Carb cleaning

[John Luciano]

Has anyone had any success cleaning a carb. with carb. cleaner ( seafoam , Prestone choke /carb cleaner, B19 ,STP etc. ) I was told that if I drained the carb. and gas tank of all the gas and poured pure cab cleaner in it ,Let it sit fro 48 hours. Then run 50% mixture of carb. cleaner and gas then try to start is then let it sit for another 24 hrs.. continue until it will start on 100% gas. so far it seems to be working .

[Big_Steve]

Has anyone had any success cleaning a carb. with carb. cleaner ( seafoam , Prestone choke /carb cleaner, B19 ,STP etc. ) I was told that if I drained the carb. and gas tank of all the gas and poured pure cab cleaner in it ,Let it sit fro 48 hours. Then run 50% mixture of carb. cleaner and gas then try to start is then let it sit for another 24 hrs.. continue until it will start on 100% gas. so far it seems to be working .

To a lesser degree I did that on my Valk. Slow jets were clogging.

I put about a triple dose of Sentry into 1/2 tank, and drove it 20 miles then parked it. 24 hrs later I drained the bowls, then drove it a few miles again. Next morning I headed out and filled it up. It helped a lot.

[trikes4ever]

Best way is to totally remove a carb and get a rebuild kit for it - they are generally not very expensive. I learned how to do this on an air cooled vw engine carb and have since done many others including outboards, cars, lawn mowers. Principals are the same and not all that complicated. You'll get better results than you can with any 'additives', and kits include parts that are subject to wearing out completely.

[Big_Steve]

Best way is to totally remove a carb and get a rebuild kit for it - they are generally not very expensive. I learned how to do this on an air cooled vw engine carb and have since done many others including outboards, cars, lawn mowers. Principals are the same and not all that complicated. You'll get better results than you can with any 'additives', and kits include parts that are subject to wearing out completely.

Can't argue that. But if it's just some iffy gas, chemicals are our friends...........

[trikes4ever]

But if it's just some iffy gas, chemicals are our friends

Very true, and easy to try first. I have a 96 Jeep with 160,000 miles that was stalling on me. Put in some injector cleaner and it solved the problem. Sometimes we get lucky...

[Lonerbtw]

Hey trikes4ever have you ever done the carbs on a Valkyrie. Cleaning is not the problem. 6 hours to remove ,clean and reinstall. Voice of experiance. Had to do it for the low speed jets. Could not keep it running long enough for the cleaner to work.

Loner

[John Luciano]

The reason I am asking is the CARB on the CV3 is buried under the seat among wires and tubes. Can get it out but don't want to if i don't have too. i filled the carb with SEAFOAM carb cleaner . It is improving . it will start up now on its own , but wont RUN

[trikes4ever]

have you ever done the carbs on a Valkyrie

No, and if it's anything like a Goldwing, I never will. Volunteered to help a friend with carb problems on a Goldwing, and gave up - you have to remove about 800 pounds of plastic to get to anything.

[John Luciano]

same thing on the Moto. It seems to be getting better . It will idle now and it will run wide open . Transition from Idle to wide open is the problem. accelerator is not good

[Ol' Grey]

Definitely understand the frustration of having to remove half the bike to get at whatever it is that one needs to work on. Oftentimes, it's "intentional design" by the factory to purposely frustrate the owner and have them take it into the dealership for servicing.

Additives like Sea Foam are excellent for clean or fairly clean carbs and can usually do the trick. But if the carb is too dirty, it's best to just bite the bullet, pull and clean the carb, then use a little Sea Foam with every fill-up to help keep it running clean.

Have heard of others filling their float bowls with Sea Foam and letting it soak overnight. This wouldn't concern me and have heard of good results with this technique........But I'd be very reluctant to use straight carb cleaner, even diluted with some gas, thru a running bike. Carb cleaner is very strong stuff and can eat rubber components in a heartbeat.

Idle would be running off the slow/pilot jet, mid-range (off idle to approx. 3/4 throttle) would be running off the position of the carb slide/carb piston, sometimes determined by the position of the clip on the needle valve, depending on what type of carb one has. Past 3/4 throttle to WOT, it's running pretty much directly off the main jet.

If you ran straight carb cleaner thru the carb with bike running, there's a possibility of having trashed some rubber gaskets or rubber diaphragms in the carb. This might account for the lack of mid-range. If that's not the case, the carb might simply require a good manual cleaning and/or rebuild.

[3W-lonerider]

Hey trikes4ever have you ever done the carbs on a Valkyrie. Cleaning is not the problem. 6 hours to remove ,clean and reinstall. Voice of experiance. Had to do it for the low speed jets. Could not keep it running long enough for the cleaner to work.
Loner

6 hours to clean and re-install the carbs on a valk..must have been a standard or tourer..your looking at an all day job on an interstate..but on a valk there is no need to remove the carbs. once you get the airbox out of the way you can bungee cord one side up at a time and get to everything..yes it's cramped and tight but can be done..i had a customer coming to pick one up one day and it had to be done..i removed the tank, airbox, and replaced all 6 slowjets and had everything back togather in 2 hours.from start to finish.