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Got your carbs. Some good, some bad. As expected, plating on steel brackets not so good.
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Another close-up. We'll replate these pieces, an optional service I am used to providing.
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Bunged up aircut circuit pipe. Pretty typical as folks pry here to remove the carburetors from the engine. Probably the owner of these carbs before you did it.
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Removed the vacuum chambers and what do we have here? Thin, wet black residue over the piston and top. Not something I see very often. If I had to guess, I would say this is the effect of some kind of additive in the fuel.
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The expected fuel residue in the float bowl, along with a little rust, but nothing to be concerned about.
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All apart. Now we take a closer look at the castings/bodies, and all the connecting pieces.
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The carbs have had a preliminary rinse to knock off the grunge. Two things stand out in this picture. First, note that the throttle linkage is rusty, because the 30 year old plating is pretty much oxidized off. The other thing is, look at the synch adjuster. It's nearly bottomed, which is evidence of either rough handling or possibly one or more twisted throttle shafts. The throttle shafts twist extremely easy on this family of carbs, including of course the GL1100 and DOHC inline fours. The shafts are made of brass and slitted, making them very easy to twist when working around them. But we'll take care of this stuff, no problem.
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The original bowl vent tees are deteriorated, no surprise as they almost all are. We're replacing these of course.
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The linkage adjuster/damper seals are also hardened and deteriorated, so we'll replace these too...
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,,,with my own silicone rubber replacements. The stock one is on the left, the silicone rubber on the right.
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Okay, all the castings and connecting pieces inspected and ready for cleaning.
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The larger pieces go into this machine, a Ney industrial ultrasonic unit. The smaller bits get treatment specific to the type of part. Some go into a smaller ultrasonic machine, others into one of several other chemicals and cleaners I use.
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And later, the carb castings come out looking like this. Nice, huh?
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A close-up of a float bowl. One of the benefits of ultrasonic cleaning is the job it does on cast aluminum is really pretty good, provided you have the right solution.
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For example, these slides. Nothing else gets 'em so clean they're almost irridescent.
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Same with the floats. I have tried a number of chemicals to clean these and yet not harm them, and the ultrasonic method beats them all, and with no real labor or long waiting.
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The castings are out of the cleaner and now it is time to address the throttle shaft issues.
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I rarely remove throttle shafts, because of the amount of work, of course, but mainly because it is seldom necessary. In this case however we have a couple of issues to take care of, the bad plating and the possible misalignment. Note how many pieces go into each casting to make a complete throttle shaft. Not a job for the timid.
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After inpecting the throttle shafts and correcting tiny misalignments, they get stripped and then replated.
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And here we are with everything inspected, repaired, and laid out ready for final assembly. That's medical exam paper.
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Close-up showing the cleaned parts. Nearly every part in this shot underwent a different cleaning technique, one best suited for the material. The aluminum fuel and air pipes for example are cleaned with a buffered acid cleaner. The smaller parts are low-wattage ultrasonic cleaned and the larger parts higher-wattage ultrasonic cleaned.
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I maintain a good stock of replacement parts, most of them OEM.
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And of course I use Randall Washington's rebuild kits exclusively. Ever hear of him? :-)
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Professional level carburetor work requires a lot of specialized tools. This is only a small sampling.
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Okay. Carbs are going back together. We have stripped and replated the main steady brackets. That shine is new zinc plating.
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Here you can see them together again, and this shot shows the new silicone rubber linkage damper seals off to good effect.
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Of course the carbs get quite a few adjustments, including float levels.
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One of the most important steps is the leak test. The carbs are suspended inside a tub and filled with a non-fuel test fluid, and even rapped on the side a bit, to induce any leaks. Afterward, while there is still fluid in them, the accelerator pump circuit is checked and if not working to spec corrected and adjusted. Don't be surprised, Randall, when the carbs come back with a little moisture in them.
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A close-up of the finished carbs showing the replaced upper steady bracket and polished tops to good effect.
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And there they are. The last step is packing for shipment to the customer (that's you, Randall!), along with a brochure of maintenance suggestions.
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