Evening Fella's ... this doesn't have anything to do with a Magna but I'm just hoping to bounce some ideas off of some of the most knowledgeable people out there when it comes to troubleshooting all things on two wheels ...
We picked up an 07 VLX a few weeks back as a step up from the Rebel my wife has been riding since late last Summer. The bike ran reasonably well when I looked at it and for the first two weeks we had it but then I started running into problems. I usually put a shot of Seafoam or other gas treatment in my bikes from time to time and since we just got this one I figured why not. The bike had only 1500 miles on it so it must have sat around for much of its relatively short lifetime (certainly from the point of view of our bikes). Anyway, we get ready to head out for a ride last weekend and the bike starts up normally but quickly starts stumbling and I soon notice that it's spewing gas from the carb vent tube. I figure that the Seafoam has probably loosened up some crud which is now propping open the float valve and making a mess on my garage floor so off comes the carb and let me tell you, it's soooo much easier to pop this single baby off of the bike than it is to deal with our quad carriage ... but I digress ... I find the internals of this little guy to be among the worst I've ever seen. There was green slime and green sediment in the float bowl and a distinct green cast to the metal even after I had sprayed the heck out of it with carb cleaner. I did my best to clean her up (or so I thought), ordered a new float bowl gasket and float valve and got everything back together this morning. At first, she ran like new ... no more stumbling, no more dripping gasoline on my garage floor. I took her out for a little 20 mile ride and again, she runs perfectly, right up until I pull back onto my driveway, at which point, she starts spewing gasoline again. I drain some gas from the float bowl and again find green sediment on the bottom of the can. Great, just great. I figure that there's still gunk up inside the carb or in the fuel lines feeding the carb. I drain the tank and pull the petcock only to find a lovely shade of green on that too. The petcock screen actually came apart as I tried to pull it out of the tank.
So that leads me to where I am right now ... the carb is now completely apart on my workbench. Tomorrow I will head off to the auto parts store for a gallon of carb cleaner to soak the carb body and other hard parts in. I know my local motorcycle shop offers ultrasonic cleaning (at a cost of $70/carb) ... is that something I should look into or will soaking it overnight in cleaner accomplish the same thing? What about boiling it (anyone ever try that)? I plan to replace all of the fuel lines as well as the petcock screen & o-ring but I'm not quite sure how to address what might be sitting on the bottom of the tank. From the top, the metal looks great but I'm willing to bet there's some more green slime living on the lower half of the tank that I can't see. What are my options for cleaning this stuff out? Should I run the same carb cleaner through the tank ... pour some in the top with the bottom stoppered, swish around, drain and repeat? Is there a better way to address this?
As always, I appreciate any and all comments and opinions.
More then likely the bike was stored with the old style gas which was MBTE. So not to hurt your feelings your going to have to remove the fuel tank and get it cleaned out. Ethanol is a cleaner and has vast effects when it is mixed with the old gas. While you have the tank off change out the fuel lines also to Ethanol freindly hose.
The tank's already off so that's not a problem. Also new lines are a definite. I was really just not sure about what to use to clean the tank out properly but running fresh E10 gasoline through it might do the trick.
Quote from: LIMagna on August 21, 2011, 06:54:55 AM
The tank's already off so that's not a problem. Also new lines are a definite. I was really just not sure about what to use to clean the tank out properly but running fresh E10 gasoline through it might do the trick.
Most carb cleaning solution is Lacquer thinner, so you could try to clean the tank out with that (Not sure what it might do to the paint though..
Seems like your last carb clean up went fine, but got contaminated from Upstream issues.. So I think you are good on going without the ultrasonic cleaning. U/S would be best, but $70 seems a little steep to just place the carb in a container and turn on the switch..
Like it was said.. I'd do whatever I could to the tank, replace the petcock screen, fuel hoses, AND I'd check to see if there is a vacuum shut off valve.. IF so, it might be worth just cracking that open and see how that is looking internally..
I hope this fixes your issue..
I had a friend with a CB1000c that spit gas out the bottom while running and we never could figure out what the issue was.. That bike is gone now..
As a side note, my wife rode a VLX for about 7 months.. Nice beginner bike (although a little small for my 6' wife)..
Only down side to the bike is the 4 speed gearbox.. What were they thinking?? Otherwise, not a bad bike..
I think I have an airbox cover for the VLX IF you ever need one..
Thanks for the comments and offer Hoot! The vacuum petcock is also already off the bike and the components/diaphragm look good other than for a spec or two of green gunk which I'll clean off by hand. The hard metal hose routing part will end up in the carb bath but it doesn't look too bad. I may try carefully pouring some of the carb cleaner into the tank (keeping it off of the exterior painted surface) and then just swish it around a bit and drain out the bottom. That will hopefully take off whatever may have accumulated on the very bottom of the tank.
