Old School Carb Cleaning Methods

If you've watched my GL1000 Carb Rebuild Video, you know that I'm strongly opposed to total immersion chemical carb cleaning methods. The very harsh ingredients in these "buckets of doom" are bad for your carbs, your health and the environment. The lubricating/sealing felts used on the throttle and choke butterfly shafts on GL1000 carbs are particularly vulnerable to such abuse.

Heaven forbid you were to carelessly dunk your GL1100 carbs in one of these buckets. Your air-cutoff valves as well as the accelerator pump would quickly be history if they were left in place. Sadly, GL1100 air cut-off valves and accelerator pumps are frequently ruined by indiscriminate use of carb cleaners (even with no dunking) due to their vulnerable locations.

Here's an exception to my "no dunk" mandate. This method is advocated by old school mechanics like Howard Halasz and myself: 20 minutes in a slow-boiling pot of distilled water is an excellent cleaning method for vintage Honda carbs (don't use tap water...it's not as effective).

This procedure is safe for the carbs, so long as they are completely disassembled and you use a pot with a thick bottom. On early GoldWing carbs, leave the throttle and choke butterflies in place. They are very hard for amateurs to reassemble without introducing binding.

Notes:

If you decide to do this indoors, get "permission" from your wife before you begin. Otherwise, be prepared for some grief. There will be some residual smell no matter how well you ventilate.

GL1100 and CBX carb bodies being boiled clean!

Here's another method used by Howard and me to verify that the cleaning process had been thorough. An ordinary home dental water pick makes a very effective tool for verifying that all carb passages are clear. You should still blast all circuits with compressed air. This step just helps verify that you've successfully cleared all the passages as the pulsating water stream gives easy visual verification of clear fuel and air circuits.

For best results, use distilled water

Use a big tub as shown to avoid making a mess. Eye protection is advised.

Right photo shows dental water pick turned on to check accelerator pump jet on GL1100 carb body. Look closely at the red arrow and you can see the stream of water exiting the jet.

I find this method especially effective on GL1100 and CBX carbs to check the accelerator circuit outlet nozzles. It's hard to get a finger over these to check by air alone.

Together, the 2 methods above are about as effective as an expensive ultrasonic bath. Highly recommended!