Club 80-90 Forums

My carb sitting in the kitchen. I'm itching to clean it. Is there any reason I can't do it with soap and water rather than carb cleaner?

I cleaned one once in the dishwasher, and although it cleaned it well the surface came out covered in tiny little spots of alloy corrosion. This isn't a problem on the outside surface, but I'd be worried about corrosion partially blocking any of the very fine channels in the alloy. I found that a tub of paraffin and a toothbrush is a pretty good way to get the outside clean before cracking it open to clean the inside. Remove the vacuum units (choke pull down and secondary throttle unit) before tackling it with paraffin though, as you don't want to affect the rubber diaphragms inside them.

Best bet is compressed air to be honest. I always found cellulose thinners was brilliant for cleaning carbs, or at least getting the gummy deposits off everything. Avoid rubber seals and diaphrams obviously but I presume you'll be replacing those. In the past I've tended to polish carb throat - it seems to help.

CJH wrote:I cleaned one once in the dishwasher, and although it cleaned it well the surface came out covered in tiny little spots of alloy corrosion.

That was caused by the dishwasher salt.

carb cleaner it is then!

Modern carb cleaner is useless because it no longer has all the nasty elements due to them being less than friendly to the environment. Believe it or not, I have great success using coca-cola. I regularly clean the carb on my Enduro bike and haven't ever had any problems since I started using Coke.

bigherb wrote:

CJH wrote:I cleaned one once in the dishwasher, and although it cleaned it well the surface came out covered in tiny little spots of alloy corrosion.

That was caused by the dishwasher salt.

Is the ultra sonic cleaner yours? I've often eyed up the cleaner at the dentist and thought 'my carb would fit nicely in there'!!!