Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

Greetings:

O Wise Collective, I seek thy wisdom:

The Previous Owner bought a carb kit, new petcock, some (Yamaha) tank rust neutralizer and various other parts. Problem was he never got around to installing any of it!

The tank sat with tape - blue masking tape - over the filler hole for seven (7) years. The tank contents are not a solid exactly, but a hard-shelled coating/mass of goo. I think it's starting to return to the shape of the prehistoric plants and animals from whence it came.

If I could get the contents of the carb bowl out in one piece, you could make jewellery out of it. Epoxy is hard once it sets, but this stuff is more like an amber ceramic. I had trouble scratching it with a file. I'm having nightmares imagining how it's clogged all the little float and jet holes.

So I made a mixture of Gasoline, Sea Foam - the whole bottle - Adhesive Remover, and sprayed a half-can of Gumout carb cleaner into the tank for good measure. When I go out periodically to slosh it around, I can hear the sludge down in the bottom of the tank - Laughing at me. "ha-ha", it says, "You and your puny and impotent chemical solvents are no match for me!" I will repost my request for a new '85--87 AERO tank withOUT the sludge.

As for as the carb, the Service Manual makes it sound so simple. Just "Unscrew the throttle cable fitting and pull out the slide...." Are they kidding ?! I may not be the strongest guy in the world, but I'm no girlie-man either. I couldn't pull the throttle slide out of the carb - at all. Couldn't even budge it. That baby is epoxy/ceramic glued in thar. It's dangling in a jar of the same stuff that's in the tank. I'm hoping Tincture of Time will work its magic but losing faith fast.

One suggestion I got was something called Berryman's Chem Dip. - available at a nAPA store near you! Anyone know the chances of it working better than what I described above?

Thanks for reading.

If its really bad you can always take it to a carb shop. They'll definately have something VERY STRONG to dip it in. At the very least it can't hurt to get a quote from some shops, unless you're really going to have a lot of use for a can of carb dip and whatever else you'll buy.

Buy a different tank, either new or used would be quicker and easier.

Greetings:

Aye, there's the rub. Honda has fuel level senders and blinker lenses but no tanks for the '85-87 Aero. No response on the Parts Wanted post yet. Thanks for the suggestion you are surely right. By the time I've bought all the solvents, baskets, I will have spent as much as a new tank!.

Gallon "carb dip" = $30
Methyl Ethyl Ketone = $?? (if you can find any)
Berryman's Chem Dip = $Unknown.

Clean, 21-year-old fuel system parts is hard to find. Who knew?

Wheelman-111 wrote:
As for as the carb, the Service Manual makes it sound so simple. Just "Unscrew the throttle cable fitting and pull out the slide...." Are they kidding ?! I may not be the strongest guy in the world, but I'm no girlie-man either. I couldn't pull the throttle slide out of the carb - at all. Couldn't even budge it. That baby is epoxy/ceramic glued in thar. It's dangling in a jar of the same stuff that's in the tank. I'm hoping Tincture of Time will work its magic but losing faith fast.



Thanks for reading.

Did you take apart the rest of the carb yet? If your letting it soak just to get the slide out you should remove whatever else you can to let the insides soak.

Something in gas around 10 years ago must have changed. My dad has a sandrail with 10 year old gas in the tank, fired right up. drained 20 year old 2 stroke mix out of a boat motor, it burned but I didnt try it in an engine.

Got a 112cc 48" 2 man chainsaw form the late 40s running after it sat with fuel in it for 10 years just by draining it out(oil separated from gas) and cleaning the fuel filter, started up on 3rd pull.

ALOW1 wrote:Did you take apart the rest of the carb yet? If your letting it soak just to get the slide out you should remove whatever else you can to let the insides soak.

Especially the float needle and rubber gaskets if they are in decent condition before you soak it, otherwise you'll be into a carb rebuild kit at around $20-30 a pop. Those dip bath cleaners dissolve rubber like crazy.

Clive.

Kenny_McCormic wrote:Something in gas around 10 years ago must have changed. My dad has a sandrail with 10 year old gas in the tank, fired right up. drained 20 year old 2 stroke mix out of a boat motor, it burned but I didnt try it in an engine.

Got a 112cc 48" 2 man chainsaw form the late 40s running after it sat with fuel in it for 10 years just by draining it out(oil separated from gas) and cleaning the fuel filter, started up on 3rd pull.

Yeah, gas changed again a number of years back when they found out one of their wonder non-lead compounds morphed into something real bad after being burned. So now this high dollar gas is pure junk. In a little as 3 months after it leaves the refinery it is already degraded at least 5 octane numbers. Anything that is gonna sit over a month needs to have stabilizer added to it.

Greetings:

Yes, I have the kit parts & new float ready to go. Can't get past
Step 1: Remove the throttle cable cap and pull out the slide...
I took the float bowl out and YANKED the float needle out of there. The carb is dangling by its throttle cable in a container of my homemade Dip. The float bowl and main jet are soaking in another jar of the stuff, and the tank is half-full of some more.

NAPA didn't have Berryman's Chem Dip in stock so on the advice of a local carb shop, I bought a gallon of Carb Soak. $50!. I'll switch out the fluids tonight and let it soak another day. The dude said it should work. We'll see.

I'd be interested to see pics of the "stuff"

I always thought clean gas did a good job dissolving old sludgy gas. I've seen pics of that amber stuff you're talking about; I have no idea what will dissolve that. Looking forward to hearing what you find out.

There is always muriatic acid. It will dissolve aluminum.

Greetings

Typing from BB. Got home to find throttle slide pulled right off. Poured dip solvent into tank. Set to work on brushing carb parts as clean as 24 hour soak allowed,then carb parts went into NAPA carb dunk. Still no light from idle circuit orifice. Tank may be a lost cause, but I'm in no hurry. Rain in forecast...

Maybe you could try gasket stripper. It's just paint stripper, and contains methyl chloride. It shouldn't disolve the metal, but it will devour anything else. Just don't get any on your skin. It burns like when I pee.

MEK is used to strip tanks for Kreem treatments. It's sold at most hardware stores. Super nasty stuff; eats paint and just about everything else.

What about an acid tank for the fuel tank? Most radiator shops have these.