My bike has always felt a little groggy, especially at low RPM’s. Changing sparks/filters/chain etc. has helped but it’s still not quite right. Perhaps I’m being paranoid but in comparison to my previous bikes it just feels wrong - just in case i’d like to give the carbs a clean and balance them to see if this helps at all.
I’m a bit of a novice - I can do the basic jobs but have never really needed to do the more advanced stuff. From what I’ve read it seems balancing is going to be quite a lot easier than taking them apart and cleaning them. Would it be pointless to balance without cleaning or could there still be potential for vast improvement?
If I decide to have a professional do the job how much would I expect to pay? (For both balance and strip/clean). Can you recommend a garage/independent mechanic which will do a GOOD job?
Anyone on here able to do the job for me? (Paid, obviously) - at least that way I’d be able to learn how it’s done without the risk of messing it up which is ideal for me. I live in Leyton but would be happy to bring bike to you.
Hi mate, the type of bike would change the price on this one. A VFR400 would probably cost a bit more than a DRZ400
But I think you can balance without cleaning, but the balancing is where you need some specialist equipment (although I think oldguy/chunky might have a few workarounds ) the cleaning is fairly easy depending on the bike so you could clean them then take them to a garage to be balanced :).
Carb cleaning - That seems a fairly easy bike to work on, no fairings to take off, so grab a haynes and have a go yourself
for a garage to balance the carbs would not be too much money, give FWR in kennington a call, they will probably give you a quote on the phone, very friendly guys and I fully recommend them
When I say cleaned i mean taken off/stripped/cleaned/reassembled not just spraying carb cleaner into the intakes - would you still say that’s easier than balancing? If so I may well give it a go
Never done it - but funnily enough I too have a 98 Hornet which I plan to totally overhaul and rejuvenate some time this year - part of the plan will be too take apart the carbs and clean everything and put in new seals etc.Deffo get a Haynes manual which has exploded diagrams of the carbs - which will be helpful when you put them back together again.
Sometimes it’s worth taking a few digital photos of things before you take them apart to remind you how they are supposed to go back together.
As for balancing the carbs - it’s probably worth getting a decent mobile mechanic to come round and do it once you have the carbs reassembled and back on the bike - he’ll use an auxillary petrol tank to get the engine running (as the fuel tank will be off) and digital or analogue gauges to adjust and sync the carbs.
Yeah I was looking at the carbtune and just making a temporary tank out of something and elevating it up. Any tips on best way of doing this? I presume any container and a length of fuel hose will do the job fine.
I reckon I’m going to have a go at cleaning these carbs myself then, as I said I’m getting better at the basics - I reckon if I do something like this my confidence will snowball and will benefit me big time in the long run!
Any specialist tools required? And is it a must to replace any seals or only if they are broken?
I don’t have a manual but I have exploded diagrams on a cd (many thanks to a member on here some months ago!) so I’ll get them printed out.
Haynes usually recommends replacing seals in this type of situation - and seeing as the soft parts in the carbs - e.g. fuel lines, seals etc are over a decade old and might have perished a bit you might as well take this opportunity to renew everything - that’s what i’m gonna do when I have a go anyway.
Alrighty, well I’ll take a closer look at the diagrams then take them off at the weekend and work through it slowly. Only really get 1 day a week to play with things and I doubt I’ll get it sorted in one sitting. Seals etc. all readily available through ebay/dealer/etc. presumably? I’ll put some pictures up on here and probably ask for advice as I go along. Thanks!
A dealer or wemoto, or David Silver, Honda spares.Personally I would use a dealer for fiddly small stuff like seals because then you can look at the micro fiche diagram on the computer with him and be sure that you are getting the right bits.I’d go after market e.g wemoto for other bits as they tend to be cheaper than main dealer.
Don’t initially go the whole hog , start by checking/adjusting the float heights and cleaning out the float bowls with clean fuel and checking no jets are blocked which is unlikely or the symptoms would be worse .
With diaphragm cv carbs check their are no leaks/splits .
Pay close attention to the inlet rubbers between the carbs and engine and ensure clips are done up tight and again no splits .
I can do all the above without disconnecting the cables on most bikes , just pull out the carbs and turn upside down .
Then it is essential to check balancing , if you don’t mind the trip to ealing one weekend i can put my carbtune on and set em up properly so long as you do the cleaning beforehand .
Zeph, that sounds great, I’ll clean them to the best of my ability and come over to you. Will only take 45mins on the north circular. Again I’m not even 100% that the performance issues at low rpm are carb related but after doing all the obvious fixes and still having a slightly erratic idle tick over and some lunging at low speeds I figure at least I’ll know. Maybe thats just how the bike is and hornets arnt for me but I’m determined to get on with this bike
Maybe a month before I’m ready to have them tuned so expect a PM
Yea no problem, will be be balancing carbs on our bikes soon anyway so one or 2 more is cool .
low rpm probs can often be related to incorrect float heights so read the manual and it is quite straight forward to ensure they are right .
Best to ensure that your plugs are correctly gapped and in good condition beforehand as well while you are at it .
If anyone else who knows me wants to join in we can have a carb balancing saturday sometime next month…
First thing I did was put new sparks in and change the air filter. It runs fine at higher rpms and seems to pull fine, just even with a well oiled chain at low rpm, as i said, theres something I can’t put my finger on
IIRC the Hornet is a spine frame, which means that the carbs & airbox are sandwiched between the engine & the frame.
From experience, unless the bike is running like a complete pig, you really, really don’t want to try & remove/re-install the carbs in such circumstances before May unless you have a fully heated garage to do it in!
Even on a warm day it’ll be a pain getting the carbs off/on, on a cold day the rubbers between the engine/carbs & carbs/airbox will be pretty much rigid & have no play in them at all - I’ve resorted to kicking the things back in previously.
Pat is spot on regarding getting the carbs off of the Hornet - when I removed mine a couple of years back it was in Feb so the weather was cold and they were like stuck on solid!
I got the hairdryer out to try and warm the rubber up and then it took lots of waggling about to tease them off.
Now that you mention it when I took the restrictor kit out of the inlet manifolds last year it was a pig to detach the rubbers/airbox and that was in the middle of summer. I’ll give it a bash either way, hair dryer sounds like the way forward!
