Tag Archives: mechanics

97 Honda Shadow 1100 Carb Cleaning & Jetting ~ Part 1

Posted on by Motopsycho

<97 Honda Shadow American Classic Edition>

Let’s jump into another “how to” post! Above is today’s patient a 1997 Honda Shadow, a great riding 1100cc v-twin that while still running very well, needed a little tweaking.  These motorcycles came from the factory with the carburetors set up toward the lean end of the spectrum for emissions reasons. This led to some drivability issues on some of them, when you combine the original lean jetting with a set of drag pipes, and 17 years of ethanol contamination it was running mighty lean indeed. The engine had a tendency to run hot, hesitate on acceleration, and frequent backfiring on deceleration. So I am going to pull the carbs off, clean them up a bit and install a Dynojet Research jet kit in them. To hear what this bike sounds like before the carb tuning click here go to my youtube channel.

First get the bolt out of the rear of the passenger seat.

<001 ace seat bolt>

Then remove the 2 from beneath the drivers seat one on either side

<002 ace shadow seat bolt>

Lift it up and set it out of the way.

<003 honda shadow seat remove>

Locate the petcock and shut off the fuel.

<004 honda 1100 petcock off>

Remove the bolt at the rear of the tank,

<005 shadow 1100 tank bolt>

and the other one at the front of the tank.

<006 shadow ace tank bolt>

Disconnect the fuel line from the petcock.

<007 remove fuel hose>

afterwards lift the tank high enough to remove this vent hose from the bottom

<008 honda shadow tank vent>

After you have removed the gas tank and placed it in a safe location this is what you should see.

<009 honda 1100 air inlet>

The yellow plastic container is there to catch any oil that happens to emanate from the crankcase ventilation system, so unbolt it,

<010 shadow ace oil breather catch>

pull the hoses loose, and set it out of the way.

<011 crankcase vent hose honda>

Next loosen the hose clamps on the rubber piping that leads from the frame to the inlet of the carburetors.

<012 honda shadow air hose removal>

Now we can finally see the carbs!

<013 there be the carburetors>

Time to remove the throttle cables, remove the 2 screws (indicated by arrows) and you will be able to get the cables out of the pulley on the end of the butterfly shaft.

<014 1100 shadow throttle cable>

The cold start enrichener is next. These 2 little plungers take the place of choke flaps on the most of the last production carbureted motorcycles. Instead of blocking the air they just add more gas. It works well but is a bit more aggravating to remove. I used to have a special home made tool for getting these out but it has been at least 10 years since I saw it last so I just you whatever combination of open wrench & needle nose pliers that allows me to remove & reinstall them without boogering them up.

<015 honda enrichener aka choke>

Here I am holding one of the enrichment plungers so you can see what it looks like on the inside.

<016 cold start enrichner honda ace>

Go around to the right side of the bike and pull the hoses in this tee junction that was connected to the crankcase vent reservoir and fold them back out of the way.

<017 shadow crankcase vent hose>

The rear spark plug wire runs through a loom that is attached to the right carburetor so remove it and the enrichener  on this side.

<018 rear plug wire standoff 1100 shadow>

You can reach under the carbs now & loosen the clamps holding the carbs to the spigots.

<019 carb boot clamps honda shadow>

With a rocking and twisting motion you should be able to pop the carburetors loose, but dont rush to pull them up out of the frame just yet.

<020 pop the carburetors loose>

Before you try to pull them all the way out remove all of the fuel lines and vent hoses, being sure to note which hose goes to which barb.

<021 pull off all the hoses>

These carbs come out of the top, just tilt them up sideways and turn them as needed, this is actually much easier than most Japanese cruisers of the same time period that require you to remove the carbs from the side.

<022 shadow carbs come out the top.>

Here are the carbs sitting on the workbench ready for cleaning. The next step is into the parts washer to get all of the exterior crud off for dis-assembly.

<023 dirty nast filthy carburetors>

Keep checking back as I will be posting part 2 of this series very soon.

Peace Y’all

Part 2 of this how to article is up & you can reach it by clicking here.

 

 

Dirt Bike Carburetor 101 Part 1 (how to clean a single cylinder motorcycle or atv carb)

Posted on by Motopsycho

Hello everyone and welcome to this multi-part lesson on the basics of carburetor  cleaning for single cylinder motorcycles. The cadaver we will be resuscitating in this lab is an 02 Honda XR100.

“barn fresh” xr100

Believe it or not this bike would still run with the choke on even with the dead gas and clogged jets, gotta love a Honda! This will be a general step by step guide to repairing carbs, so I will not be giving you the actual specifications as they vary so much from year to year on some bikes. As I’ve said before you need to obtain the specific information for your exact bike from a reputable source like say a service manual. For this first post let me show you how to remove the carburetor from this bike.

First let me say that it is possible to pull the carb from an XR100 without removing the bodywork, but A; you need to clean or replace the air filter and B; if it’s been sitting long enough to need the carburetor cleaned you need dispose of any fuel in the tank and clean it out before re-starting the bike after you finish the carb.

Now take off the side covers. This picture shows the location of the air filter cover on the XR100

Next look under the rear fender and remove the 2 nuts holding the seat on. Then pull it up and rearward to remove it.

I like to put the nuts and any spacers back on the studs like this so they will not get lost. In fact whenever possible I do this for all nuts and bolts as it keeps them from disappearing.

Now go the the fuel switch, valve or petcock, whichever terminology you use for it and turn off the flow of gas to the carburetor and disconnect the fuel line. Be prepared to cut it off with a knife and replace it if necessary.

Remove the rubber strap that holds down on the rear of the fuel tank and the two bolts at the front of the tank.

It is not required that you remove the shrouds like I did for this photo, I simply removed them so that I could show you the location of the bolts at the front of the gas tank.

After setting the gas tank aside in a safe location it is time to disconnect the throttle cable. On some models it attaches to an arm on the side of the carb but on simpler ones like this it is attached directly to the carb slide. Unscrew the cap as indicated by the screwdriver and pull the slide out.

This next shot is a little fuzzy but it indicates how the throttle cable is retained in the slide, and the following picture shows the slot in the side of the slide that allows you to remove it from the cable.

Now all you have to do is to compress the spring and push the end of the cable out of its hole, past the end of the slide, pull it out through the slot and then through the big hole at the top.

Here’s the removed and disassembled slide, jet needle, and return spring laid out for you to see.

Loosen the clamp holding the rubber hose from the air box to the carb and then remove the bolts attaching it to the engine and pull it out.

Yes I’m using the obstruction wrenches again. Two tools that I feel are must haves for any serious cycle mechanic are obstruction wrenches of decent quality and some extra long screwdrivers of the finest quality money can buy (i.e. Snap On etc.) Inexpensive wrenches are often okay but cheap screwdrivers will drive you bleeping crazy, by stripping out the soft metal heads on Japanese motorcycle screws.

Here’s a shot of the carburetor on the workbench. I like to use the red toolbox tray shown to help me organize the parts as I disassemble the carb, and to keep the parts from disappearing into the wormhole that exists behind my workbench. No part that falls back there is ever seen again, so I try to keep them from rolling of of the back edge. No dear reader I am not going to move the bench to look for them either. In my shop I coexist peacefully with all matter of snakes and spiders both harmless and venomous, and that is their territory and I stay out of it.

Don’t’ forget to protect the engine by plugging the intake hole while the carburetor is off.

I’ll show you the rest later, don’t forget to bookmark this page or to sign up for the email notification of updates on the right side of this page. Click here for part two!

Peace Y’all