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This sucks!! Help please

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
Bret-
I'm in the Gateway City, St. Louis :)

Thanks, having all of you here as a resource to answer my questions is a huge help and inspiration.

Brian
 
Perhaps someone can enlighten both of us, but how does a carb body crack itself while doing its job on an engine? :?

I suggest getting the bike home and pulling the bank of carbs. This is not a very difficult job, and any service/repair manual will show you how to do it. Then closely inspect the carbs. You can remove the float bowls to check your floats and the jets. Be careful here, because the bowls may still be full of fuel. You can drain most of it by tipping the carb bank and letting drain out the two overflow hoses.

If you remove the jets, be sure to use properly fitting hollow-ground screwdrivers to avoid buggering the screw slots. The jets are soft brass and can be easily damaged. I find that a set of Brownell's gunsmithing screwdrivers are perfect for this. Don't overlook the pilot jets that live under the rubber plugs next to the main jets.

You may find that the carbs aren't as bad as the shop reported, and by not separating them, your reassembly job is a lot easier. If, however, you do have a cracked carb, you will know exactly what to get for a replacement.

For parts on eBay I search for both "Suzuki GS850" and "Suzuki GS 850" in the Part & Accessories section of eBay Motors. I nearly always see carbs listed on auction when I do.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum. :wink:
 
Cracker, lot of good advice already given.
About the broken float pins or tower(s)...I believe the mechanic broke the tower, trying to push the float pin out.
If the tower had been broken BEFORE you took it to the shop, that carb would have leaked fuel out the overflow tube at a fast rate with the motor running. With a broken tower, there's no way the float valve can seal the fuel off. No way you wouldn't see it. Also, the bike would run a lot worse than the "sluggish" you mentioned.
With the knowledge I have of carbs, I would have backed that mechanic down and prooved he broke them. Unless the bike was leaking fuel at a fast rate as you brought it in, that mechanic's a liar and a potential thief. They owe you the $ needed to replace the stock carbs. Go to another shop and have them checked/installed, or ask us how.
 
Ok, here's the latest. I picked up the carb rack from the shop. Looking at it I realize how much that I don't know about motorcycle carbs :?

It ends up what was cracked is one of the 2 posts on the bottom of carb #1. There are small holes for a pin that go through the 2 pins and there are 2 on each carb. someone tried to weld it to the needle plate for stability which might have worked for a while but it broke, who knows when.

I'm not even sure what effect this being cracked has on the performance of the carb but I spoke briefly to one of the younger mechanics at the shop and he said if I could find another #1 carb body that the rest of the set are all ok and that all I would have to do is rebuild the #1 carb but he suggested that I do all of them while it's off the bike any way.

I've been trying to familiarize myself with all of the parts using these diagrams:

http://www.alpha-sports.com/suzuki_parts.htm

http://vmaxoutlaw.com/tech/images/vmaxcarb.jpg

It's still pretty intimidating but I think I am going to give it a try. I'm going to keep an eye on ebay and see if I can find a #1 carb. Until then, I will continue to familiarize myself with this monster :roll:

I'm going to search this site and take as many notes as I can on the rebuild until I can find a replacement on ebay.


Thank you again to all of you, any and all suggestions are welcome.
 
Post in Wanted Parts for a single carb. I did and it is on it's way.

I repaired the broken post in my carb with a ceramic based epoxy. I built the epoxy up carefully and ground off where I had to to get the fuel bowl to clear. Then I reinstalled the float pin from the other side. The broken piece lined up perfectly.

The float pins are ridiculously tight on these carbs. Even if they were loose there is no way they would fall out because the bowl restricts the movement. You have to support the small tower with a block of wood shaped to fit it and gently tap the pin out.

The carb could be repaired by an outfit called http://www.motorcyclecarbs.com/

from their site:

Broken float post repair:
Send carbs with broken off parts. We can repair them even with out the original part. We use steel reinforcements for structural integrity and fill the original missing shape in with a special marine epoxy that wont ever be affected by any chemical that the carbs will ever come in contact with. This is a PERMANENT repair. The finished product will mimic the original shape and size.


it won't cost you 1000.00 to take care of this. They might be able to repair the damage and rebuild the rack for you as well.
 
Duane-

That was a huge help. I sent them an e-mail so hopefully I'll hear back from them and they can repair the float support.

If not, I'll keep looking for a replacement carb.

Thank you so much for the information.

Brian
 
hey cracker, glad to see you've made it this far, the rest will be "easy" (don't want to sandbag you too much :wink: )

once you've got your carbs back, get a good feel for them, what they look like, shapes sizes, etc. if you know what you're looking for you'll get a way better deal from someone who doesn't knwo what they're selling!! I got a whole rack of carbs for 38.00!! (ebay) of course I will be rebuilding those, and possibly a whole lot more, but it can be done!

from this site you'll have the best luck at one carb, but there are some on ebay occasionally. search on carb -harley or mikuni, or any of the possibilities, yamaha and kawasaki used our same carbs as well. maybe get a whole rack and use one, the rest can be parts!!

good luck, and this place can rebuild your whole bike as you need it, someone has done it no matter what it is!! 8)
 
Cracker said:
Duane-

That was a huge help. I sent them an e-mail so hopefully I'll hear back from them and they can repair the float support.

If not, I'll keep looking for a replacement carb.

Thank you so much for the information.

Brian
Click to expand...

Hey, with what you'll end up paying for shipping both ways, parts and labor I can almost guarantee it'll be cheaper buying a new carb. I got 4 for my bike on ebay for $50. However, you may have to be willing to wait for a while.
 
This time of year carbs & Everything go up in $$$$
The last set of 34mm carbs I bought on ebay had TWO broken float posts
 
I fixed one of them as a test subject. I cut the post off of a spare junk carb. Cut the broken piece off the carb, drilled & tapped the base inserted small stud, drilled & threaded the replacement post- screwed it all together. It works ?? I need to think about a way to make the alignment for the float pin better
 
SqDancerLynn1 said:
I fixed one of them as a test subject. I cut the post off of a spare junk carb. Cut the broken piece off the carb, drilled & tapped the base inserted small stud, drilled & threaded the replacement post- screwed it all together. It works ?? I need to think about a way to make the alignment for the float pin better
Click to expand...

That's fantastic. I'm thinking of drilling out the base and the post and inserting a metal dowel rod and then using a ceramic epoxy like Duaneage had used. If I do it that way I'll let everyone know how it works out.
 
Cracker, I'm pretty sure I've got a #1 body you can have. I'll check when I get home from work tomorrow, but I'm almost positive the one I've got sitting on my work bench is for #1. Just pm me and let me know where to send it.
 
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