Cleaning carbs without toxic chemicals

[lostviking]

I bought an ultrasonic cleaner off Amazon, and I'm cleaning one of my WA-1 carbs. I'm using heated water with Dawn dish soap. I'll vary the time depending on needs. 20 mins cleaned just about everything, but I put it back in for another 15 mins.

 

I'll let you know, but I think this is a big win. The other plus, is that although I stripped the carb like I was doing it the old school way, you don't really have to with an ultrasonic cleaner. I use one at work for things we place in ultra-high vacuum, so I'm familiar with how clean it can get things.

 

 

[lostviking]

OK, not highly impressed. I have mixed feelings on this I guess. I don't think Dawn is good at getting stubborn items off the aluminum parts. Any of the whitish residue you see on a carb that was sitting, not a bit of help. All the steel and brass, not bad. Rust marks on steel, nothing, but both are otherwise spotless.

 

To be fair, the aluminum parts are pretty clean of normal grime also, but not as good as carb dip IMHO.

 

I'm going to take a bit more time to look at suggestions online. The ultrasonic cleaner is a good buy in my opinion, but the solution (soap and water) isn't up to taking care of an old carb. That was expecting too much, but it was cheap to give it a try. Now I'll look at something else to put the carb parts into that need more. The good thing is I only need to put the carb parts in a plastic container, fill that and let the rest of the tank just get filled with water. Minimizes the chemical use, and disposal. I do that to clean circuit boards at work using IPA.

 

One additional comment. Everything got sprayed off with B12 anyway, because I didn't turn on my compressor. If I had, I would just have used air. If it was steel, I hit it with WD40 after the B12 to stop rust from forming. This stuff is very grease/oil free, so that is necessary.

 

More to follow. If anyone else had done this and has a suggestion for something to clean the aluminum parts, please chime in.

[Los_Control]

While I do not feel I have enough space for one in my little garage to justify how little "I" would use one.

 

I often watch one youtuber that does a lot of carburetors and has the space so naturally has one.

Couple years ago he made a few different videos and would talk about the different solutions he would try in the ultrasonic cleaner .... in the end he went with Berrymans carb cleaner. Nothing he tried really did a good enough job on the carburetors.

 

Later on he bought the larger sized cleaner for carbs and he uses the smaller one with some sort of soap for non automotive cleaning .... jewelry and such.

 

Making youtube videos, seems like every week he is going through a different project and all of them need the carb cleaned .... so he uses it a lot.

You might find something that works to your satisfaction that is less toxic .... let us know.

[lostviking]

I've spent some time looking at ways to clean the probably zinc oxide. There were chemical solutions given, but all had warnings about etching the carb bodies, and that's a problem for me.

 

What I decided to do is go back to how I would have solved this in the early 80's, when I was in the Navy...soda blaster. I spent about $44 including tax to buy an airbrush that is specifically for etching, not just spraying paint. It's pretty small, so I will be able to get into all the tight spaces...oh, that cost included buying 2.5lbs of soda. Didn't want to use up the wife's kitchen supplies and get yelled at

 

This is I suspect the very best way. There are ways to do a home zinc chromate coating to protect the metal also. I'm thinking about doing more carbs, which is why I'm investing more than is reasonable for the two carbs. I see lots of carbs that have been reman'd selling for $300 or more...and I can buy the raw ones for $100 or less. Even bushing are just $5 or so. I may get into this service. I think I can make a few bucks and help some people out. The WA-1's I have, I've got about $120-$150 into. that includes the rebuilt kits. A bit of labor and they are selling for what I mentioned above. Pretty good return I think

[lostviking]

Anyone interested in restoring a carb? You should watch this video:

 He built a expensive system...you don't need to in order to get good results. I think he is over selling a bit. I found another video on just the zinc plating and they guy only used kitchen supplies. His looked just as good for the plating part.

[lostviking]

OK, back at it today...I bought this airbrush that is specifically supposed to be used as a media blaster: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KNAH06?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details.

