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Not getting gas, has been sitting for 10 years or so with gas in it. Will just putting gas in it eventually dissolve it? Any good carb cleaner? Seafoam? I really don't want to take that carb off unless absolutely necessary. Advise please.
The ONLY way to clean a carb requires removing it from the bike. At that point, if you have access to a heated ultrasonic tank (about a $2000 tool), that ought to get the job done in roughly 10 minutes. If not, you're in for the job of manually cleaning carbs. It's about like cleaning your teeth, liquid alone just won't do the job completely. Neither will surface cleaning, or flossing, it takes all 3 combined.
The last bank of carbs that I cleaned from an extended (11~12 years) sit with fuel in them took me about 3 days to clean. 3 days sitting in a bath of pinesol and water (yes, pinesol, way cheaper than any other chemical and 100% rubber/o-ring safe so you don't have to completely disassemble all the banks of carbs) at a 2:1 ratio of pinesol to water. Then about 2 hours of rinsing them, disassembling the parts that were stuck fast prior to the soak, running copper wire through All of the passages to scrub off the stuff that's not going to come loose, spraying with carb cleaner to help the process and check that flow is equal through all similar ports, wiping all surface clean of whatever crud may be left behind and then drying with compressed air.
It's usually lots smarter/easier to replace the jets and just focus on cleaning the carb body, but it's not necessary.
Crap! Well the pinesol sounds good after all the gassy, varnish and oily smells I have been with the last few days. Ok, out to the bike I go. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Just for the record. I am back in the house after a fair amount of time of looking and pondering. I finally sprang into action and within minutes, took the tank back off, loosened two clamps on the intake and output of the carb, disconnected throttle and choke and the carb is off and sitting on the floor while I rest up and consider going to the store for some pinesol. Good advice!
Went to town and bought 40 oz pinesol. Took the bottom off the carb. The one that covers the floats. What a freak'n mess. Half full of nasty varnish smelling gas crystals all over the floats and all over everything, very nasty. Took off the little top cap. That part is clean as a whistle, must not get any gas up there? Anyway put it in my coffee can, poored in the pinesol and some water. I'm maybe going to get a carb kit if I can find a cheap one. I can't get over how bad it was. Shoulda took a picture.
The top side doesn't touch fuel (well, some evaporated/atomized, and there may be a passage for the choke/enrichener circuit).
If it's a CV carb (does the throttle cable move the slide directly, or does it just open and close a butterfly plate?), take care of that rubber on the top of the slide. Those are NOT cheap parts to replace and seem to be easily damaged for some reason. Not sure if it's just because people are careless with them or what since I've never had an issue, but just take care. If it's all metal, no worries.
Thanks Brian, well first let me say Thanks for your replies. Ok, I don't know what kinda carb it is. I will describe it. The part that seems to move when I open the throttle looks like a tubular piece. Sorta like a toilet paper holder only smaller. The only thing I would describe as a butterfly is what I am sure is the choke. So far I have not dissassembled it further than two screws on the top side, three screws on the bottom. My idea is to take a look at after a couple more days and see what didn't get any of your fancy juice on it. I know how I am and keeping track of all those small pieces is not my strong area. Already there was one little plastic piece that came out of the bottom and I am not sure which way it goes.
What I really wanted to mention to you and anyone else with similar issues is that the Pinesol solution is awesome. I almost kicked my little coffee can over this morning, so I decided to move it to safe location and to check on it a bit. Well, the bowl was only about halfway into the solution so I tried to rearrange stuff and of course I looked at it and the half that was in the solution was already bright and shiny like new. Any new thoughts/comments welcome.
Used pine-sol on a couple carb cleans after reading aobut it online and was thouroughly impressed. After disassembling all components and soaking the bank in solution for a couple days, then doing the wire cleaning, and compressed air dry I was able to get an old bike running with little extra effort. The "old" bike was an 82 Honda that had sat for 7 years prior to purchase...turned out to be a good running little machine with some TLC.
I got to wondering how the rest of it was doing and I wanted to fish out that little plastic piece that I was concerned about and to see if I could figure it out. Well I am not sure about that piece but the rest of the carb is like new, amazing! So, worked the throttle a little bit and splashed some more pinesol down the throat and back in the pinesol it went.
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