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Vintagebikebuilder.com PD carb rebuild errors |
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As with all my critiques, this is for the people who visit my site and want to learn best practices. I have no bone to pick with the owner of the website being critiqued. He seems like a nice guy. Intelligent, a great work ethic, more than average knowledeable, and he's even a sort of industry insider by all accounts. His website indicates he has apparently restored a lot of motorcycles! No hard feelings, no confrontation, no self-aggrandizement. I'm just emphasizing the right way to do things. So, Rick, don't be offended. |
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| Endorses rebuild kits. | No, no, no. That's nearly the worst thing you can do to a vintage Honda carburetor. Even user forums have finally caught on to this. |
| Advocates Pine-Sol as a cleaner. | I have long said, if Pine-Sol will clean your carbs, then so will gasoline or paint thinner. And as well as they'll work, you must not really want those carbs very clean. |
| Disses chemical dip cleaner. | Though many are bio hazards, there is no denying they worked well. Better even than ultrasonic in most cases, though ultrasonic is now the preferred method. Many people still use dip to very good effect. |
| Reuses the choke plate screws. | Although he files the burrs off, why go to that trouble when the screws are dirt-cheap? At least he is aware of that problem. And the heads are usually buggered up by most DIYers, so they should be replaced on that account as well. |
| Unbolts the throttle bellcrank. | There is no good reason to do this. Not for disassembly reasons, not for any reason other than replating the throttle shaft, which almost no one does. |
| Is overly concerned with separating multicylinder carb rack parts. | There are very few parts on carbs that need to be kept in their original locations. The slides maybe, but even there it really matters only with very high-mileage carbs in which the insides of the castings have appreciably worn. |
| Dunking floats in water? | Does this person not realize the floats are solid, not hollow? Curious. |
| Recommends using one of those gas welding torch rasp-type jet cleaners. | Shudder! The problem is too obvious to even mention. It's likely that Rick's employment in the aftermarket blindsides him to evils such as this. |
| Talks about putting medium strength threadlocker on the idle jets. | Bizarre. If the jet doesn't fit right (?) replace it. I do however like his warning to not use high strength threadlocker on carburetors, and for the right reason. |
| Abrasive cleaning float valve seats. | No. Never. This is a common Internet fallacy. Don't do anything that will potentially change the shape of the finely machined float valve seat. |
| Ignores the carbs' air bleeds. In fact, there is no mention of any circuit cleaning. A significant oversight. | All the circuits are important, both fuel and air. No matter what you dip carbs in, hand vetting of circuits is mandatory. |
| Portrays the float level as negotiable. | It's really not. The float level establishes the base richness of the whole carburetor. Thus it is very important. It's usually out of spec, too. |
| Does not mention the fast idle mechanism. | The PD series Keihin has a good fast idle system. This must be vetted and in many cases adjusted. It's pretty important. |
| Endorses using a drill bit for bench syncing. | Nothing should ever be passed under the throttle. Ever. This technique originated on old Brit carbs. It wasn't all that great a method even back then. |
| Promotes the use of mechanical vacuum gauges that do not have calibration screws. | Such tools are not worth anything. They are very inaccurate. Avoid them. |
| Uses gasoline for leak-testing. | No. This will promote varnish formation. |
| Related to this, there is no mention of Sta-Bil. | This is a huge mistake. Sta-Bil is mandatory. There is nothing more important in terms of season-to-season maintenance. |
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I like a lot about this person's work ethic and evident meticulousness. However, elsewhere on this website the writer says he has more than forty years experience. Yet, he isn't familiar with Honda's vintage solid plastic floats, doesn't know what a needle jet is, and is unaware of the emissions-interpreted nature of Honda's late 1970s pilot screw specifications.
For more powersports maintenance fallacies, see this article.
And here is a little love for PD Keihin carbs
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