 

Orifice is too small to use baking soda, so I question the usefulness. It clogs immediately. Removing the orifice from the nozzle and it doesn't have enough velocity to clean and just pours the soda out. I'm going to take the orifice to work and drill it out some. Maybe.

 

In the mean time, I've bought some Zep citris cleaner. I've fill the ultra sonic cleaner 1:1, which is for medium crud, and I'm heating it to 50C right now. I'll give it 30 minutes and then rinse. We'll see how that works. People swear by the Zep online, so I'm hoping. This is the clean carb, so there isn't much to remove.

 

I'll let you know.

Edited March 3 by lostviking

[lostviking]

15 minutes to go, and the Zep is getting pretty dirty looking. Seems to be taking crub off.

[lostviking]

OK, that was pretty impressive for a household cleaner. I mixed it 1:1 with water and heated it to 50C. I'd say most if not all of the crud is gone. I'm not reassembling the carb today, because I still want to soda blast some zinc oxide on a few surfaces. I hope "fixing" the orifice allows me to use the soda blaster. If not, I've got some small brushes for my Dremel. I will just need to keep the speed very low to void any damage.

 

Not a bad day.

[John-T-53]

Any pics?

[John-T-53]

On 2/25/2024 at 1:12 PM, lostviking said:

Anyone interested in restoring a carb? You should watch this video:

 He built a expensive system...you don't need to in order to get good results. I think he is over selling a bit. I found another video on just the zinc plating and they guy only used kitchen supplies. His looked just as good for the plating part.

 

 

Interesting that he's plating aluminum with zinc just to get the chromate finish. Looks good! If the carb is cast zinc then no need to plate, just clean and dip in the chromate solution and go.

 

He should use gloves while handling the bare part, he's contaminating it by holding it right before it goes into the plating bath!

 

He's also missing the tank heaters which heat the solution to the optimum temp for plating (varies by metal).

 

For determining the correct amps, there's a calculation based on the metal type and surface area. 

 

Also he doesn't show it but there's a solution for making a cleaning bath that comes with this kit, that also requires heat. 

[lostviking]

Well, I doubt it's aluminum, when most carbs are zinc, and to get a nice chromate finish, you need fresh zinc. Any stains in the surface would damage the finish. Not every YouTube video is showing you all the information needed.

 

I had oral surgery last week to repair bone damage in my jaw from a failed "fake tooth" the Navy put in...40 years ago. So I'm not been making any real progress while I get back to sort of normal. 3 months for the bone graft to heal, then drill and screw in a stud, 3 more months, then the final "tooth". Gonna be a long summer.

 

I'll see about getting some pictures. I'm trying to hook my real air compressor up to the soda blaster because a little tire inflator can't keep up. I think that's why the thing kept clogging. The orifice is ceramic, so no drilling it out. Tomorrow.

[Eneto-55]

One thing I noticed right away is that he (the guy in the video with the fancy system) is using only a single anode.  I haven't watched the entire thing yet, so maybe he periodically rotates the carburetor part, but the current connects with the closest area to the anode, so that is where the most metal is deposited.  In the cadmium (and other metals for that matter) we plated back in Tulsa (United Plating Works), there were always anodes all along both sides of the tanks.  Then we also worked with a smaller anode (connected with a cable) so that we could hold it inside internal areas of the piece being plated.  One time I got pretty sick from cyanide gas, because I spent most of a day standing beside the cadmium tank, moving the clamps on some piano hinges that had no holes in them at all, so no place to hang them from.  I had to change the position of the clamps about every 45 seconds.

 

And then the other thing, that someone has already mentioned, is that you should never touch the part before starting plating, or at any time during the process.  (When I was doing that job with the piano hinges, I had an extra clamp, and would lift one end of the hinge - they were about 5' long, as I recall - at a time, and put the extra clamp onto the part, take off the one near it, then repeat the process at the other end. 

