First Carb Cleaning

[Achilles]

My bike is having issues (really slow throttle response, takes forever to warm up, stalling with too much gas, idles all over the place) you guys told me it sounded like carb issues.

So now tomorrow I will be doing my first carb cleaning. I've never done one on any vehicle and I am a little apprehensive.

I have a bottle of gunk spray carb cleaner, but now I'm reading I should soak them in Pinesol? What am I supposed to use? I don't want to f up my rubber and plastics.

If anyone has any instructions/tips I'd really appreciate it.

I could also use some help on how to remove them.

[choneofakind]

Check out this thread for help on cleaning. There should be pictures up somewhere in the thread, just not in the first post since Kelly left a while back:
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65198

faq.ninja250.org also mentioned soaking them in pine sol:
http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Cleaning_the_carbs_1

Buy a couple bottles of Pine-Sol and mix up 3 parts Pine-Sol to one part water. Pine-Sol doesn't hurt rubber/plastic, so you can leave all the hoses and plastic pipes on the carbs. This will make the hoses more pliable, and you can do the same with the intake manifold boots as well.

You do need to remove and not soak the slides. The slides and diaphragms are all one piece on the 250 carbs. So, remove the 4 screws holding each black top cover, pull those covers, the springs, and then the slides.

To get the most benefit from soaking, the float bowls, floats, fuel needles, needle seats, jets, and emulsion tubes (the, uh, tube that the main jet screws into) should come out as well. Soak the jets and everything else you removed, except for the slides and diaphragms. You should also work the choke a few times while submerged to get the Pine-Sol everywhere.

Find a BIG container/bucket and some sort of fine wire rack or mesh sieve (like ones for a BBQ grill) that fits inside. The mesh will let all the yucky stuff that falls off settle on the bottom, and you won't have to fish around in the murky fluid looking for one washer or small bolt/screw. Pour enough of the Pine-Sol solution into the bucket to cover the carbs.

Soak the carbs and parts for about four days. Scrub the open areas just a bit with a toothbrush and green scrubby. Then do a normal carb cleaning for the jets and interior passages of the carbs.

The carbs shown at the top of this section, from a bike that had sat outside so long there were chunks of dry-rotted tread falling off the tires, now look like this, and the bike starts and runs well, without a lot of hard work.

[Jiggles]

have you tried seafoam yet?

[csmith12]

This should help you.

Link to original page on YouTube.

[choneofakind]

I've never been a fan of jamming wire into the jets. I know that many people have done it without issue, but I don't see a reason to risk it when you can just use a blast of compressed air through it and blow the crud out of the jet.

If you don't have compressed air available, just be gentle with the wire for cleaning the jets.

[Achilles]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

have you tried seafoam yet?

I tried Seafoam in the tank. Didn't help, although I haven't been able to drive the bike due to the idling issues.

I was thinking about pulling the fuel line and pooring it directly into the carbs do you think that might help?

[Jiggles]

what if you yank the choke up? Will it stay running? How about if you raise the idle? Get like 50mi in with the seafoam in there and it might help.

You checked out the seafoam DIY right to make sure you're using it correctly?

[csmith12]

lol Jiggles.... your something else bruh

[Achilles]

Thanks for the video. I have a large air compressor, so plenty of compressed air. I also heard that boiling the jets works and doesn't hurt anything?

It idles with the choke and after a few minutes idles without it, but when I give it gas it either drops in rpms and shoots back up or just stalls. It also just randomly revs itself up without me even touching the throttle. I would be a little hesitant riding it with how it's acting.

I did not check out the seafoam DIY (didn't know there was one) I just followed the instructions on the can and then added a little extra.

[csmith12]

Don't boil the jets. If your gunna do anything like that, then do a chem soak. There are really 2 main methods of doing it.

The real way:
By some of this and drop the items in the basket overnight.


The KY way:
Take the lid off your carb cleaner spray can and spray it full of cleaner. Place jets into lid and go have a few beers and sleep it off. Or go coon hunting, frog gigging, cow tipping, ect... ect...

Either way they will be as clean as they are gunna get without elbow grease.

[choneofakind]

Yeah, just take them off and clean them. They sound pretty goobered up.

Take them out, let them soak, then blow all the jets and passageways out with compressed air. Just be careful to keep a firm grasp on the jets so you don't launch them across the garage when you blow compressed air through them. Ask me how I know.

[Achilles]

If I was to use the Chem Dip would that damage other parts of the carbs if I was to soak it overnight?

I am not afraid of a little elbow grease, so would you recommend I do the guitar string method? Or could I use an old tooth brush or something similar that wouldn't risk hurting the jets.

Also, I heard that I will need to sync the carbs after I re-install them. Is that true? If so how do I go about doing that, I know there are multiple methods.

Thanks everyone for all your help! I really appreciate it.

[choneofakind]

I wouldn't soak anything that isn't metal in the chem dip. You'll have to take off the caps, slides/diaphragms, all hoses, and floats. That's why I suggested Pine-Sol, which only requires removing the slides/diaphragms and hoses I believe.

