Hello Hello! What up though?

[ATLANTA]

What's up everyone? I'm Jonathan, I live in Atlanta GA, and I finally have the pleasure of owning my very first bike, a 2005 Ninja 250r. It had been sitting in a shed for 2-3 years before I got it and within the last month I've managed to get it running at about 80% capability. It's still running mad lean, and will only run with the choke on, but it does extraordinarily well despite those setbacks. I'm always open to any suggestions, corrections, or wisdom anyone has to share. Also if anyone's in the ATL metro area I'm looking for some riding buddies.

See y'all on the forum!

[CC Cowboy]

ATLANTA! Glad you found us...

[ATLANTA]

Thanks man. I'm glad to have found you guys too. This sure has saved my bacon more than a few times already

[ducatiman]

"will only run with the choke on"

classic symptom of pilot circuit varnish clogging, not surprising in view of 2-3 year dormancy

[ATLANTA]

Hey Gordon how're you? I've heard a great deal about you and read some of your posts, it's nice to talk to you finally. So the pilot jets were quite gummed up, you couldn't see daylight through them. However that was 2 cleanings ago and after guitar string, carb cleaner, and compressed air each cleaning I can see through all the small orifices just fine. Is there something else that could cause this symptom?

[DannoXYZ]

Jets are fine, leave them alone if you've cleaned them already. You'll want to scrub clean secret hidden fuel-circuits. Basically follow path of fuel from jets out to carb venturi.

Analogy I use is garden-hose with sprayer. People focus 100% on the sprayer, scrubbing it and poking it with wires until they can see to Catalina. Now... what about 50-ft of hose with 10 golf-balls stuck inside? Clean out that hose as well!!! Basically every where fuel flows that you haven't cleaned yet. You can use food-coloring (I like FDA#5) to drip into fuel-passages to see where it flows (or doesn't).

[CaliGrrl]

Welcome!

[ATLANTA]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Jets are fine, leave them alone if you've cleaned them already. You'll want to scrub clean secret hidden fuel-circuits. Basically flow path of fuel from jets out to carb venturi.

Analogy I use is garden-hose with sprayer. People focus 100% on the sprayer, scrubbing it and poking it with wires until they can see to Catalina. Now... what about 50-ft of hose with 10 golf-balls stuck inside? Clean out that hose as well!!! Basically every where fuel flows that you haven't cleaned yet. You can use food-coloring (I like FDA#5) to drip into fuel-passages to see where it flows (or doesn't).

That makes a lot of sense. Do you think you could give me a little more detail as to the process? I really want to give this a try

[maverick9611]

welcome from your east georgia neighbor
i do deal's gap/cherohala skyway, moonshiner 28. anything mountains. check out the rides sections

[Snake]

Hello and welcome!

How much did you buy the bike for? I’m looking for another bike for a friend and wondering what they are going for.

[DannoXYZ]

Originally Posted by ATLANTA

That makes a lot of sense. Do you think you could give me a little more detail as to the process? I really want to give this a try

Hi Jonathan, welcome to Ninjette!

All info you need to know can be found in search for "clean carbs ducatiman". Note, due to regulatory changes, modern spray "carb cleaners" no longer work. They don't have chlorinated compounds such as trichloroethylene, carbon-tetrachloride, or chlorobenzene, which does actual job of cutting polyvinyl bonds in dried petrol. Nowadays, spray "carb cleaner" is just weak carrier solvents that does nothing. I used to clean off inside of sprocket covers with carb-cleaner, and it would drip out as tar-like sludge goo. Now, it drips off clear-grey having dissolved nothing.

Thorough cleaning process requires lots of manual scrubbing. i'll give you summary here. Process roughly goes like this:

1. Scrub out all hidden secret fuel-circuits beyond jets with brushes. Amazon - nylon brushes. I like to use 75/25% acetone mix with PEA-based fuel-system cleaner such as Chevron Techron, Red Line SI-1, etc.

2. Soak in ultrasonic cleaner for hours using polar solvent (PineSol, Totally Awesome, vinegar, etc.) Be aware that Simple Green dissolves aluminium, so avoid it. Amazon - 4L Ultrasonic cleaner

3. Scrub again with brushes. Pay particular attention to holes where fuel-circuits exit into carb-venturi (neon green dots in photos below). Remove deposits but be careful not to remove any metal as size of these holes are critical to fuel-metering

4. micro soda-blast all circuits to clean out debris. Use finest soda available AircraftSpruce - mini soda blaster

5. replace all rubber parts: float-valves, O-rings and seals

6. adjust float-levels

7. sync carbs with manometers. While old-style analogue gauges work, I prefer modern digital versions. carb-sync gauges



Be sure to completely disassemble emulsion tube and poke out all lateral bleed holes with copper wire . Same with pilot jets.

Originally Posted by n4mwd

Here are the secret passages in the carbs. They are kind of hard to figure out sometimes and this picture guide will show where they are for cleaning purposes.

Carb Pilot jet Circuit


Carb Main Jet Circuit


Carb Fuel and Overflow Drain


Carb Diaphragm Intake, upper choke and vacuum ports


Carb Choke Circuit

All of this takes a lot of time and certain amount of experience. It takes me longer to do complete carb-cleaning job than it would take for complete engine tear-down and rebuild. Here's engine I rebuilt in less than one weekend, versus over a week for carb-cleaning. I prefer to just send them to ducatiman for refurb and restoration as he's all required equipment and is so much more experienced and efficient at it.

[csmith12]

Welcome!

[NinjaPony]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Hi Jonathan, welcome to Ninjette!

All info you need to know can be found in search for "clean carbs ducatiman". Note, due to regulatory changes, modern spray "carb cleaners" no longer work. They don't have chlorinated compounds such as trichloroethylene, carbon-tetrachloride, or chlorobenzene, which does actual job of cutting polyvinyl bonds in dried petrol. Nowadays, spray "carb cleaner" is just weak carrier solvents that does nothing. I used to clean off inside of sprocket covers with carb-cleaner, and it would drip out as tar-like sludge goo. Now, it drips off clear-grey having dissolved nothing.

Thorough cleaning process requires lots of manual scrubbing. i'll give you summary here. Process roughly goes like this:

1. Scrub out all hidden secret fuel-circuits beyond jets with brushes. Amazon - nylon brushes. I like to use 75/25% acetone mix with PEA-based fuel-system cleaner such as Chevron Techron, Red Line SI-1, etc.

2. Soak in ultrasonic cleaner for hours using polar solvent (PineSol, Totally Awesome, vinegar, etc.) Be aware that Simple Green dissolves aluminium, so avoid it. Amazon - 4L Ultrasonic cleaner

3. Scrub again with brushes. Pay particular attention to holes where fuel-circuits exit into carb-venturi (neon green dots in photos below). Remove deposits but be careful not to remove any metal as size of these holes are critical to fuel-metering

4. micro soda-blast all circuits to clean out debris. Use finest soda available AircraftSpruce - mini soda blaster

5. replace all rubber parts: float-valves, O-rings and seals

6. adjust float-levels

7. sync carbs with manometers. While old-style analogue gauges work, I prefer modern digital versions. carb-sync gauges



Be sure to completely disassemble emulsion tube and poke out all lateral bleed holes with copper wire . Same with pilot jets.





All of this takes a lot of time and certain amount of experience. It takes me longer to do complete carb-cleaning job than it would take for complete engine tear-down and rebuild. Here's engine I rebuilt in less than one weekend, versus over a week for carb-cleaning. I prefer to just send them to ducatiman for refurb and restoration as he's all required equipment and is so much more experienced and efficient at it.

Wow! Thank you very much and also Damnit!