help carb flies froze up

[icekillah]

anyone have a good technique for unfreezing carb flies? any chemicals that work well? is it possible that the'll be frozen forever

[arsenic]

your butterfly valves are frozen, what are you asking? And how did you manage to do that?

[notec]

Well if they are sticking, take them apart and clean them. If the bike can be made to run, spray some carb cleaner in them to see if it frees them up. If not, its time for some maintenance.

[icekillah]

yea the throttle plates were stuck closed, with a table vise and a pair of vise grips i managed to open the plates up (via throttle cable) but it took about an hour for the plates to close on their own. is there any way to loosen up the springs so it opens easily and snaps back into place?

[The CyberPoet]

Try cleaning the springs with carb cleaner... then coating them with silicone lube -- if they're just sticking.
Are they rusted/coroded?

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[icekillah]

ok took carbs apart and it seems the bolt that, where the bolt that the throttle plates are screwed into are very hard to move (gunked up) since the throttle plates are impossible to take off (without breaking something) is there some sort of solution to dip it in? I just don't think carb cleaner will free up the gunk. any suggestions

[steves]

http://www.gunk.com/CAT_CC3K.asp

[The CyberPoet]

NAPA: CRC brand Carb & Cold Parts Cleaner.

Same concept, different brand.

The other common solution is to place the carbs into an ultrasonic cleaner big enough to hold the carb, with your choice of either carb cleaner (if the cleaner doesn't get hot) or dish detergent (if it does get hot). If you move to an fuel-injected bike in the future, the device itself is a wise investment, as most injectors can be cleaned back to "new" condition via an ultrasonic cleaner.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[md86]

What about a good ol pot of boiling water ? Make you some carb soup ....... That's what they SUED to do "back in the day" , and I did it a time or 2 to get some junk out of a cruddy carb . Worked fairly well , too .

[The CyberPoet]

What about a good ol pot of boiling water ? Make you some carb soup ....... That's what they SUED to do "back in the day" , and I did it a time or 2 to get some junk out of a cruddy carb . Worked fairly well , too .

Not a bad thought... very old school, but old-school often works where modern chemicals make a mess of things. If you do go the boiling water route, strip out all the plastics & rubber you can first.

For a particularly aggressive cleaner (not sure how likely it would be I'd use this on any carbs), use a granular dishwasher detergent (like Cascade powder) in the boiling water; it will strip pretty much everything off (because it is acidic and a grease-eater)... but I have no clue how aggressive it might be to the aluminum in terms of causing anodizing to the surface. We used to use this trick back in the days when I was a paid dishwasher (back in high school); 15 minutes of boiling dish detergent would normally lift off anything baked onto stainless steel, etc.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet