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After picking up a Ultrasonic Cleaner from Harbor Freight and some simple green, I set to cleaning my race bike's carbs. I was pretty impressed by what the little thing could accomplish, but using it left with a strong desire to get one of the industrial cleaners with a much higher wattage and enough capacity to fit a set of carbs without breaking them apart. I don't have the carbs back in the bike yet, but I'm curious if anyone on here has used one of the larger Ultrasonic Cleaners, and if so would you recommend it?
I put a write-up about the carb-cleaning with some before and after pics on my blog site. It's been covered here already in posts about CB400 carbs so I didn't want to repeat it, but the post is here:
http://www.bt1racing.com/clean-check-sv650-carbs
I've used a heated industrial 6 gallon unit, make's cleaning entire inline 4 carb racks a breeze.
They are NOT cheap though.
Right, I got a quote for a 4 gallon unit with heat and 250W and it was $2400. Not doing that. I would be somewhat ok with spending up to $600 if I could possibly make some money back by either renting time on it or just flat out cleaning carbs/TB/injectors, etc for people.
You could try the eBay cheap 'deals'. 8 gallon for $800, etc. I dunno how they compare performance wise and can guess at their long term reliability.
I know this is an old thread but I came upon a Branson Model 310 Industrial Ultrasonic Cleaner tank and power supply many years ago and have used it on car carbs and other grungy rebuild projects. It works great! It has a heater as well but never used it since the parts I've cleaned came out fine. Branson (Parent company Emerson) makes a lot of various models and they work great with Simple Green. It'll fit one or two carb's if disassembled depending on size. I just cleaned two carbs on an SV650 bike I'm working one. I let them run for a couple hours in the tank and they came out great! I did one carb at a time to keep things better organized. Yes carbs are becoming a thing of the past but if cleaning injectors or other stuff, these ultrasonic cleaners are worth it if you do this on a regular basis. You might see them on E-bay or maybe some industrial salvage web-sites? FYI
I don't bother with Simple Green, it'll etch aluminum. Distilled water with a drop or two of fancy-schmancy no dyes/perfumes dish detergent and my 6gal gets everything clean with no danger of chemically eating anything. It just may take it longer. I use it for way more than carbs, pretty much anything that's dirty I'm working on gets a trip through it, great for brake calipers and masters for example.
Yes you're right. According to Simple Greens FAQ's, https://simplegreen.com/faqs/ contact with aluminum should be limited to 10 minutes! Not so good for longer term in a cleaning tank! Thanks for the feedback. I had used another degreaser walter soluble solution I got at an auto parts place and it worked but took longer in the tank. Sounds like good ole Dawn dish detergent would be adequate. If it can clean oil covered ducks after a spill it should clean carb parts as well. Good discussion!
You care to share specifically what degreaser you used from the auto parts store?
I'll have to check. It was a off-brand I hadn't heard of before sold in a Tire Warehouse store when they dabbled in auto parts for a while. However I would put it in a category GUNK brand degreaser. At one time they sold GUNK in a concentrate gallon jug where you mixed it with kerosene or something(probably for parts washer tubs etc) but haven't seen that in a while. However out of curiosity, I just did a quick search and interesting enough, Advanced Auto Parts sells it in a gallon can with a dip basket for cleaning parts! Hmm? That's news to me but worth sharing. Other parts stores may have it as well. Just a point of reference. aS an alternative to a HF cleaner, this probably would work pretty well. Let the parts soak overnight, agitate the basket up and down on occasion. If I didn't have my HF I'd pick one of these up if for occasional use.
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
Last edited by on2wheels.rus; 04-10-20 at 10:31 AM.
10 minutes is more than a couple of cycles through the cleaner. In my experience that is usually more than enough time to get the carbs clean. If they are really grimed up start with some WD/kero and a toothbrush on the bench before the ultrasonic.
I've yet to have any problems with aluminum in an ultrasonic with simple green. It's my go-to solvent for the cleaner.
I ran my carbs 2 hours each with Simple Green and no visible issues that I can see. So, as I quoted the incompatibility from the Simple Green web-site, it makes you wonder what grade or type of aluminum is most susceptible to attack by Simple Green?? I don't know. Yes, maybe I got lucky so I'll probably use Dawn or get some Gunk liquid for future use.!
Cleaning on the outside is never an issue but the HF cleaning gets into places that you can't get with a brush. However, for those small holes and passages etc, I also keep a set of Welding Tip Cleaners which are fine wires of different sizes with little serrations on them. They're good for getting at hardened crap inside the carb that the HF cleaner doesn't always get. Its more for carbs that've sat for a long time and the build up just harden beyond what the HF can do.
Last edited by on2wheels.rus; 04-10-20 at 12:25 PM. Reason: clarifying my response
Yeah, 10 minutes for an already working carb in an ultrasonic I can see. I've had to revive old carb racks though that have sat for long periods without being drained and those puppies need way more than 10 minutes even with an aggressive cleaner and thorough manual cleaning first.
My 650 sat idle for 8 years and I just acquired it. Freeze plugs in the heads popped from freezing, but that's another story! Front cyl carb was pretty decent. The rear however had some crap around the needle/seat micro screen and in the bore so, they were long overdue for a deep clean. Just waiting for an O-ring for the choke plunger that split during disassembly and they'll go back in the bike for a test run! ;-)
Not straight Simple Green. 1 part SG, 3 parts hot water.
I've done carbs and calipers numerous times with this ratio and I've never had a problem. Not to say I won't ever, but so far so good.
Last edited by TheIglu; 04-14-20 at 02:04 PM.
2021 KTM Duke 890 R
2016 BMW S1000XR
1982 Honda CB750F Super Sport
Pretty sure Smutty had clean carbs for dinner last night..?
'02 Ducati 998, '08 Ducati HyperMotard 1100S, '14 Subaru XV Crosstrek
-Christian LRRS/CCS HasBeen ECK Racing
2011 Pit Bike Race CHAMPION!
Back in the day we used white vinegar to clean carbs. The acid of vinegar is pretty strong so you can't leave it the solution indefinitely as it will turn your carb to a loose collection of powder floating in the mix. But it worked miracles on old carbs that were gummed up and had blocked jets. I had a non running Honda scooter that I salvaged with a 6 hour soak. The thing fired right up after hitting it with air and blowing out the vinegar and reassembly of the bowl/float. It probably isn't good for carbs with neoprene tipped needles.
File it under for what it's worth.
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-Christian LRRS/CCS HasBeen ECK Racing
2011 Pit Bike Race CHAMPION!
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