Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Rejet without removing carb

I got my new air filter and jets sitting on the bench for a month now. Time to drill them baffles. The bike runs so good I'm hesitant to mess with it.

Anyway, I got instuctions for rejetting. Some guys take the carbs off some don't. I'm tempted to try it with the cabs still on the bike. But, yikes, is it really possible? It looks pretty tight in there. I'll get all my screwdrivers together and see if I have the right one.

Question is, who's done this without removing the carb?
How long did it take?
Any special tools?
Any greater advantage to the carb removal method?

Thanks,
ZH

it is much easier if you take the carbs off first so you can change the screws to the allen ones making future changes much easier. You also learn a lot about the carbs and your bike doing this as well. But your call.
You can do it with the carbs on the bike. It just takes small fingers and a really good phillips tips. The original phillips screws strip very easy and they are kind of hard to get at. Use a small ratchet with a phillips bit, or a 90* screwdriver and you can get in there.

I just did a re-jet on my '07 SM, with the carbs on. My carbs came with the hex head screws from the dealer. Just be very careful when reinstalling the screws. If you tighten them a "bit" too much, you can strip not just one but two holes [i'm an idiot] and then it's a trip to the hardware store for a little longer screws--to catch the remaining threads. I agree its easier to do the job with the carbs off. I have long thin fingers, took about 1 and 1/2 hours. If you're of the cigar type fingers,,,remove the carbs and save a lot of frustration.

Carb on the right side is a breeze. The left side is another story. I had to get the inside screws on the left carb from the right side of the bike. Also when removing the main jets, the right side came out as one piece. On the left side a bunch of stuff came out in, what seemed like, several pieces. I don't recall exactly, but probable three pieces. Lucky I had a rag on top of the trany that caught all of them, and then the puzzle game started Fortunately, when I put it all back together it ran great and I never looked back until now.

I have rejetted the carby 3 times now and each time I did it on the bike. But each time I did it I swore that next time I will remove the carbs. It can be done but it is difficult as stated before to get to the left carb screws.(I have hex heads but they are still hard to get to on left carb).

I used Dinqua's advice the first time and removed the carbs to rejet, ensuring the screws were replaced with the allen head variety. See tech vault for correct replacement size.

Dinqua's instructions are perfect and make the job an easy one. See his www page.

Once you replace the screws, it's much easier doing future jobs with the carbs in-place. The inner screws are still a PIA. Switching to the K&N pods make the job easier yet. Removing the pods gives you a few more pubimeter's of room to get the screws out.

You might as well go with the Freak/Ghetto Freak now as it looks like you're heading in that direction anyway.

Regards,

Tom

I've done it many times always with the carbs on the bike. I use a small ratchet that holds hex screwdriver bits. I use the same tool to balance the carbs.

Side note , but relevant here - if you have stainless carb clamps , hit them a few times with wet 1500 and follow with any chrome or aluminum polish . They will look like chrome . Nice touch , if you have the time for details .