Pine Sol my Carbs..

[Orion61]

Well I bit the bullet and pulled the carbs on my 75'B. I had it in storage for a few years dry but lost my
storage room in Mid Winter 3 years ago, I don't own a Pickup and it is only 12 blocks, so I put some gas in her fired it up inside, warmed it up and rode her home. They were ticked off I did that BUT I had already paid the rent of $100.00! and they sold the shop. I never did get the rest of the money back so they deserved it. (I had stored it 5 years in a row starting at $25.00 and they raised it every year! Unfortunately it was close to ZERO and I was a human POPSICLE. I had been hurt at work and had a number of Operations.. fast forward to now and I realized I had forgotten to drain the gas in it OHHHH NOOOO.
When I pulled the Bowls, YUP looked like Maple Syrup had hardened in there, Floats were frozen (so erer the brass bellows) and I thought the carbs might have been ruined. I didn't take before pictures, but I Boiled the carbs in 80% Pine Sol, (brought it up to boil, then shut it off and let it cool down, about 3 hrs all together. I pulled
the carbs out and they were clean beyond my wildest dream. It did tarnish the Aluminum Black a bit, but it wiped off easily after I took a tooth brush to them and dried with a rag. A bit of Aluminum polish showed they will clean and shine nicely with my Dremel tool! The Brass vacuum bellows were both stuck but were loose afterword. I pulled them and coated the springs with REM Oil, they will rust without. It gave me a chance to check out the rubber diaphrams, both were perfect.
If I did this again I would probably use more like a 40/60 solution tho. I did heat it up to a Boil slowly
not just throw it on high. The floats and needle valves were loose and clean, (I pulled the floats and valve out, also pulled the Air mixture screws. I did not pull them down further then used Gummout choke and carb cleaner followed by a 100lb air blast. I also used some Flower Shop wire. it is a coated very fine wire they we to hold bundles of Flowers together, It is perfect for the small passage ways.
It probably wasn't needed, as she fired right up with a squirt of Ether and runs like new.. I don't know of anything that would have cleaned them better OR quicker!
OH yes, I filtered the Pine Sol with a folded Cheesecloth and it could be used again for carbs OR Floors so there was zero loss except for possibly 1/2 a cup of grimy liquid on the bottom.
I give the Pine Sol Bath a ****1/2, Star out of ***** 5. Would be 5 if it didn't tarnish.
The last time I bought a gallon of carb cleaner it cost over $20.00 and took soaking them each a week!
and they weren't as clean as the Pine Sol. WARNING don't use the Lemon or Citrus scent.
I spent $12.00, and still have floor cleaner! I have been shooting a video of this but have to find a way to convert the High-8 tape to digital.
Cousin Larry

 

[madjap]

Cool! Glad you got it 'done' without having anything ruined! Breath of relief, eh? GREAT INFO to post for all of us that END UP in your shoes at one point or another, thanks!

 

[gggGary]

Sorry but a few caveats.
Hot soaked the carbs with the pistons and diaphragms still in them?
Glad it came out well for you.
hint; use a hair dryer pointed in the intake to warm the carbs and the pistons will unstick and slide up easily.
I have used pinesol but kinda quit, mainly the turns aluminum and pot metal black issue.......
I replace throttle shaft seals if I have carbs stripped down.
I also test all floats with a hot water dip.
I like to rub a bit of dielectric silicone on the diaphragms when they are out. That's about the only thing that i'll let touch a diaphragm. (dielectric silicone isn't cheap but compared to diaphragms. I have checked diaphragms treated this way after several years of use and so far so good. For other rubber parts I like Syl glide, it has other stuff in it so I am leery of it on those delicate diaphragms.
I don't use steel wire to clean brass jets. Various sizes of strands from copper electric wires do the cleaning job without augering the brass holes out larger. the center hole in pilot jets is often the worst one to open up. I have used a piece of sharpened safety wire to get the gunk out of that hole, then switch to copper. Probably should just replace them...

 

[upthemaiden]

Never thought to boil them! I know I have let carbs soak in pine sol and then rebuilt them after and it worked great, but your method sounds even easier. Wouldn't mind cleaning up the outside if it tarnished a bit, but does that also tarnish the inside as well?? I assume if it did that gasoline running through it would probably clean it off over time.

 

[Orion61]

The tarnish actually wipes right off if you do it right away, I left the pistons and diaphragms in as well as the covers still on them because if something happened to them I was ready to buy a rpl set of carbs that come rebuilt with 3 sets of jets from a site that specializes in them.
The gaskets were frozen solid and they probably would have broken had I pried them out, after the bath ALL the gaskets softened and released.
The Diaphragms came out with no damage and all seems fine.
I am thinking if you boil the soaking time can be reduced quite a lot, I pulled the carbs out with a set of tongs often to flip them and even through the 1/2 hour it took to come to boil they hadn't started to tarnish, it was only after the carbs had set in the cooling solution for awhile. I also believe you can cut the solution a lot more than I used, I had planned to use it in 100% solution but I had to add water to cover the carbs in the pot. Like I said If I did this again I would use about 40% Pinesol. Heck some of the Old Timers used to just boil carbs out with water. I would also not leave them in no more than about an hour total.
When I put the carbs together again I noticed the bottom of the bowls were printed in raised letters Carb 1 and the other bowl Carb 2. I presumed carb 1 was the Left
and carb 2 was right? is there some difference? I ask this because a guy on another 650 site said his left Right hand cyl was running very rich after he cleaned them.
I wonder if he got the bowls switched?

 

[Orion61]

gggGary, one more thing, You mentioned the dielectric Silicone on the Diaphragms. I have some Dielectric Silicone Grease, Is that the same stuff?
It is quite thick and a translucent whitish color??
I appreciate your help and comments and I will pull the carbs back off and coat them lightly if it is the same stuff. It was fairly expensive but a can lasts a long time.
I also noticed a repeating problem even after I cleaned the carbs and got it running again, If I leave the petcock on and use the side kick stand the bike will slowly leak gas. I did not mess with the floats measurement, I did watch that nice video on floats and neither are sloppy tilting wise.
Is it a needle and seat issue most likely, or could the float levels be set too high? I also have a bit of a petcock issue but I'll save that for another day..
If anybody knows the settings, I'd appreciate both, the wonderful video I found somewhere here covered the closed setting at 22-24 mm, but what about the float drop? I may pull the carbs and and set the point where the needle shuts off gas a bit lower if you think it could help?? I'm sorry for the 20 questions but as you can tell I don't have a whole lot of experience inside these carbs. Your help in other areas has been great and very unselfish as there are times I can tell you have looked up things for me. I love my XS and even tho I have a lot newer C50T It cannot match the little 650s charm and it's just plain fun to ride.
I miss it terribly.
Thanks again everybody.