clean your air filter, but unless you plan on moding your bike you'll quickly find that your carbs are best left be.

[petelardo]

Not trying to jump on a bandwagon here, but I have to vote with the majority here and suggest you tamper with the carbs as little as possible for now. Since you have no experience dealing with them, you really aren't aware of all the things that can go wrong by making ANY changes to them. Simply removing and reinstalling them can cause problems, since you don't know yet what NOT to do, and the near-countless factors that make the difference between a RUNNING motorcycle, and a RIDEABLE motorcycle. Of course, if something MAJOR goes wrong, you'll have a two-wheeled paperweight on your hands until you learn enough to correct the problems YOU caused, which can be a SLOW, PAINFUL, EXPENSIVE process. OTOH, you COULD simply decide to throw cubic yards of money at someone else to fix the problems, but if you can afford to do that, then you can afford to hire ME to rebuild / rejet / tune / sync the carbs for you... :-D though I DON'T guarantee my work once the carbs leave my hand... :shock:

The points I'd like you to keep uppermost in your mind are these:

First, do no harm.

Second, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and millions of people who stare into space, blink occasionally, and mutter repeatedly, "I was only trying to help..."

Third, threads strip, little parts run away and hide, bolt heads snap off... working on bringing an old motorcycle back to life can be very enjoyable and rewarding, but when things go REALLY wrong, we often have only ourselves to blame.

Fourth, never work on ANYTHING you're unfamiliar with, unless you have a scapegoat standing by ready to take the blame... and make sure that the scapegoat can afford to pay to repair the damages...

Fifth, even simple carb problems can make grown men cry... running an engine rich can foul spark plugs, while running it LEAN can melt piston crowns and burn exhaust valves... New plugs are cheap, especially when compared to the cost of overhauling an engine...

Well, now you have a good basic philosophy to work from. I wish you well in getting everything working properly, but when in doubt, refer to the first point, then post any questions you have in the forums, and let the collective wisdom found here help to guide you...

Good luck; let us know how this turns out...

[rustybronco]

But being more importantly, both of you can be calling me "Sir!":-D

Buzz off!!!

[bwringer]

When troubleshooting, it's best to only change one thing at a time. You changed out the intake o-rings, presumably to fix or head off a problem. Put it all back together and see what happens.

If you're still having trouble, post here and think about the problem before taking the carbs apart. The carbs are only one part of an intake system, and you might as well take care of the easy and cheap stuff (sealing the airbox, cleaning or replacing the air filter, checking for other intake leaks) before disassembling the carbs.

With all the above said, all the carb rebuild kits I've seen contain shoddy crappy, incomplete and incorrect assortments of junk instead of the precision parts required. If the carbs were "rebuilt" with these no-quality components (specifically the o-rings, jets, float needles, and seats) instead of cleaned original or OEM parts and new o-rings from Robert Barr, you could be in for a lot of frustration and disappointment.

Guess how I learned this a few years ago... go on, guess.

[aosmith]

Thanks for the replies, i think I'll leave them alone until i know theres a problem, because just getting the intake boots and airbox back together was a big enough job (they were a little tight but still very flexible)

[chef1366]

BAAA! With the Carb cleaning series and the o-ring kit how can you go wrong. With good tools (nice tight fitting screwdrivers and an impact driver) It's hard to screw up. If you stay stock the only adjustments will be to the idle mixture screw, float heigth and a synchronize. At the end of the day you will feel good about yourself and wonder what all the worry was about. These carbs are quite simple in design. Just do one at a time and don't drop any parts in the lazyboy that eats as much popcorn as you do.

Also let the idle mixture screws soak in PB Blaster for a day or so if they appear to be rough to remove. Don't strip them out. Use a good tight fitting screwdriver! Second option is using heat.

[DimitriT]

If you are taking the carbs off I would at least clean out the bowls, replace the gaskets, replace the float valve o-ring and clean out the jets. You may also try cleaning out the idle mixture adjustment passage but that involves a little more fiddling in getting it back in tune once you've put it back together.

But, the above things are pretty low risk and pretty high benefit IMHO.