What's your method?
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Cleaning Brass Jets
- Thread starter Notmyrealname
- Start date
Replace with new.
Its been a long time
Doesn't know nothing.
Blow through with solvent and/or air as required. Any doubts about them, fit new.
Back in the day we used sized "drills" in the old brass harley tooters...these went by numbers, and I assume but do not know that the numeric designation corresponded to number drills as a machinist would use, ie decimal diameter in inch. It's very easy to screw up a jet, but since the old Linkarts pretty much flushed and there was only one...it didn't matter. I'd save the old jets after cleaning with a "hot" organic solvent and a light reaming - very soft touch, doanascratch the hole...Reynolds number an all... There is, in float bowl situation, some potential for galvanic corrosion...possibly dezincification... if so jets snap off easy,,,,throw away.
clean with carb cleaner.
Then ultrasonic bath
Then carb cleaner and picks again.
Don't want to expand them with the picks or any other method though.
New ones are not that expensive for the XS (unlike my XJ which limited good sources and 4 of them are not cheap)
Never know when you will do something needing to up the jets anyway, in that case, new ones of known quality.
Then ultrasonic bath
Then carb cleaner and picks again.
Don't want to expand them with the picks or any other method though.
New ones are not that expensive for the XS (unlike my XJ which limited good sources and 4 of them are not cheap)
Never know when you will do something needing to up the jets anyway, in that case, new ones of known quality.
strands of copper wire clipped from motorcycle harnesses.
a bit of searching you find several thicknesses, use the closest to the jet size. The pilot jets can be pretty serious fun to clear.
Berryman's carb dip is pretty good at stripping crud off brass. But my can is old, newer stuff may not have the "good old lethal" chems in it.
Just say no to welding tip cleaners and guitar strings (AKA reamers)
a bit of searching you find several thicknesses, use the closest to the jet size. The pilot jets can be pretty serious fun to clear.
Berryman's carb dip is pretty good at stripping crud off brass. But my can is old, newer stuff may not have the "good old lethal" chems in it.
Just say no to welding tip cleaners and guitar strings (AKA reamers)
I soak in Barryman's Chem dip 30 minutes, rinse with hot water and maybe Dawn, good squirt or soak with carb or brake cleaner, 120 PSI compressed air while still wet, hold up to a bright light source.
Normally, I replace the mains because I need larger ones anyway for my mods (pipes and pods). I use only genuine Mikuni jets and usually get them in 4 packs because they're cheaper that way. However, I do try to re-claim and re-use some pilots, namely the VM22/210 no-hole type that came in the '76-'79 BS38s. Normally, I need to go up one size on the pilots for my mods. The '76-'77 carbs had a #25 stock and the '78-'79 carbs had a #27.5. So, I use that 27.5 no-hole in the '76-'77 carbs. Going up one size on the '78-'79 carbs would require a #30. Well, I discovered that the XS500 carbs came with a no-hole 30, so I use those.
Lemon juice, it will also soften the dried fuel "varnish" in carb bowls. Put the lemon juice and jets in a class jar inside an ultrasonic cleaner filled with water, sort of like a double boiler.
Use a strand of copper wire to clean holes.
Sometimes though you have to replace them.
Use a strand of copper wire to clean holes.
Sometimes though you have to replace them.
Thanks for the replies! These are in pretty good shape, just some discoloration and maybe a bit of varnish.
