Carb Clean on '95 Seca II

Hey everyone, I’m new to this forum. Thought I might find some expertise here!

I just bought a 1995 XJ600 Seca II last year and unfortunately it runs pretty bad cold. I have to run it with the choke all the way out for a good few minutes to warm up. The revs reach about 4000 during this time, some smoke out of the pipes. Then I run it halfway out for 5-10 minutes until I can ride it. During this process if I give it any gas it will bog out, dropping rems and sometimes stalls. There is also popping heard in the exhaust. When it is fully warmed up though, it runs pretty well, especially at higher rpms. The idle is a little uneven though and so is the power at low rpm, so I tend to run it with the choke halfway out because it runs better. I figure the jets and pilot circuit might be clogged.

So I’m going to clean the carbs out, but I need some help. I have done a lot of work on cars, but I have never done carb work. I don’t know what screws I can’t mess with, and what I will have to set to a specific setting when I reassemble them. I am nervous that I will put them back together just to have to take em back apart to figure out what I did wrong because it won’t start.

I have the Clymer manual but it seems to just gloss over the process and doesn’t tell you which parts need cleaning, just how to disassemble/assemble them. Even the assembly part of it seems to lack information about the screw settings while assembling and what not. Tighten all of them all the way or what? It doesn’t have any info on tuning them like the fuel/air ratio. Is this because you can’t adjust it??

Because this is a model specific forum, could someone give me a run through of how to clean these carbs, including all settings before putting em back on the bike? Maybe also what I would have to do when I start it back up to tune them? Also, assuming all parts are in decent shape, what parts should I for sure replace while I’m in there? I heard someone talking about carb “insulators” getting cracked and letting air in so I should replace them regardless?

I was figuring I would just clean them and change the plugs, then take it in so they could synch and tune them. Maybe I should also have em do valve clearance, compression, and timing checks? Should all this be necessary on this bike? I want this baby purrin!!

Thanks for any insight!
Alex

 

Do a search in "XJ Chat" and you will find lots of threads concerning carb cleaning. Len (Chacal) also has carb cleaning info: Chacal's Info Site

One other thing regarding carb cleaning - most good carb cleaning chemicals will also melt the tiny rubber bits and "O" rings you may not be able to remove (like around the fuel supply pipes and throttle shafts) so only use it on metal parts. One commonly-available cleaner will not: PineSol. Another is the carb cleaner sold at the Yamaha dealers (but PineSol is SO much cheaper - especially at the warehouse stores).

 

Hey, when I cleaned my carbs I took all the jets and the little metal pieces and threw them into boiling lemon juice for about 20-30 minutes and it cleaned them very well. After i threw the whole thing into a pot of boiling lemon juice and it definatly looks alot better now

However the lemon juice will put a dull finish on them due to the acidity.