Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Cost of new carbs

I just got the surprise of my life today. I mentioned in another thread that I had shipped my daughter's Speedmaster from here home in Texas to mine. It has been sitting for many years so the carbs had gunked.

A good friend picked the bike up at the shipping center in Tacoma and had been trying to clean the carbs. We took them off a second time, stripped them down and cleaned them as best we could but to no avail. The bike would still not run right. I called the local Triumph shop to see what a new carb would cost and learned that I couldn't buy just one and that it would be $2,000 for the pair. WHAT? I called another Triumph shop (where I used to get my Rocket serviced) and he confirmed that price but also told me they were not available. He said they had been successful putting them in a sonic cleaner so that is what I'll be doing. If it doesn't work I guess this beautiful, low mileage bike becomes a paper weight in my shop.

post a WTB carbs in the classified i know there are some guys in here that have swapped carbs out any may sell their OEM ones, not gonna be no 2k thats for sure.

A sonic washer does a good job. Good luck to ya!

Exactly, Ryk. eBay has them all the time for much less than 2k. Tell you what, I'll take mine off right now and send them to you for 1k

I have seen them go 2-3 EBay bid cycles with an opening bid, no reserve of $99, before someone finally picks them up. The ones priced at $300 become darn near, permanent relists.

After only having my America for 6 months back in 07 the throttle positioning sensor on the carbs went out. The dealer said he would handle the warranty as long as Triumph paid for it with advanced approval. I was surprised at the cost, $2,200.00 for parts and labor because he said the TPS can not be bought separate from the carbs and the carbs can not be bought without buying the pair.

Many people who run carbs just unhook the tps anyway.
I think you dealer is full of shiza. You can buy single Keihin carbs all day long. They are just 36mm Keihin CVK nothing special about them.

You can have my TPS, in fact I have two them I don't use. This is the best looking answer to a TPS web page

If your gona put them in a ultrasonic tank you had better be sure of what solution the person is using.There are many out there and many of them eat aluminum and other soft metals.

Thanks for all the comments guys. If the sonic cleaning doesn't work out I'll try finding one on ebay or post a want ad before relegating it to paper weight status. One of the problems might be that Triumph apparently used a couple of different models CV carbs. I was comparing it to one that took off old Harley Electra Glide and it is pretty much the same.

And on swapping out carbs as edmspeedmaster mentioned, are there performance carbs made for these bikes? Makes sense.

On the TPS, I didn't know the carbureted Speedmasters had one. The first time I ever even heard of one was when I was when both stepper motor (never heard of that either)and TPS went out on my 2007 Rocket. Triumph replaced them both under warranty. The Rocket was the first bike I'd ever owned that had throttle bodies.

Allot of guys will step up to the FCR flat side carbs

http://www.triumphperformanceusa.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=7

Wow I would buy a set of these http://www.british-customs.com/triumph-motorcycle-cr-special-racing-carburetor.html before I spent $2,000 on stock carbs

I just finished bolting my carbs on so arstaren doesn't steal them

If you can't get them cleaned up FCR would be super sweet way to go with some tweaking. Some guys have done this, kind of a PITA to set up from my understanding, but quite the upgrade. But all in all I"m cheap. Make sure the rubber is ok with the vacuum set up. That can be a huge mess, I had an issue with a pinched vacuum 2-3 years ago. I'd clean them in my sink, much to my wife's demise, then make sure you have them really tight and set. Any air leaks can wreak havoc on these carbs. New squirrel condoms too.

It's great to know that I have quite a few options. I think I am going to have a lot of fun with this bike once I get it running right.

I'll post a few pictures of it with the history behind.