Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

Hey,

OK, so now I have a carb that I can't get the idle jet clean on with my typical methods. Bottom was full of gooey varnish, never a good sign.

Typically I get these cleaned by either blasting carb cleaner into the jet with the little red squirter extension, or by using compressed air with a clear tube to blast it out.

What are the other ways of cleaning out the idle jet, save removing it (which usually breaks the jet?)

A. Dip the carb
B. Send it to Greg.

Greetings:

Buy a gallon can of carb cleaner.(NAPA) Dismantle carb and drop it in.

Strap can onto H-D Sportster luggage rack. Ride to Barrow, Alaska and back. Remove carb and tease idle jet with the bristle of a brass brush. Spray carb cleaner and then compressed Italian air. Check results in a dark room.

Yeah - I had some idle jets like that - 10 years of storage!

Typically I get these cleaned by either blasting carb cleaner into the jet with the little red squirter extension, or by using compressed air with a clear tube to blast it out.

Hey - Did exactly the same - wouldn't open. Including soaking for 2 days in cleaner.

Hate to put metal in to the jet but honestly - I borrowed a fine sewing needle from Ms Mousewheels, pushed it through and then blasted with carb cleaner. The gradual taper made it easy to find the hole. I believe the needle point and taper helps avoid damaging the bore. Nothing ever scrapes through the entire orifice. Then with a path opened, squirts of carb cleaner can get the rest.

Wish Honda would have put in a screw in idle jet!

---
Wheelman - funny! makes carb cleaning something to look forwards to.

mousewheels wrote:Hey - Did exactly the same - wouldn't open. Including soaking for 2 days in cleaner.

I borrowed a fine sewing needle from Ms Mousewheels, pushed it through and then blasted with carb cleaner. The gradual taper made it easy to find the hole. I believe the needle point and taper helps avoid damaging the bore. Nothing ever scrapes through the entire orifice. Then with a path opened, squirts of carb cleaner can get the rest.

I might try that. I was nudging around the hole with a .010" guitar string and pulling icky gunk out that way. I'll try a needle tomorrow.

I don't want to buy the dip; worse comes to worse I'll swap on a known good carb and leave it for later...

Yeah, before the needle i had some 0.008 to 0.010 music wire I was sharpening . But the sewing needle tapers are more gradual that I made with a grinder. Ms Mousewheels goodies are so handy

I wonder if you could pull the music wire down to a smaller diameter. That gets into another problem, though, which is getting the wire stuck and broken off in the jet. Which is almost as good as the guys that drill it out with something.

Using carb or brake clean, that orifice is so small it does not seam to
penetrate.
The aerosol being a solvent just wants to dehydrate, and not cutt
the tarter clogging hole, unless soaked for days on end in liquid cleaner.
I plucked a stainless wire from a brush and used gas and compressed air,
kept poking wire, driping gas, and blasting air.
Tryed using a strand from copper wire and was not rigid enough.

I think it was kenny said clean as best as you can, and if it will start to run and let new gas clear jetting, with lawn mowers with primer bulbs instead
of chokes, like bystarters.
Meaning no butterfly, I have got them to run off of primer and then run out
of gas, but with air cleaner removed running kept covering carb with hand to starve or choking have been able to clear instead of taking apart.
Just something I was thinking of when saw post.
Agreed that idle jet is tough

The needle worked; I could tell once it was open b/c the needle could locate the jet hole, whereas before it was just picking at the outside (and all the varnish.)

I don't like using mechanical cleaners but this wasn't going to come out any other way. I'll be able to tell if I damaged the carb this evening when I fire it up.

Greetings:

Mmaannyy is selling a known-good carb (mine) that he couldn't adapt to his Spree. I have already PayPaled him his money back but if you

ACT NOW

you may be able to intercept and get him to decline my payment and send it to you instead. See his post from yesterday in FS/WTB.

"Didn't want to buy a can of dip??" It's the very Mother's Milk of Scootertude! Paint shaker works, but Sportster trick is faster and a lot more fun...

Thanks! I've got a known good carb on the bench ready to go, I just like to keep the scooters together with their parts.

I used to have a can of the stuff; nasty chemical. I'm going to be moving again soon and I don't want to pack it with/around anything else. I've heard that stuff will dissolve the entire carb if you leave one in overnight...

Greetings:

Noise posits:

I used to have a can of the stuff; nasty chemical. I'm going to be moving again soon and I don't want to pack it with/around anything else. I've heard that stuff will dissolve the entire carb if you leave one in overnight...

Ah, the Good Old Days when Truly Toxic Concoctions were available to any pre-teen with the coin, and who knew from kidney cancer? I think the legends are overblown, because a hydrocarbon is a hydrocarbon, no matter how volatile. None of them dissolve aluminum, although some did a pretty good job on natural rubbers and cork. They definitely worked faster than the stuff we can get now.

NAPA dip is pretty tame stuff by that standard, but a week in the bucket takes care of pretty much anything including the idle jet passages, given just a bit of agitation. If you Need It NOW, Needle it - see above.

gashead wrote: but with air cleaner removed running kept covering carb with hand to starve or choking have been able to clear instead of taking apart.
Just something I was thinking of when saw post.
Agreed that idle jet is tough

^Works great on just about anything with a real choke and mild case of gunked carb. Just get it running as fast as possible and pump the choke a couple times, vacuum sucks the gunky gas/separated oil right through.

Well, the bike idles great now... but dies on throttle. I ran out of time; I'll look again tonight to see what I missed.

Wheelman-111 wrote:Greetings:

Wheelman say:

None of them dissolve aluminum,

Yep. I've used my trusty can of Gunk(tm) carb cleaner (purchased for $32 at the local Shmucks Auto Parts) on several carb projects. Usual time in soup: 36 hours.

When the patient was brought out of the bath, all its body parts were intact - including the factory number(s) stamped in the potmetal - uh - I mean 'alumineeum.'

As the jingle sez: "Plunk your junk in Gunk!"

CaptDan>