Do the carbs have to come out?

Poor girl sat for most of the year after hitting a deer and nasty fuel may be causing her sputter & die episodes. Always had the Honda shop do the work but money is tight ATM. They say draining carbs is smart but it may require more aptitude and tools than Ive got. (Watched YT vid below - yikes...involved). Also replace spark plugs. Never done that either. If these things don't help, they want $700+ for the carb rebuild.

 

I'll get the obvious out of the way that it probably would've been a better idea to drain the gas out of the bike before it got parked for a year (but you obviously didn't do that already lol). The pisswater they call gas these days turns to orange soda in a few months. Since like many I learned this the hard way a long time ago, I put REC90 and fuel stabilizer in mine because I don't ride it nearly as much as I used to. I still take the time to a least start it up and run it around the neighborhood periodically. If you're not a whiz with carbs do the easy part yourself and take everything off (take notes and pics of where everything goes, mark hoses, etc) and bring them to someone who knows what they're doing. About a year ago I paid @$500 (parts included) to have Blais in Dania do the (absolutely disgusting) carbs (there are 4 of them) on an old FZR1000 I decided I had to drag home. I thought that was more than fair considering at least half the price was parts anyway. I would've had zero interest in all the time and aggravation he had to put in to clean them and the reward when I bolted them back up was it started on the first hit of the ignition and ran like a freight train. As someone who always has multiple projects (who also works multiple jobs) who always felt obligated to do everything myself, I've tried to learn to sometimes work smarter and not harder.

Unfortunately if you don't have the tools or the skills to at least remove the carbs yourself (and that's ok) and bring them to someone, other than shopping around on the price your options are kinda limited. I suppose someone might suggest Seafoam or something similar and running the bike for awhile and seeing if you get lucky. Probably don't really have much to lose.

 

Carb Rebuild... Pay or DIY? - SuperHawk Forum

 

Simply draining the carbs is easy And you don't have to remove anything. You can even pull out the float ball Drain screws and spray some carb cleaner in with some rags underneath and some goggles on to clean out the ****, then take off the airbox. cover off, Which entails removing the tank which you'd have to do anyway if you were gonna remove the carbs, but if you just take the airbox, cover off. Seafoam has a kit that when the bike's running, you actually spray this stuff in with a special nozzle. And it'll smoke like hell, but it could clean out the passages enough for it to run half decent. Check out seafoam site for their carb spray cleaning kit.
Sea Foam SS14 Cleaner and Lube Spray, 14 oz at Walmart《$14

I've rebuilt the VTR carbs a dozen times I have like 5 sets now. There is the possibility if I had the time which I don't is I could grab one of the sets. I've already jetted and cleaned and selling them to you. I just don't know how much they're worth anymore. They're getting scarcer and scarcer and more expensive

 

Not too scarce around your parts, skokie.

 

Thanks for the great advice and links. I'll look into Seafoam. I like the suggestion on the linked thread to try Yamaha Carb Cleaner. My Superhawk was babied and doted on before I got it from my brother, who bought it new, So I think the carbs should clean up nicely. Ive got plenty of time but no money, and may just take a stab at pulling out the carbs if need be. Hopefully the local dealer can save me if I totally %# it up....

Dumb question: How many carbs does this '00 VTR 1000 Superhawk have?

 

One for each cylinder.

Two.

 

Huh?

I may only have 6 sets...

And 2 pare engines, frame, and prolly nuf spares for a 3rd