Yamaha Carb Cleaner trick.
 

Ok so i ran a few tanks of sea foam through the bike and it runs with out the choke now, but it still stumbles and hesitates.

Last night i bought some yamaha carb cleaner and used the little trick RK1 told me about. pull the tank, drain the float bowls, add carb cleaner through the gas lines.

I added it about 6 oclock last night and i will drain it tonight when i get home from work about 9 o clock. so it sat for about 28-30 by the time i actually get there and drain out the float bowls.

I will let you know how it turned out. the guy at the parts counter says he does not have OEM jets at the store but could order them for like 17 bucks, or i can bring in my jets and he can aftermarket them for like 4 bucks and eyeball match them up. any thoughts on letting the parts guy do that?

Thanks again for all the help.

50.

if you ever have problem with jets, here are a few methods:
1. Yamaha combustion chamber cleaner, best stuff I ever used.
2. Mini torch, heating a clogged pilot jet will break down the waxes that are clogging it, you can than blow out the jet. You will have to get them pretty hot.
3. When you have a jet that is part of the float bowl, put the yamaha cleaner in the jet passage and heat, repeat until it flows through the jet.

As an MC Tech, we used to disassemble carbs and put all the parts in the float bowl and fill it up with yamaha carb cleaner. Then gently put it in a vise and whip out the torch and boil it. Cuts the job down to about 10 minutes. Don't forget to let it cool off before you pick up the jets. Jets are super clean and open again.

lol ok so heres the break down. I think i have to pull them and rebuild them.

I went home last night and drained out the float bowls, hooked it all back up right and start it up. She seems ok sitting there ideling. I drop it in first and try and take off and one of the cylinders starts dying and the bike starts missing, almost like it was running with wrong timiming.

I figured there was some residual carb cleaner in the bowls when i turned the gas back on. I head over to the gas station to fill her up. worse ride i have ever taken, fucker has flat spots, wont stay running, really bad acceleration almsot dies giving it gas. just a nightmare. lol.

i get it the two miles over to the gas station fill her up. let it idle for a few minutes while at the station. seems ok to me. i jump back on and start go for a short ride and wham..stumbles hesitates, runs like it has pinched lines or something. i figured stuff was still clearing out of the jets. after a few miles it semi cleared up.

I put 11 miles on last night as that was all i could take any more of it once it hit a plateu of getting better.

So here was the over all result. after about 9 miles the acceleration in like 2nd and 3rd gear pulling up to 8k rpms was very nice once you got over 2500 rpms. still some hesitation at cruising speeds though. so i kind of traded one problem for another.

I suppose i unblocked one set of jets and clogged another? or maybe fouled out the plugs some?

At this point i pulled off the tank and blocked off the gas lines so nothing gets in them while i get ready to pull the carbs out. i had to come to read the manual.

Any idea what size the spark plug socket is? i had all my tools stoled a while back and have to go buy a new one today to pull it out and see what the plugs look like.

Any more ideas on this Rk1? any suggestions are appreciated.

50.

18mm but make sure you get one with a thin wall or it will not fit down into the head.

As for replacing the jets, there is no need to replace the mains. I also would never let anyone "eyeball" them for the right size. All you need is a new set of pilot jets and they should be around $5 each. Or you can try to clean the ones you have but my time is worth more than the $10 for new ones, so I always replace them at this point.

Thanks. on my way out now to grab a new socket. I think for the most part rk1s trick worked, maybe a second round of it would work too but for now i will try and pull them out and see if there is something else wrong inside the carbs.

i really think i might have fouled out the plugs. i iwll drop in new plugs and see if that helps, if not out come the carbs. sigh. lol

50

If you have the stock toolkit, there is a sparkplug wrench in it.

When I boil the stuff it actually cleans the jets to a fresh brass finish. we only boil them on the worst of the worst. Otherwise I just start a second job and come back after a while.

I did rock the bike maybe like 5 times out of the 24 ish hours it was in the bowls. They still could be dirty or maybe.. cough cough me trying to turn the bike over with the cleaner in the bowls fouled out the plugs.. lol

I am chasing down a socket now as i do not have a stock tool kit on the bike. i will drop in new plugs and try cleaning them again with the carb cleaner before a full carb pull out this week again.

Thanks for the help so far Rk1. =)

50

No such luck on a stock tool kit. Bike came with more problems then perks lol.

50

I would have to say that filling your carbs with cleaner and rocking the bike would be akin to soaking your car in a pit of car wash suds and rocking it to get it clean. I vote no.

Because I'm neurotic, what's it to you?
:P

Ok so here is the break down.

I pulled the plugs and took them in to m local bike shop to have them look them over.

I am running the iridium ones and the guy says, one plug is perfectly burning the other maybe a touch rich, but both look really nice. i asked 'should i replace them?" he goes well, they are 16 bucks a peice, and to be honest the plugs are not the problem they really look fine. just put them back in and pull the carbs.

Soo. i took RK1s advice, i already put a little more carb cleaner in and rocked the freaking nuts out of the bike a few times (ran home a few times today from work to do the old slam it side to side and front to back rocking).

Did a really nice number on dropping a gas tank bolt down inside the hoses and all that crap around the engine and lost it lol. while looking for it i did however find a body clip screw so that was a bonus. lol.

I will drain out the floats tommorow and put the tanks back on and see if the jets are any better. the local shop is 65 and hour to do the carb work(pull them out as i really do not want to. i work with food and do not like to smell like gas or grime) so it might cost me a bit too much to pull the carbs.

Does any one live close to me who would be willing to spend a hour or two with me in thier garage and at least guide me in taking them out and going through them?

50.

Only 12 times.....you're still a rookie..... lol
I don't even want to think about how many times I've pulled them. On the plus side, I can pull them and have them back in and the bike running in around 45 mins now ;)

I think that I have it down to less time. If I went in the garage right now, I could have the carbs on my counter in 15 minutes ( I am pretty sure). I may try to give it to see in the next day or so.

But remember I said start to finish 45 min...... Strip the carbs out, do what needs to be done, reinstall and fire the bike up...... ;)

Here goes,
I am going to do a couple things on my carbs. It is rear-standed, no cheating. I need to take .5 turns in on the pilots and verify the emulsion tubes and mains for correct location. If the mains and tubes are in the correct location, I will then take one clip on the needles. I will also be watching top gear season 15, episode 2 on my laptop at the same time.

I know I'm a little late on this, but a Craftsman 18mm spark plug socket works just fine. I've had a Snap-on 18mm plug socket for almost 30 years, but it was a real tight fit. So I took it to Sears a few months ago and checked it end to end with the Craftsman plug socket, and the Craftsman is slightly thinner walled. Weird, huh?

Of course Sears has used different tool companies to private label their Craftsman line over the years, so older Craftsman sockets may be even thicker than the Snap-on, which is what I would have expected from experience. But this time it worked.

39:17 to running bike. Did not do the needles, as I found an issue with the choke that I "was sure" was properly seated at all its junctions. Did pull float bowls, and mains and emulsion tubes. All is well, now on for more mileage testing.

I know what you mean. I had an old Craftsman socket that wouldn't fit in the head. Went out and checked out the new ones and picked one up and it works just fine.

Ok, so crazy idea. lets all meet at my house and have a carb rebuild-off race. every one can use my bike as the break down time tester. lol.

Been rocking the bike side to side front to back and in circles actually jerking the front wheel off the ground at times lol. i hope i rocked it around enough this time Rk1. lol.

50

I cant remember why you wont go into them, but to do them right is not a bad job. I wonder how much time you have spent rocking your carbs to sleep?

The trick is to only open one carb at a time. IF I was to do a full carb clean on the vtr, I am sure that my time would be close to 60 minutes. I am only this quick at this stuff because I do it often (summer job is a mech). my recent jobs are as follows:

duc 916- charging system inop., needed reroute and replacement of stator and R/R wiring
Polaris APT- carb issues, winch cable, intake boot
majesty- oil change
ruckus-oil change
yamaha xt350- bad stator and cdi box,
triumph daytona- wont start, 3 dead relays and one blown fuse
nighthawk cb700sc- broken starting/stator drive chain, rebuilt engine


those are the last two days. It has been so busy that I can't remember the first two days of this week ;)

I think that pulling and cleaning the carbs needs a detailed KB so that the issues are highlighted. I will describe some of my order/techniques.

I use longer screwdrivers than most, it speeds it up due to flyweight.
1. tank gets unbolted, sender unhooked, and tank flipped up, valve shut off, vent and drain unhooked, then fuel lines, then vacuum (in order of "tightness") and then removal

2. screws in airbox undone, only front two removed. Air filter and top of box come out (dont worry about the snorkel, give sharp yank)

3. Carb velocity stacks removed, then loosen all lower airbox screws followed by removing all of them from their holes. Unhook pcv hose off of rear valve cover, pull lower airbox portion up, then unhook front pcv hose off airbox.

4. Use that long phillips now to loosen your intake boot clamps (the side toward the carb). After they have been loosen more than you thought you should have (this is important to make this easy), pop carbs out of boots. as a note for the forward carb, open the throttle to get at the intake boot upper clamp easier.

5. Unplug the tps (carefully), rotate carbs along bikes axis and remove heater hoses, then rotate back so that you can get at throttle cables. Unbolt the bracket from the carb body (way easier and faster) and unhook cables. remove the front choke- as a note, it is easier to spin the plastic nut on the cable if the rubber boot is pulled back from it BUT you must make damn sure that it is hooked back up properly. Unhook rear choke, and carbs are out.

caution area, if you pull up on the carbs to much, the short front choke cable will pull the main cable yoke out of its rubber boot and will cause you to consume large amounts of fuel. Get this right or get screwed down the road.

When you go for the cleaning, if you are not putting in a jet kit, clean the needle while it is in the carb. You don't really want to know what is under the black cap, and most of us will not get the vacuum boot seated back where it belongs. You will be tempted to pull it all down to a bowl full of parts. DONT! the main jets, the main jet emulsion tubes, and the pilots may all be different (as well as your pilot settings). Clean one at a time. If you dont get it clean now, you will be back. use the cleaner of your choice, mine is yamaha combustion chamber cleaner. IT WORKS REALLY WELL (better than any can of spray carb cleaner I have ever used), but you will need carb cleaner to clean the comb. chamber cleaner off the parts. Each hole in each jet, emulsion tube, and carburetor needs to be inspected. Once done here, reassemble and do next carb.

Follow directions backwards for install. (pop front carb in first, then pop rear carb in when you get to that step).

And for the love of pete, dont drop the air box screws in the carbs or down the front of the airbox region behind the steering neck (i use a needle nose to install those two). And while the airbox screws on top are self tapping, I would highly suggest, for longevity, that you make sure they follow the same threads that they came out of.

Feels easy to me, but I once made popcorn on my own.

If it was a Rochester QuadraJet, I'd have it done in 1/2 hour. But I take my time with my bike, so more like 2 hours +. Once I've got the PAIR removed it'll be a little quicker though.