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uh oh....carb issue

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by avengingllama, Jul 14, 2008.

  1. avengingllama

    avengingllama Member

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    OK guys, I know that those are 2 words that you don't want to hear (much less say) when trying to clean carbs but I had to say it Saturday. I was trying to clean my carbs as the bike sat for about 13 years or so and I figure there is all kinds of gunk in them. Well, I was trying the easy way (not out of laziness, more out of fear of trying to synv them back up, no yics tool here) out and not disassembling the carbs and just hosing them down with carb cleaner. They were looking good until I turned them upside down and one of the "pistons" fell (after reading the "carbs go clunk post I realized that this was a very good thing). After it fell I hosed off the rod that holds the piston and thought to myself "hey cool, something going right on my first attempt at anything carb related". That is when the fit hit the shan. I had the bright idea to "nudge" the other pistons, not hard, just a nudge. One doesn't move, next one does, next one not only does not move, the piston falls off the rod, nothing looks snapped or bent but I am not sure what I am looking at. So I guess the long of the short of it is, did I really break it or should I just try to pop it back on and see what happens? Thanks for any advice =)
     
  2. avengingllama

    avengingllama Member

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    Was my description that bad or is this a problem you guys haven't seen? lol
     
  3. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    You need to take your carbs APART and see what's up internally with them. Cleaning the outside does not much good at all (except making them look nice) and the Needle (rod) that is no longer attached to the vacuum piston is a Very Bad Thing...........
     
  4. avengingllama

    avengingllama Member

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    should I plan on buying a new carb? or can the part be replaced?
     
  5. chadwickm

    chadwickm Member

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    What chacal said! I've seen the with bug carcases jammed packed into the void between the slider diaphragms and the carb body. After setting that long, you MUST disassemble.
     
  6. Dodger62

    Dodger62 Member

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    Some advise:

    The good thing is. Parts are available. The fact that the bike had been sitting at all is a bad thing. Trust me on this.

    You need to rebuild the carbs. You might want to check the tank too for rust as well. If it's been sitting, chances are you tank will also leak given some time. Then you are looking at rust removal and sealing the tank. If you don't remove even the smallest amount of rust, it will find it's way into the carbs after your rebuild and mess everything up. Even with an inline filter. Rust can be as small as 5 microns in size, unfortunately, most inline filter are rated at 15 microns. Then you are looking at rebuilding the carbs all over again.

    Also, you had better flush out all the bikes fluids. Engine, brakes, and shaft drive. Everything. You will be luck if the bike does does not leak other fluids from sitting. Seals become brittle and crack overtime, more so if sitting. Do Not use any seal stop leak in your bike. This will fry the clutch. The materials and chemicals used in these additives will soften the clutch material and some even have abrasives in them. Use that on a wet clutch, and you get to push your bike home.

    Good luck and may the force be with you.

    Dodger62
     
  7. avengingllama

    avengingllama Member

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    Well, Dodger is right, the part is available. From what I am told, the part is actually a "slide" and only available thru yamaha. And it is about $200. So my choices are buy a slide for $200, buy a used carb for 160 or so, or find someone that has a slide maybe from a bad carb that is just sitting around that I could purchase. In order of preference I would love to find a slide, ok with buying a used carb, and really prefer to not but a slide from yamaha. So, is there anyone that can help me?

    P.S.- Carb from an 81 xj650 will work on an 82 maxim 750 won't it?
     
  8. biggmeany2000

    biggmeany2000 Member

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    I have four used slides in good shape for parts. I will part with one. Just pm me. You could easily polish it up like new to pass the clunk test.
     
  9. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    Your pistons might be okay, it may be just the one of the needles broke (not likely) or the plastic screw-cap that holds the needle to the diaphram somehow came off or was left off by the previous assembler............

    Again, I would take the carbs APART, you'll learn alot that way. Trust me, looking at them as an assembled bunch it looks daunting; but if you go slow and take notes along the way, you'll actually find that they're quite simple internally.......maybe a total of 20 individual pieces, and a couple of those are screws and washers and jets and floats, etc.......pieces which are intuitive and obvious as to their function, location, etc. The diaphram piston unit only contains 5 parts total: the piston itself with its attached, non-removable rubber diaphram, the needle with its non-removable plastic "head", the needle spring, the needle retaining cap, and the diaphram spring.

    By the way, you would really want to focus on polishing the piston BORE (in the carb body) rather than the piston itself....that's where the corrosion occurs (in the bore). The piston make get sticky with fuel varnish, but that comes off easily with carb cleaner.
     
  10. Deadulus

    Deadulus Member

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    THANK YOU!!! You just answered the only worry I had about cleaning my carbs! I polished both the piston and the bore....I could not get what I thought was discoloration off the pistons but all four clunk really pretty.....
     

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