Yes, it will be a good idea to sync them up once you're done. I always used the 2-bottle method shown here:
http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_do_...-bottle_method

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by Achilles

My bike is having issues (really slow throttle response, takes forever to warm up, stalling with too much gas, idles all over the place) you guys told me it sounded like carb issues.

So now tomorrow I will be doing my first carb cleaning. I've never done one on any vehicle and I am a little apprehensive.

I have a bottle of gunk spray carb cleaner, but now I'm reading I should soak them in Pinesol? What am I supposed to use? I don't want to f up my rubber and plastics.

If anyone has any instructions/tips I'd really appreciate it.

I could also use some help on how to remove them.

Don't forget where all your vacuum hose go like some other guy did earlier this week

[Achilles]

Do I really have to soak them in Pinesol for 4 days? That seems like a really long time.

[choneofakind]

4 days seems long. I'd say start it soaking one afternoon and check it the next day some time in the afternoon or evening. Between that, a can of aerosol carb cleaner, and some compressed air, everything should get soaked through and blasted out.

[Achilles]

I'm currently taking apart the carbs and there is this rubber diaphragm that is slightly damaged? Is it a big deal or can I continue using it when I put it back together?

[csmith12]

You can try but I think you just found out why you where having throttle issues. And those things aren't cheap. Most find it cheaper to just ebay a used set of carbs.

You can try to put it back together, it just might work. There is no harm in trying... but sorry brah.

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by csmith12

You can try but I think you just found out why you where having throttle issues. And those things aren't cheap. Most find it cheaper to just ebay a used set of carbs.

You can try to put it back together, it just might work. There is no harm in trying... but sorry brah.

^ exactly what he said

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by Achilles

I'm currently taking apart the carbs and there is this rubber diaphragm that is slightly damaged? Is it a big deal or can I continue using it when I put it back together?

You are ****ed

Time to drop $100 on a new diaphram and don't screw up the installation!

[Achilles]

I think I am going to buy a used carb off ebay. The other diaphragm has some odd puckers in it, so I might as well just buy an entire carb for less than two diaphragms. The one I am looking at has 8,000 miles vs my 2,500, but hopefully that wont be an issue.

[Jiggles]

You can also just move the diaphrams over from the newer carb, beats yanking the thing out

[rojoracing53]

Not to be the voice of decent here but how ever unlikely it would be a set of used carbs could have the same or other problems

just something to consider when looking around

[choneofakind]

Ask the seller to take pictures of the diaphragms for you

[Achilles]

I was lucky enough to find a carburetor on ebay in my city, so I am picking it up locally. Hopefully it doesn't have an issue, but if it does I have 14 days to return it.

Jiggles, I am not sure what you mean by "beats yanking the thing out". If you are referring to my old carb, that already had to be removed from the bike to work on it.

Here are the pictures of the 'new' carb (to me I thought it looked pretty good):





Thanks again for all the continued support!

[csmith12]

Nice!

Save yourself some time and check the cleanliness of the new carbs before you put them in. Watch for jetts of different sizes and just because it's clean on the outside, don't mean it's clean on the inside. Check for sync too.

Best of luck and hope you get it sorted quickly.

[Jiggles]

Beats yanking it out again

[Achilles]

So I put the 'new' carb in yesterday. Tonight I'll put the gas tank back on and see how it runs.

While I was looking at the old carb, I noticed there was no spring on the idle adjust cord. Without the spring holding it in place it was most likely being moved around by the vibration of the bike. Hopefully that explains some of the issues the bike was having.

Also can you guys tell me if anything attaches to this little hose? All of my hoses are accounted for, but I wouldn't be surprised if the previous owner didn't attach something, with how he treated the carbs.

[rojoracing53]

When I was in your position a year ago I looked up the DIY thread on removing all the smog and CA emission plumbing and hardware. It's not really a performance mod but the next time you need to work under your tank all that stuff won't be in your way. It's like the under tank equivalent of a fender eliminator.

[rojoracing53]

So how did the new carbs work out? If you find you have more Diaphragm problems look here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KAWASAKI-EX2...487e64&vxp=mtr

[cuong-nutz]

Originally Posted by Achilles

Also can you guys tell me if anything attaches to this little hose? All of my hoses are accounted for, but I wouldn't be surprised if the previous owner didn't attach something, with how he treated the carbs.

Yeah, that's how it's suppose to be. Nothing hooks up to it.

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9948

[Achilles]

Haven't had time to put it back together until today. Does anyone have a diagram for the hoses under the gas tank? I don't want to mix anything up.

[cuong-nutz]

Big hose and the little hose that is from the T between the two carbs goes to the gas tank petcock. Also, there's the vent hose that connects to the gas tank too that is towards the front.

[Achilles]

Got everything hooked up and it started on the second try with choke. Now the choke is more than just on and off which is nice. Didn't let it idle very long since it's after 10 pm, but throttle response is normal now. Still struggled without choke, but it didn't have very long to warm up and idle speed seems too low. Tomorrow I'll give it a test drive and see how it goes.