Carb Rebuild

2/15/2003

Check out the water damage to the drain screws and the deposits it caused in the
bottom of the bowls. This is after cleaning them. About $70 apiece to replace
the carb bowls! Ouch!! I was able to find a complete set of carbs on Ebay for $70!
It turns out the carbs were from Jack Smith’s wrecked ’93 ST1100. You can
read the trip report from his last ride on his ST here.

Found this email archived somewhere:

From: "Jack Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 19:05:07 -0500
Subject: Re: ST1100: bikes for sale?

I am almost done with an epic trip report, to which I'll post a link when
finished.  As far as the crash itself, I was in the outer banks of North
Carolina, running north on highway 12 in a light rain.  I came upon a
commercial rig doing less than 40-mph with a Ford Explorer right behind.  I
looked and, as the oncoming lane appeared clear, I signalled and began to
pass.  I was past the Ford and passing the rig's back bumper when a grey
Honda accord, with no lights, appeared out of the gloom.  I quickly
decellerated and tried to swerve back into my lane.

When my front tire hit the painted line I went down hard, sliding and
spinning off into the grass.  The bike was hit by the Accord and run over by
the Explorer.

- --
Jack Smith
La Porte, IN

 

More pictures here.

Sliders removed.

All the internal parts layout out and grouped by carb number.

The new pilot and main jets.

Close up of the slider chambers.

All the floats, jets and holders removed.

Reinstalling the jets and holders. Keep everything numbered so you don’t mix up the parts. The paper shown shows the number of turns on the idle screws for each carb.

The carbs bowls arrive. They look clean, but had a little damage from the wreck.

The bowl on the left had an impact mark and the right one was missing the drain nipple.

Close up of the dent.

Close up of the dent.

The drain screws are in way better shape than mine were.

To repair the broken nipple I cut a good one from one of my carbs. Then I drilled the holes out a bit and used a 3/32 aluminum pipe to splice the pieces together. JB weld was used to attach the parts.

The pieces in place.

The finished product. I used Quicksteel on the inside and outside of the carb bowl on the right. It’s suppose to be OK for patching fuel tanks, but I’m thinking I’ll just use my original bowl. It was the cleanest of the four, plus I have a new drain screw for it. I just don’t trust having it in my carbs.

Just about done with the reassembly. When I went to reinstall the drain hoses they didn’t reach the nipples. I realized I had switched the bowls for carb #1 and #2! They fit, but the hoses didn’t. The drain screws would also be in a spot not easily accessed! As everyone says, pay close attention to which part came from where.

Checking the float height. Should be 7mm. Mine were all at 9mm??

Putting back the last slider.

The carbs are all in at this point. Look at all that room in there with the PAIR system removed!! The bike idles WAY better now and responds to the throttle quicker from low RPMs. This was probably due to the two idle jets that looked plugged. I should have done this a long time ago! Like any other major job I’ve attempted this one wasn’t as bad as it seemed it would be. You just need the time to do it right.

Some great info on how carbs work here. I haven’t done, or condone, the airbox
modifications show there though.