Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Cleaning Pilot Jet

Bike has been sitting a while, and there was green gunk on the main and pilot jet (from ethanol, I believe).

Main jets cleaned easily, but the pilot jet is proving to be stubborn. I tried a needle, a thin wire from a stripped tie wrap, soaked in paint thinner, in mineral spirit ... but the thing is still clogged.

I don't have access to Seafoam (doesn't ship international) so anything else I could use to clean up the jet and open it?

Do you have any law enforcement friends? Most Police Depts. have an ultrasonic cleaning tank (for pistols), now that the price has come way down. Or I would just buy a new set, they ship or can be, in a letter sized envelope, how long could that take to be delivered, by air mail? FastEddy comes to mind. He is pretty fast.

I brought the jet to a shop, and with some high pressure jets and a much stronger wire than mine, finally got the thing opened!

I'll keep the idea of ultrasonic cleaning... I know a shop in town that has one..

The jets looked horrible, but funnily enough, only one side (left when sitting on the bike) was gunked. The right side was all clean.



Now, with that all cleaned up, I was expecting it would fire up nicely... but nope. Only the right (originally cleaned side) still fires, but got nothing on the left.

I need to study where the fuel line goes from the petcock... I don't even know where the fuel line goes into the carbs!

Is the fuel line easy to take out and clean with carbs in place, or will I have to take them out again?

Should never push anything through a jet.

What I don't understand is why only the left side has green gunk, and not in the right side carb....

They get the same fuel....

If the bike is on the sidestand then the port-side carb is the low point.

Yep, it stayed on the side stand for 8 months with no treatment whatsoever... Wasn't intended, just circumstances led to one another...

Ok, I'm trying to get fuel flowing to the carb. Main jet is ok and opened, pilot jet is ok and opened, hidden filter is all clean, float bowl and needle clean and seems ok... still no gas.

Had an idea an I hooked up a bicycle pump to the fuel line, put my finger on the breather pipe and pumped. I have air coming out from both jets.



The only other thing is that extra brass hole on top of the the main and pilot jet. Couldn't find what it is and what it does. There is no groove, so I can't seem to be able to remove it... still has some green gunk inside there, but I don't know how to reach inside.

Euréka!

Perseverance is the key to success!

I pumped air through the carb like a madman for about 10 minutes, and that did the trick.

I'm going to keep that little trick for future problems. Here's what I did:

Unscrewed the main and pilot jets, put them on the side. I had an old bicycle inner tube laying around with a Schrader valve, it fit perfectly the fuel line with a nice tight seal. So, I cut off the valve from the tube and inserted into the fuel line that usually gets into the petcock. Attached the bicycle pump to the valve and pumped.

By doing so, the air is just going to leave from the carb breather tube, so I placed a finger on the tube to seal it. Now, air is blown out through the main and pilot openings (without the jets in).

Doing that for a while cleared the whole system. Tested by attaching the fuel line back to tank, and fuel was flowing freely.

Job done!

Put back everything in place and went for a quick test ride. Bike pulls nicely and hard! I think I've been riding with gunk for a while because I did notice a nice improvement when accelerating.

All ready for 2017.

Sweet!

Good job Jeff. Glad you got things sorted out. Using compressed air is a great tool for cleaning out carb circuits.

I'm stealing your schrader valve trick...

Try some denatured alcohol, remove any rubber and/or plastic parts first(I don't know how they would react) and soak the jets or what ever in it.