Need some guidance on Carburetor removal

[krooozn]

I need to remove the carb from my 1994 CB250 Nighthawk.....I have sat out there and stared at this device for hours on end....with not a flipping clue on how to get the thing off the bike...! Was hoping that it would come to me in an epiphamy....but at this point in time....nothing.....so if someone could jump in here and give me some detailed instruction on how to go about removing the carb......I would really appreciate it. I am not a mechanically challenged female, just motorcycle stupid....

Thanx so much for any and all help......

Anita

[Brittles]

Do you have a service manual? If not it will come in handy.

I'm not familiar with your bike, but I would imagine the first thing would be to remove the seat and tank. Then remove the air filters, then remove the intake boots, then the carbs. This is general info. I assume you can figure out the common sense stuff

Welcome to the forum from a new member who is Nighthawkless.

John

[detdrbuzzard]

after what brittles said don't forget to remove the throttle and chock cables.  disconnect the overflow tube on the bottom of the carb

[RussellH]

Anita, any luck?

Looks like I'm going to have to take my carb apart and clean it. It's stumbling when I open the throttle and has no power. Sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn't.

[RussellH]

I just took the carbs off, took me about 35mins. Here's how I did it.

1. I first loosened the boots on the air-cleaner side, then pinched on the carb-end and pulled them out towards me.
2. I then loosened the clamps on the engine side (note I removed the clamps not the boots). Then carefully twisted and pulled them towards the air-cleaner to free them from the engine boots.
3. I then loosened the three cables, this took the longest, about 15 mins.
4. Finally I was able to wiggled them out of there

Goodluck

[krooozn]

Thanx RussellH for getting back to me on this.....I hate to ask...but could you possibly go into a little more detail on just how you go about removing the cables? I looked at the bike again last night and I just can't seem to understand how to get the throttle cables removed.....I really am not this dense, but motorcycles are new to me.....

Thanx again for your help....Anita

[RussellH]

Anita, it's my first bike too so we're in this together :)

I wish I had the patience to take the step-by-step pics. First you need to take the tank off if you haven't already. To do that you need to remove the seat and the side fairings first and then unbolt the tank - two bolts on the front on each side and one bolt under the seat to remove the tank - oh and disconnect the fuel line from the petcock.

Then you'll be able to see the linkage and cables better. Pull on the choke and throttle cable to see how the linkage moves. Follow my steps 1 and 2 above. Then for step 3 you'll see there's one choke cable and 2 throttle cables (accelerator and decelerator). I removed the choke cable first then I removed the carbs and turned them at an angle to get better access. It would help if you have a helper but I didn't. I then removed the accelerator cable by pulling the linkage up to create slack in the cable and wiggling out the ball end of it out of the hole. Repeat for the decelerator cable.

Reassembly:
I should warn though that putting it back together is much harder and I busted a few knuckles. So the best way I found was to hook up the choke cable first, then the accelerator cable then the decelerator cable. I did both the throttle cables from the right side with the top of the right carb still removed - this allowed more room to get in there. Took me about an hour or so.



Why are you removing the carbs BTW?

[krooozn]

I was told that I needed to remove the carb and soak it in some cleaner, as I think it is gumbed up.....I pulled the fuel line coming from the petcock to the carb and there was fuel in it so I can only assume that the gas is making it that far, but the only way I can get the bike to even try to start is by removing the air breather and spraying carb cleaner into the carb, it will fire off until that is all burnt up, then once again it goes right back to not wanting to start. My friend told me that the carb had probably gotten all gunked up from sitting for a couple years.....and would need to at least be soaked to try to free it up...and I may have to end up rebuilding it. Luckily I only have a single carb on my bike.....I also noticed that I can't move the choke cable....it appears that it is siezed up or something.....so with a lot of hesitation I decided that I would have no other option but to pull the carb off the bike.....and the acceleration/deceleration cables really threw me for a loop.....that little spinny wheel thing.......just don't know how to go about getting those cables out of there let alone back in!

So anyway....that in a nutshell is why I was wanting guidance on the removal of the carb.....if anyone can offer me other things to try before taking the carb off, well I would really appreciate it....I truly don't want to remove the darn thing...!

Also...is there any type of vent on the gas tank...I really haven't seen anything that I thought would be a vent....just curious.....

Thanx so much for taking the time to try and help me.....   

Anita 

(I just love all these little animated characters!)

[RussellH]

Check one thing at a time. Put the fuel hose from the petcock in a fuel safe can and turn the petcock on, if the fuel flows well the petcock's OK.

Second, there's a drain plug on the carb float bowl, loosen it and the fuel in the bowl will flow out. Next, reconnect the fuel hose and open the petcock as well as the drain on the carb bowl to ensure that the fuel's flowing through properly from the tank to the carb bowl. It's possible the float bowl is stuck closed. Tap on the float bowl gently with a small plastic hammer to tap it loose. If that doesn't unstick it you'll have to open it up and clean it well.

Also, it would help if you could post a couple of pics of your carb and engine. There're some differences and it would help to have a visual.

Check my other thread about carb removal I have a couple of pics and have labeled the various parts of the carbs, that may help.

[krooozn]

Thanx Russell for the good tips...I'll try to check those things tonight. I can't get any pictures right now because my camera is broke and all I have is my cell phone and I can't figure out how to get those pictures off the phone! When I pulled the fuel line yesterday there was a very minimal amount of gas in the line, so it may be possible that my petcock is partially clogged or something like that...I placed an in-line fuel filter on the bike and when I opened the petcock it barely trickled a little gas into the filter.....is there a screen or such as that in the petcock that could be clogged? I wish I knew more about bikes, but I am just learning and I have to say they are quite different than any car I have ever tinkered with!

I'll try your advice tonight and let you know if I have any luck with it......

Thanx again....Anita 

[coffee_brake]

This guy has some amazing help for the home mechanic:

http://www.dansmc.com/carbs.htm