Carb Cleaning Questions

[Smudgemo]

Aww man, there's the bucket of cold water. Well, they are all together, and I'm thinking belt change next winter so I'll sorta be in there if I don't like it.
How much worse was your fuel economy?

 

[jrp]

Not at all, Jeff. I see what you're saying, and I'm just trying to walk the path of people who have figured this stuff out prior to me showing up to buy a 25 YO bike to play around with. I'm not looking to do anything special, and in reality, as long as it doesn't run worse than stock, it will be okay.

The jets and shims didn't cost all that much and it's the sort of thing I enjoy playing around with. I'm not planning to do any experimenting, I just wanted to see if anyone felt these shims were flat-out wrong to save me from pulling the plastic later and installing the originals. I appreciate your input.

Play around! I like playing around and have experimented with several different jetting combos on my ST1100 as well as float heights.

 

[Smudgemo]

Well, well. I finished up installing all new cooling lines/elbows/thermostat, and installed the carbs last night. The bike fired right up but it was night and in the garage, so I shut it off quickly. Today I rolled it out and got the carbs sync'd. Even with #2 being sky-high initially, it ran way better than it had been, and once I got things dialed in it was beautiful right down to a slow idle. I had this idea it wasn't running right, and I haven't opened the original carbs yet, but I'm guessing lack of use got things clogged. I think the tank venting is not working properly, so that's my next focus.

My thanks to everyone who offered advice. It really wasn't a very difficult job, but it does take time to carefully deal with the plastic. I'd like to do an idle drop at some point, but I don't have a sensitive enough tach at the moment.

 

[Smudgemo]

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to see if the sub-air filter that was allowed to disintegrate by prior ownership did anything to the carbs, and what do you know, it did. I'm not sure what the impact would be, but I'm pretty sure nothing positive.



I"m not sure what I'll do with this set, but one of these days I'm going to pull a bowl or two and see what the jets look like.

Not like this group needs any motivation to work on our bikes, but I figured I'd do a quick PSA to remind you to check and replace your sub-air filter on a regular basis.

 

[Slydynbye]

I'd like to do an idle drop at some point, but I don't have a sensitive enough tach at the moment.

When you do get one let me know, I have an idle jet tool you can use.

 

[Smudgemo]

Thank you for the offer! It runs so well it won't be a pressing matter, but I'd still like to do it just because.