Hello… John Talley with Partzilla.com. One thing that will get your engine running better
is a good clean carburetor. Rough idling, bogging down… and just sluggish performance
can all be attributed to dirty carburetor. Over time… deposits can form that gum up
jets and keep you from getting a really good mixture of fuel and air into the cylinder…
and that leads to all kinds of problems. In this video… we’ll talk about the basics of
getting your carburetor cleaned up.. So if you’re ready… we’ll dive into it… let’s go.
Okay guys… every make and model is going to be slightly different…
so the tools you’re gonna need to remove the carburetor from the unit are going to vary…
but to clean the carburetor… you’re really are just going to need some basic hand tools…
and some of this… a good carb cleaner… which also means you want to glove up and wear some safety
goggles… because carb cleaner in your eyes is bad news. Believe me… unfortunately.. I know.
Now… one of the first things you need to do is to drain the carburetor before you take it off
the machine… and then at that point, you can remove it and we can actually get to work.
Now, a little bit of that carb cleaner and a toothbrush will do a good job of getting
the outside of the carb cleaned up and then get the gunk off of it…
and then you’re ready to open it up. To get the carb open… you’ll probably
just need a screwdriver… it’s either gonna be a Phillips or a flatblade. Now on Partzilla.com
you can check out a diagram of your carb to see how it’s held together.
Occasionally… those screws can be a little bit stubborn… and a hand held impact driver can really
help you jar those screws loose and get them out. Once you’ve got the screws out… you can get a good
look inside the float bowl… you’ll probably see a little bit… or a bunch… of residue.
You also want to notice there’s gonna be an O-ring or a gasket that seals the float bowl
to the rest of the carburetor… Now if it has an O-ring there, you’ll want to remove that
because carb cleaner can break down and damage the rubber where you can’t reinstall it.…
But once you get it out… you can use your carb cleaner to spray out that channel…
and maybe even hit it with that toothbrush to scrub out the rest of those stubborn deposits.
Next… you’ll want to remove the float… and it’s going to be held in by some type of hinge pin.
Once you get that pin out of the way… you can lift off the float and the float needle.
Now if that needle is damaged at the tip… you’re going to want to replace it…
Next… you can start removing the jets… they’ll come off typically with just a screwdriver…
you’ll have the main jet… an emulsion tube… and a pilot jet…
and the pilot jet mainly works, well, when your machine is just idling.
Now… you can visually inspect those jets by just holding them up to the light
to see if it passes through… if it doesn’t… then you’ve got a pretty significant clog.
Now your carb cleaner probably has a little straw so that you can fire cleaner straight into those
jets… you just want to keep firing it through until you get a steady stream out the other side.
Now… if you can’t get it to unclog… resist the temptation
to cram a wire down in there—or a small drill bit-- to unclog it…
you’re just going to gouge the inside surface of the jet and it will not perform as it should.
You might try soaking the jet in the solvent for a few minutes to see if that breaks it up…
or as a last result you could try a bristle off a hair brush or something to see
if you can push it loose. The jets are made of brass… which is really soft… so
if you’re gonna try that you need to use something softer than the brass.
Next… you can use your air compressor to blow through
the passages on the carburetor to make sure that they’re clear.
Then, you’re gonna want to clean out your air-fuel mixture screw… now it’s very important
to get it back into the same position as it was when you started to take it apart…
So here’s what you do before you pull it out: you want to screw it all the way down… and you
want to count how many turns it took the screwdriver until it was lightly seated…
it may be one one and a half, two, or two and a half turns before it finally seats all the way in…
and -THEN- unscrew it and remove it.
That way… to get it back where it needs to be… say it took two full turns to get it
screwed back down… you’ll put it back in place… screw it all the way down…
and then back it out those two turns. That way, it’s gonna be where it started to begin with.
Now when you pull it out… there’s going to be a spring… a washer… and an O-ring… and
you just need to clean your mixture screw… just clean it up and get it back in place.
Once you’re done… you can start reassembling your carburetor and get it back on the bike.
Now… sometimes… the carb is too far gone to just clean it…
and you might want to rebuild… or even consider replacing the entire assembly.
Most manufacturers have rebuild kits that include the guts for inside the
carb to get it working right again… or you might just replace the whole thing…
and we actually have a video to help you decide which is the best option for you.
Now when you do decide which way to go… why don’t you come see us at Partzilla.com and we can get
you taken care of with parts and the diagrams to show you how to get it all back together.
All right guys… if you have any questions or comments… leave them in the section below
and I’ll do my best to answer them.
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We just want to say thank you for shopping here with us
at Partzilla… and we will see you in the next video.