After leaving my bike standing for a few days, when I tried to start it it ran for about 20 seconds, then spluttered and died. There was fuel flowing from the breather hoses (?) on the carb. Searching through old posts here I reckon I have a jet stuck in the carb (which I had cleaned by a local friendly bike workshop about 3 weeks ago)

I have found a few posts (not on here) which describe a method of inserting the nozzle of a bottle of carb cleaner into the drain hole on the bottom and squirting fluid up to release the jet. Thoughts?

Assuming I have to strip the carb to get to the pesky jet, am I right in thinking I should remove the float bowl, rather than removing parts from the top down? It looks that way in the Clymers..

I've tried tapping the carb and draining the bowl a few times. Does anyone else have any ideas of things to try before I start removing the carb to do the full cleanup?

Thanks dr1445. I wish I'd installed an inline filter a few weeks ago. At least I got the guy who cleaned the carb last time to swap the bolts for allen heads so I should be able to get it apart now.

Oh well, here we go again. Seat, tank, covers, battery & box, carb etc etc This time I'll try and do the job properly! And I get to poke around (gently!) inside the carb  

The reason I've held back on doing any mods that require carb adjustment is that my bike runs really sweet, has no backfires and has good power throughout the range. The only problems I have had have been caused by crap in the gas, which hopefully the inline filter will fix.

I'm kinda scared I'll introduce new problems if I do the spacer mod. Maybe this time, as its the first time I've gone inside the carb, I'll just get the jet freed up and give it all a clean and add the inline filter.

I am hoping to put a new muffler on later this year (screamin eagle) so maybe I should wait and do all the carb mods then?

what v1 said. just drop the float bowel with the carb still on the bike. you can do that without taking out the battery box since you had the allen head screws installed.

more than likely your problem is particulates or sediment that can be cleaned up with a product like wd-40. i am not sure the product is available in the uk, but tests show no effect to exposure for paint, and both man made and natural rubbers. if you have a gummy situation than a more aggressive carb cleaner would be required. in any event you need to drop the float bowl, so you can have a look before digging deeper into the carb and decide for yourself.

Reelthing wrote on 04/01/09 at 15:41:45:


Yes a few seconds later the flow stopped.

I've now started pulling parts off to get to the carb. Will get some time this weekend to open it up.

Thanks once again to everybody for their help.