I have finally gotten around to working on the RYCA bike I picked up in the fall. To refresh memory, It did not run, was told that it had run previously. It really wasn't safely ridable due to some build issues so not sure how much actual road time was on it.

Anyway, some nasty stuff came out of gas tank, sort of greenish looking with a funny smell. Initial trouble shooting included flushing tank and new gas, it did not start. Obviously I confirmed fuel flow out of petcock and through hose to carb. It does have a Raptor on it so gas is gravity fed. That said after another attempt to start it failed, I opened bowl drain and nothing came out hence no fuel in bowl.

At that point I hit it up with some ether start and it did fire over, so spark and everything else appears ok. Back to carb, which I finally removed last week to investigate further. There was some junk in it, but nothing too bad. There is some what appears corrosion on one of the floats, but it is basically clean.

Ok so here I must admit I have little experience in working on carbs. But that said when I removed the bowl what I found was a sort of clip/spring on the floats which appear to hold them up in what is very close to what would be the closed position, see photo. A quick look in the service and parts manuals don't show this clip thing as a part on the carb so I am not sure what it is, but my thought was it might be a clip to hold/keep floats in place when carbs are shipped. Or it could just be a spring to limit the movement of the floats in operation. Curious if it should be there, and if this is what is holding the needle closed.

SoC wrote on 04/29/23 at 08:49:25:


clip should be there, it attaches the float valve to the floats.
if it holds it up, then the float valve is stuck
remove, clean or replace also remove valve seat, there's a little screen above it, clean/replace.

Carb needs a thorough cleaning.  The hole in the pilot jet is tiny, and no doubt clogged with junk.  If the float doesn't move - the green crap has glued it into place.

The jets and idle mixture screw are soft brass and easily damaged.  I would get the carb soaking before I try to remove any of the soft parts.  Take the slide out, remove the enrichment lever (choke), and soak the carb in Pinesol mixed with an equal part of hot water.  Let is soak for a day and then rinse with hot water...and blow dry.

One trick I have found for removing the pilot jet easily is to take a flat head punch that will just fit into the hole and rest on top of the pilot jet - then give it 2 or 3 hard taps with a hammer.  This loosens things up a bit and allows you to get the jet to turn without damaging the flat screwdriver slot.....make sure your screwdriver is proper sized and fits the jet well.

Once you have all the parts out give it another soaking and rinsing.  The pilot jet can often require you to poke a guitar string through the hole to get it open again.

So, float was seriously stuck and thinking to rebuild the entire carb. Looking online I see rebuild kits listed by a bunch of different sources at various prices anywhere from $15 to 43 dollars. Anyone have a recommendation of which to use?

I like your comments, Dave.  “Green crap” is the kind of technical language I like!    I’ve never thought of using Pinesol and hot water to soak/clean.  How did you get that idea?  Is there an active ingredient in Pinesol that makes it work?  With so many carb cleaning products out there (some rather expensive), I’m curious about Pinesol.

ThumperPaul wrote on 05/06/23 at 05:04:26:


Some senior motorcycle friends of mine recently told me about it....I have no idea why it works - but it works really well.

Good to know!  Thanks!

SoC, this old post will give you the info you are looking for.  I would stick with Genuine Suzuki parts.  Your current mixture screw looks OK to me; just needs a light cleaning.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1641171298

Good luck