One other question ... should I toss the petcock into the carb bath or are there some rubber internals that might get mucked up? It's a sealed unit and I'm just not sure how they block off fuel flow inside the valve.
Take the empty tank to the high pressure car wash with the petcock off, stick the wand in the tank and wash until all debris is gone until clear water runs out. Once back home pour alcohol in the tank, swish and empty. Sit the tank on an area and point a fan towards the neck to dry the inside or a hair dryer inside on the cool setting. Set the tank on towels as to not scratch up the tank bottom from the ground when at the car wash.
If you still have debris on the inside you can drop some nuts, bolts, whatever you have and shake to break up the crude and wash again. depending on your tank, any lips mainly around the openings, BB's or the like can be hard to remove.
You will not have to worry about your paint with the process above and a little care.
If not putting the tank directly back on the bike and filling with gas after this, coat the inside of the tank with a oil and gas mixture.
Clean the petcock well, do this right the first time and make sure you have no gunk left to prevent performing this cleanup again.
I've got a pressure washer Terry ... would that be good enough?
Quote from: LIMagna on August 21, 2011, 08:04:11 AM
I've got a pressure washer Terry ... would that be good enough?
Yes sir, that should work fine.
Quote from: LIMagna on August 21, 2011, 08:04:11 AM
I've got a pressure washer Terry ... would that be good enough?
I have done a few tanks like this from vintage bikes mostly for the rust aspect though, should work well for what you need to remove.
I could use a flashlight and see parts of the bottom in some of my tanks, you may be able to do the same once off. This is trial and error so you may have to to a couple of methods.
I found a YouTube video detailing the removal of Green Slime. Hope it helps.
(http://www.guywheatley.com/photos/GreenSlime.jpg) (http://youtu.be/g79_ljVC5Wk)
I think it requires a hot red head in a tight silver suit.
:-D
Quote from: guywheatley on August 21, 2011, 11:01:52 AM
I found a YouTube video detailing the removal of Green Slime. Hope it helps.
(http://www.guywheatley.com/photos/GreenSlime.jpg) (http://youtu.be/g79_ljVC5Wk)
I think it requires a hot red head in a tight silver suit.
:-D
It helped me!!!
ME TOO :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Not quite the slime I'm after but very funny :)
If you cant get it the tank clean, there is a tank restoration place in Hockley,TX that can steam clean and coat if not to far gone. If it is really bad, they'll restore it.
The tank is really not in bad shape ... there were just some gasoline "artifacts" in it. There's no rust inside at all that I can determine. While I value Terry's comments on using a pressure washer, I just couldn't bring myself to introduce water to the tank. I did wash it out pretty thoroughly (and repeatedly) with a gasoline/Seafoam mixture and even doing that, you can't get every last drop out of the tank (there's a little left swishing around in there), which is why I was reluctant to add water to it. If there is any leftover sediment (green crud ... and I don't believe there's much if any left in there), I don't think it will cause any trouble once the new petcock (and more importantly, the new screen) are in place. I did pour about half a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil into the tank when I was finished and sloshed it around to coat everything. I'll drain out any excess before mounting the tank although I don't believe any leftover oil will cause me any trouble.
I bathed all of the hard carb parts in some Berryman's for a few hours today and they came out looking practically brand new. After blowing everything clean with my compressor, I'm fairly confident there isn't any crud left anywhere inside the carburetor. Along with the new fuel lines and vacuum valve internals (oh, I bathed the part of that that routes fuel too), I can't see there being anyplace left upstream to cause the problems I've been going through.
Quote from: guywheatley on August 21, 2011, 11:01:52 AM
(http://www.guywheatley.com/photos/GreenSlime.jpg) (http://youtu.be/g79_ljVC5Wk)
I think it requires a hot red head in a tight silver suit.
:-D
As I was flying through my scroll, I had to do a reverse......and she does at that.
Just to close this thread out, I installed all of the replacement parts (fuel lines, petcock/screen, etc.) along with a DynoJet Jet kit yesterday and got her running again. Took her for a quick spin to the gas station to fill up the tank but didn't get to really shake things down until today when I put 40 miles on her. All seems to be in order now ... no more gas pouring out from the carb vent. There was another screen that was supposed to be installed on the fuel inlet to the carb but it was missing so I ordered that part as well. No doubt it would have prevented the carb from getting re-fouled the first time I cleaned her up, although it might have eventually clogged up with the crap that was sitting upstream. That hopefully won't be an issue moving forward. Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions.
Thanx for the update Charlie!