carb cleaning instructions for newbies

Contrary to popular belief the floats/needles should be capeable of keeping the fuel from flowing even if the petcok is left in the prime position or isnt working properly. This means in simple if your carbs flood no matter the condition of the petcok the float needles and seats need attention!!!!!!



best bet anyone who cleans thier carbs can do is to clean the tank and rebuild the petcok at the same time.


Also did anyone tell you how to use a small amount of polish on the needle seats to ensure they are clean and help get a better seal. One thing many folks dont mention is how hard it can be sometimes to get all the small build up off of a jet or a seat. Sometimes its even hard to see that its still there but it is and the polish will help remove what the carb cleaner leaves behind. This is also why some have cleaned pilot jets with poor results and had to resort to using an actual drill bit to get the orifice back to the right size and shape or replace them.
 
paulfun said:
Contrary to popular belief the floats/needles should be capeable of keeping the fuel from flowing even if the petcok is left in the prime position or isnt working properly. This means in simple if your carbs flood no matter the condition of the petcok the float needles and seats need attention!!!!!!
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Very true, which is why I put the line in there about it draining via a leaky carb! Main thing I was trying to get across was that if the fuel is still coming out of the petcock with the vacuum hose off, you need to check the lever position because there is another potential problem. :-D

Apologies for any confusion over my statement; haven't had my eighth cup of coffee yet so I can't claim to be awake!:laughing7:
 
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or just send them off to Rick West, have them done right the first time, and be done with it. Carbs are just so finicky, you HAVE to do them right the first time, or it just becomes one big headache!!!!
 
cleaned and tested the carbs on my bench, replaced them and the pods, refeuld the gas turned the petcock to on and waited like 20min and still leak free!! i refeuld the oil but did not realy noticed any feul in my oil but beter by save
can't test it today because its already dark and raining, tomorow the test drive, thanks to all...
 
Don't drive it without changing the oil, the 15 minutes isn't worth a blown motor. I'm one of many on the site who can assure you [through personal experience] that the oiling system in these bikes is not the strongest from the factory; I wouldn't skimp on the cost of an oil change.
 
golddrakul said:
Very true, which is why I put the line in there about it draining via a leaky carb! Main thing I was trying to get across was that if the fuel is still coming out of the petcock with the vacuum hose off, you need to check the lever position because there is another potential problem. :-D

Apologies for any confusion over my statement; haven't had my eighth cup of coffee yet so I can't claim to be awake!:laughing7:
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Not your post! We are all guilty of not pointing this out clearly at times (me included) and in the case of someone who is having problems sometimes we need to ensure we get the basics accross.

Like in his last post he said he sat with the petcok "on" for like 20 min. When the wording should be "I set the petcok to prime to test them for 20 min". This clearly lets everyone know that he isnt wasting his time because the petcok should not let fuel past when its in the normal "on" position. For us that know these bikes we know that if the petcok is only dripping a little, testing on a freshly cleaned carb with the tank mounted on the bike, wont tell but testing in the prime position from an extended hight will.

I just think that sometimes we get a little loose with our words based on our experiance with the bikes and sometimes have to spell it out just a little better for the newer members.

PS I was only half way threw my first cup so I wasnt with it yet myself:help:
 
i had replaced all the pieces in the carbs, floats, needles, rubbers, all is new..
i did replaced the oil after this problem,
i just went to see her and the testpaper under the bike is dry!!
hope it stops raining soon so i can drive it!
 
WillyD said:
Here is my opinion on carbs....

I learned more about carbs by talking to ZLMark and Paulfun on the phone than I ever knew. I am a mechanic by trade and right when I was getting into the trade carbs were phasing out. I did have carb class in tech school and we went over the inner works of the carb. I got out into the field and almost never touched one (diesels don't use carbs). I had my fair share of getting pi$$ed off at lawn mowers and weed eaters over the years with no luck. What was I doing wrong?? The same thing that 99% of the time gets over looked....GETTING THE CARB(S) CLEAN..... If you are someone who races and you are constantly changing set-ups then your knowledge and patience with carbs better be very deep, but if you have a daily rider that runs great and then starts going south, it should NOT be a major operation to get back up and running. Carbs are actually engineering marvels. When they are set up right and clean, they work excellent. Carbs are delicate and intricate. Taking carbs off a bike that has run basically flawlessly for a long while and then start having issues should be pretty straight forward. Besides dirt and varnish in a carb there are not a ton of parts to fail and cause issues.

You have to take them slow and just pay attention to what you are doing...You can run into difficulty if you attempt to fix something that some other dingus brain attempted to "fix" or "jet" when they should not be in charge of something as simple as pushing a shopping cart...When I bought my honda, I got it from my buddy the original owner. Bike is a 2004 and I bought it in 2010 with 2700 miles on it. The dealer put pipes on it new and "jetted" the carb. Idiots!!! They put a DJ needle in it and cut the factory diaphram spring down to DJ specs and left the rest of the carb stock (mistake) After I took pics of everything and posted it up to my guys on the website they told me what had been done. I went to honda and bought a stock spring and then I bought a FP kit and set it up correctly....Now she runs perfect....
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Agreed for most part. I personally use only jewelry cleaner on the copper/brass parts and they come out almost as new. Since I am rebuilding my first ZL 600, I can say the carbs are really simple design except for setting the float levels where I needed to get 2 new ones because the metal piece for some reason came loose off the plastic floater for some reason. And took some fiddling to set it about right. The only drawback of the bottom floater design is that for each adjustment the covers needed to be taken off and put it back on with the necessary precautions.

I'd add that with each carb cleaning/rebuilding you might want to do a sync/ balancing as well. I found some significant differences on my Zl that has done some 40k miles after following the base setting recommendations/ advise.

And yes, flushing the engine oil is another golden advice you would want to consider...
 
zlMark said:
I'm gonna try the jewelry cleaner on the jets etc. Is there a specific brand you use?
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I know I'm preaching to the preacher here, but the jewelry cleaner (at least the stuff I'm familiar with) would be good if you want shiny parts again, but will only clean the surface tarnish/oxidation off -- once it reaches good metal, it stops more or less. To remove any surface imperfections from the corrosion, like on the float needle seats, I'd stick to the polishing of the surfaces like you normally recommend.
 
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