I was invited to be a Guest Blogger over at the Clark Heintz Tools blog, so I sat down and wrote for them what I hope is a nice informative article on one of the most vexing problems anyone can have when working on a motorcycle or bicycle. Click here to go check it out.
There is even a picture of the infamous old Honda oil filter bolt showing just exactly what you might have to do to remove one…..
If you like the post let them know, if you don’t let me know.
Peace Y’all
It is time for me to make a confession of my own ignorance. For over two decades I have not been using the correct screwdrivers to work on my beloved old rice grinders. Even during the time I worked as a dealership mechanic I destroyed countless fasteners by using the wrong screwdrivers. I did find by experience, that the really high quality & expensive Snap On brand could usually remove those annoying cheesy easy to strip cheap ass Japanese Phillips screws. But even then the heads still looked mangled for some reason. Day after day I cursed the engineers at Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha & Suzuki for sourcing such horrible fasteners to hold such fine machinery together.
Fast forward a couple of dozen years and one day while wandering through a motorcycle show, I stop at a VJMC display and pick up a copy of their magazine. When I finally slowed down enough to read through it a couple of weeks later I saw a really great article on the difference between Japanese Industrial Standard screws & Phillips screws as used here. It was a real eye opener, no wonder these screws were so difficult to remove. The angles of the sides and the shape of the center are just different enough to cause these two different styles not to be interchangeable.
I jumped onto the internet to research these JIS screwdrivers & found the two most commonly available brands to be Vessel & Hozan. I decided to order a 4 piece set of Hozan screwdrivers for about $25 USD.
Hozan JIS screwdrivers
These screwdrivers have hard plastic handles, this bugs some people but most of my screwdrivers have hard handles it is what I’m used to. Plus they are a lot easier to clean than cushion grips. The distinctive shape keeps me from confusing them with my regular Phillips head screwdrivers which is important. They will probably bugger up a Phillips screw the same way a Phillips screwdriver buggers a JIS screw.
Even though I’ve only used them a few times I am really impressed with how much better they fit & grip the screw heads on a few dirtbikes that I am working on. And the best part of all is that the screws still look good when I am done. This is very important if you are doing restorations or building show bikes.
Save yourself a lot of trouble, learn from my mistakes and get yourself a set JIS screwdrivers. You’ll be glad you did!
Welcome back everyone,
At the end of the last class we ended with the carb sitting on the bench and the intake port in the head plugged to keep out dirt & small critters. Now let’s pull off the vent hoses and turn it upside down on the bench like this.
Take note of the pilot mixture adjustment screw that I have labeled here for you. I will be giving you a tip about it later in the lesson so be ready to refer back to this picture if you need to. Please remember these are not in the same place on all carburetors. I have seen them on the top and on the side depending upon the make and model. Some late model machines have them hidden under aluminum caps to keep you from tampering with them, but if you have a real problem you can remove the caps to repair it. Just be sure to replace them especially if you have to pass emissions inspections in your state. As usual I recommend you consult your handy dandy service manual for your motorcycle just to be on the safe side, because some carbs have more than one aluminum plug and you don’t want to remove the wrong one. Trust me I know….
Of course this bike has none of those annoying issues so let’s go ahead and take the screws out of the float bowl and look inside.
Now I am a fairly environmentally conscious guy, I grow organic veggies, the shop that I work in is powered by solar electricity, drive reasonably efficient vehicles etc. but you will never convince me in a million years that today’s gasoline is good for the environment. Once the lead was removed there really was not that much left to improve. There is no way fuel that will rapidly break down into this toxic and corrosive sludge as fast as the fuel made in this day and time, can possibly be good for the environment. Just think of what it is doing to your vehicles as they sit in the driveway right now.
Let me get out of rant mode and get on with the lesson; here’s a shot of it with the float removed. You should be able to push the pin out to one side with a small punch and lift the float and float needle (float valve) out of the bottom of the carb.
So when someone tells you the float is sticking this is what they are talking about. Sticking floats are usually caused by either a piece of trash getting under the point of the float valve, or if the motor has been sitting by gasoline evaporating, and gluing it into place with a coat of gunk like you see here.
In this next shot I have removed the jets and the mixture adjustment screw. Even if you have a service manual handy, before removing the mixture screw, turn it all the way in slowly and count how many turns it takes to go all the way in. Write the number down somewhere, and then remove the screw along with the spring the washer and the o-ring that are in the hole under it.
You’ll probably have to dig for the o-ring using a piece of wire or a small pick like I did above.
At this point all of the metal parts are ready for a good long soak in the parts washer or carburetor cleaner until tomorrow. In fact the longer the better. Gather up some supplies.
If you have an air compressor and a parts washer you may not need the spray carb cleaner. If you don’t have a compressor it is mandatory even with a parts washer or a dip bucket of carburetor cleaner. For this bike I did pick up a carburetor overhaul kit. If your o-rings are all still in good shape and you can get all of your jets spotless you may not need it, but it is often difficult to clean the idle jet good enough to work again even with all of the right tools. If it’s my own bike, and I am broke that week, I might chance it, cause hey it’s part of the price I pay for this hobby. If it is your bike, you are getting new parts, because if it does not work, then I would be working on it for free and that would just piss me off. You would probably be upset at me too.
Here’s a teaser shot of everything laid out on the bench after cleaning, be sure to come back for the next lesson!
Click here to continue this lesson!
Welcome to the Asylum 