maxium xj700 carb swap?

I need to swap out my crappy stock generic carbs for some mikuni or keihin. Is there a standard retro from another bike that works well?

 

What are "generic carbs"? IIRC, 700 uses Hitachi. Do you have something else? Why are they crappy? Have you tried cleaning them?

Having just taken apart a set of Hitachis from a 750 and a set of Mikunis from a 550 I really don't see what makes Mikuni so superior. If anything, their design has several features that make them harder to work on.

 

The factory 700 (airhead) carbs were Hitachi 33mm CV carbs. Maybe he was referring to the CV carbs as being crappy. I concur.
You need to find out what brand, style and size that you have so we can help. Post a couple of pics so we can try to identify them.

 

They are the Hitachi. I want to swap them out due to lack of parts and cost to repair. After a cleaning and rejet I can no longer get the main and pilot jets to reseat, they just spin on the ferrule tubes

 

The original carbs were 33mm CV's (have a chrome hat on top and a kidney shaped orifice at the top of the air inlet). However, the carb mounting boots (head side) are no longer available and some owners swap out the boots and carbs to the 32mm CV's from the '83' 650 or 750.
You need to measure the inside diameter of the bore on the butterfly side of the carbs to determine if they are 33mm or 32mm.
Then maybe a member will have a spare set or a few carb bodies laying around for cheap. I have a rack of Mikuni 32mm CV's, but they are in bad shape.

 

As far as switching to a different type of carbs goes, it's going to cost you. Not many rack styles to choose from. Kehein CR's will do but will cost about 800.00 bucks. You could do the EFI mod which would cost more by the time your done. I have a custom round slide setup that cost me about 500.00, but would cost more if you can't fab the intakes. Rebuilding another set of CV's should be cheaper.
Just depends on your money, knowledge and time.

 

thanks for the info, i want to rebuild a set of cv's just not the hitachis

 

Has anyone crossed referenced from other make/models to find a good solution?

 

I've never seen that.

Have you checked with Chacal about the parts? I'd think that whatever he charges, getting just the stuff you need would be cheaper than re-doing the carb setup completely. He lists some 700 carb parts, but his catalog on this site is out of date and he has a lot more than he lists. PM him and see what he says.

 

My Hitachi 33's cleaned up easily and work well. If the problem is with the intake boots, look on Ebay and you will find them from time to time. Chacal may have some, but I don't think so.

 

A friend has told me he successfully used carbs (mikunis?) from a gsx750 of roughly the same era on a xj750. There was a fair bit of work involved (I think different spacing was the biggest obstacle). Sorry not very specific but he can't remember much about it. Says it was worthwhile.