Carb Cleaning With Vinegar

[brewsky]

Had to clean up an old petcock from a Suzuki TC100 which was clogged up bad and didn't want to screw up the plastic strainer, so I decided to try vinegar and see what happened.
Threw in the carb also since I had it apart anyway and heres what happened:
I mixed white vinegar and hot water 1/2 and 1/2 and let it soak for an hour or so. Then brushed with an old toothbrush:
It leaves a thin oily film on brass which is easily wiped off. The large brass idle adjustment holder shown to the right had a crusty coating which carb cleaner would not remove, but the vinegar took it right off.
I always seem to squirt carb cleaner in my face when cleaning the passages, but this way I could squirt water from the kitchen sink through them and not worry about losing my eyesight!

[e3steve]

Good call, Brew! I use cheap white wine vinegar, neat, on my tap (faucet) filter/aerators once a month; I soak them all at once, overnight, to remove the calcium. It doesn't touch the chrome at all.

Thanks for sharing the experience.

[brewsky]

No problem!
It was just an experiment and I really was suprised.
I get paranoid about the old plastic slide guides that are pressed into some of the old carb bodies disentegrating from carb cleaner.

[gnuse]

You should see what a 24 hour soak in PineSol does! It restores the finish of the body and brass and cleans.

[sjptak]

HMMPH. I shoulda thought of that! My wife is on a green Earth kick and she uses vinegar for cleaning just about everything. She used it in the shower on her hair one night. It was like trying to go to sleep next to a salad. :(

I've had some pretty good success cleaning up the passages by taking different thicknesses of bare copper wire (short pieces with tape on one end), chucking it in my cordless drill and playing roto router followed by a few bursts of air. Of course, never having taken apart my Dream carb, maybe it wouldn't do any good, but the theory seems logical....

Stan

[brewsky]

Decided to try the Pine Sol method also to see which was better.
After reading several posts on other forums about the results of Pine Sol, I was expecting a miracle.
Newer carbs must be made of a different alloy, as the pics on other forums showed shiny metal, but they were obviously from newer model bikes.
Here's the result of 50/50 Pine Sol and Water solution after soaking for 3 days:
(Also one showing my method of flushing the passages,...wife threw me out of the kitchen sink)

[G-Man]

Thanks for that brewsky.

For a 'foreigner' can you tell me what Pine Sol actually is? I have used vinegar with salt dissolved in it (cannot remember where I learned that) to clean up old carb jets but never tried neat vinegar. Will have to try that!

G