clean carbs?

[Anonymous]

I want to pull my bank of carbs off and clean them, but I am afraid I am an idiot when it comes to mechanics.How hard is it to do? (for a non mechanical person I mean).Anyone know of some online instructions or anything I could refer to? My bike is a 1978 suzuki gs1000e and I believe my carbs are makuni?

[earlfor]

Re: clean carbs?

Unless there are some obvious problems with the carbs such as overflowing, chokes not working, cold exhaust pipes at idle on some cylinders, etc., I would not dismantle them. The proper way to clean them is to tear them completely down, remove all plastic and rubber parts, and soak them overnight in carb solvent. Then replace "O" rings, clean jets, reassemble, set slide snych's by measurement and then do a vacuum synch with the engine running. You MUST have a set of vacuum guages (mercury carb stix) to do this. You will also need to remember original fuel and air pilot mixture needle settings for each carb. (you did keep all the parts from each carb segregated and reinstalled them into their original carb body didnt you) Anyway, in reassembling the carbs, there is a precise assembly order and the parts will only install if done in the correct order. Soaking/cleaning the carbs is simple. Reassembly, adjustment/calibration and set up are not. If not done correctly, its easy to change a perfectly running bike into a non running bike.

If it isnt broke, dont fix it.

If you are looking for something to tinker with on the bike, the carbs are not the place. Why do you want to take them apart?

If there are faults with the carbs and teardown, cleaning and setup is required, then yes, along with those on the forum, you can do it. There are a lot of participants on the tech pages that can give you a step by step proceedure for your bike and know the settings needed by heart.

Earl

I want to pull my bank of carbs off and clean them, but I am afraid I am an idiot when it comes to mechanics.How hard is it to do? (for a non mechanical person I mean).Anyone know of some online instructions or anything I could refer to? My bike is a 1978 suzuki gs1000e and I believe my carbs are makuni?

[Keith Winter]

If your not mechanicaly inclined,and don't really want to be, leave such work to somebody else like a motorcycle shop. If you really want to learn how to fix and adjust things like this on your bike, go to Canadian Tire and spend $26 on the Haynes Repair Manual for your bike. Thats where I got my shop manual for mine. Read the relevant sections so many times you could read it back word for word in your sleep, buy the proper tools(what ever the cost) then tackle the job. This is the way it goes. If not, then just take it to the bike shop for work. But the other guy is right, if it's not broke don't fix it, though you should have the manual anyway so you will know if it needs adjustments.

[SqDancerLynn1]

I would sugest you get a manual.
For reading material check here, a lot of general info

http://www.dansmc.com/MC_repaircourse.htm

[Anonymous]

thanks

thanks for the advise, I want to clean them to see if it will improve my performance I know there is a bunch of gummy old gas sitting in the bowls on the bottom of the carbs, last year one of the floats stuck and I had to give the bowls a tap with a rubber mallett to get them to stop spitting fuel! They arent leaking anymore but I think they are still pretty gummed up

[earlfor]

Re: thanks

What lack of performance point is a problem, or what exactly, is it that you hope to improve?

Earl

thanks for the advise, I want to clean them to see if it will improve my performance I know there is a bunch of gummy old gas sitting in the bowls on the bottom of the carbs, last year one of the floats stuck and I had to give the bowls a tap with a rubber mallett to get them to stop spitting fuel! They arent leaking anymore but I think they are still pretty gummed up

[Anonymous]

There is no actual problem I just thought if the carbs arent all gummed up I might see an increase in performance

[earlfor]

Usually, if the carbs are gummed up or blocked/restricted in any way, you will notice the bike being hard to start, pipes not warming up at the same rate, and hesitation and flat spots when applying throttle/accelerating.
If you dont have any of these problems, then its very doubtful there is anything wrong with the carbs. My best advice is if it isnt broke, dont fix it.

You could probably make more of a performance gain by cleaning electrical connections, coil grounds, battery grounds, etc and pussing in a new set of spark plugs and cleaning your airfilter.

Earl

There is no actual problem I just thought if the carbs arent all gummed up I might see an increase in performance