 

I think if I were going to set up a plating operation, I would strongly consider doing hot tin.  It isn't a bright color, but it is "food quality" plating.  Oh, and if you are working with aluminum, you can anodize that w/o any prior plating, just get it chemically clean.  We DID glass bead blast all used parts that came in for reconditioning, but everything still went through the correct acid before plating - nothing ever went straight from the blasting cabinet into the plating tank.  (I do wish I had made notes about various things back then, but when you are young you do not realize that you will forget so much.)

Edited March 10 by Eneto-55

[lostviking]

Was able to hook the little "air brushing" wand up to my main compressor today. I hoped with full air pressure, and even a bit too high, it would work. It did not. Even using the supplied media it didn't take off most of the zinc oxide deposits. Those are very small on the piece I tried, but I'm going to have to use small brushes to clean the surfaces.

 

It was so cheap, I'm not returning the air brush. I'll use it to touch-up the paint on the truck so I don't have to mix a bunch of paint and toss it. Easier to clean up also. I guess that makes it not a total waste of money. I wish I could have the soda blaster I used in the corrosion control shop when I was in the Navy. IT removed crap like this. Oh well, manual it is then I'll finish the first carb.

 

I'll get some before and after pictures of the second one so you can see how well the ultra sonic/Zep works.

[Old CWO]

There is a youtuber guy that runs straight Pine sol in his ultrasonic.  The parts that come out of it look like they were hot tanked.

[Ivan_B]

I don't know, for the once-in-a-while DIY stuff, I usually get good results with the simple carb cleaner spray and a tooth brush. If the carb is very dirty, it might also help to clean it with the regular engine de-greaser first, to remove some major dirt and save some of the more expensive carb spray. If you are bothered with the smell, wear a gas mask, you will not feel a thing The more expensive spray also seems to be very "light" so it completely evaporates after use (no liquid waste to dispose of).

[lostviking]

I put the first carb back together today. It was a very good idea NOT to take the second one apart, and have it as an example. Every YouTube video I found for Carter WA-1 carbs didn't look exactly the same as mine. Both of mine are identical, but the metering rod and accelerator pump linkage was different in the online videos. I have a copy of a 1939 Carter rebuild guide also, but it isn't very good, or detailed. I definitely stumbled and had to back up...more than once. But it's together and everything seems to move and such correctly. Comparing the two, everything is again the same.

 

I used the second as a guide to get some of the adjustments "close" I hope. We'll see once I put them on my truck and try to make them work. At least it's clean, and has all new gaskets. Some of the brass jets and needles in the kit were not used, because there was no visible wear on the old ones. I'll keep all that.

 

 

Edited March 16 by lostviking

[Ivan_B]

Next time you take something complicated apart, without a spare that is, take some pictures with your phone first 😜

[lostviking]

I actually took pictures with a digital camera. I used an older one, since my hands were dirty, but the auto-focus kind of sucked. I also have a very nice Nikon DSLR, so I took a bunch of pictures of the second one today. They have great focus, so I did think of that. Old eyes and a small screen didn't let me know the focus on the first disassembly pictures were so bad.

 

What I have are detail pictures of it assembled, showing everything I didn't have a clear shot of today. But I'll be going very slowly on the disassembly and stopping often to clean my hands, so I can use the good camera and look at the pictures. I'll be using two light sources also to make sure there aren't any shadows hiding details I need. Then I'm going to expand on the Carter rebuild guide, with nicer pictures and better detailed instructions. I write assembly instructions as a part of my day job, so I'll have a pretty good one when I'm finished. I'll convert it to PDF and share it in case it will help anyone.

 

Here is an example, although I didn't use the two lights for this one, just the camera flash.

Edited March 17 by lostviking

[lostviking]

I took the second carb apart today, and took another 40 or so hi-res pictures. This one was the dirty one, but inside it was in great shape. Not a bit of corrosion, so it's a good rebuild core. The bowl area in the first one had zinc oxide in places, especially the accel bore.

 

The only defect is the throttle shaft has nearly .010 of play, so it's going to need to be bushed. I may take the bottom off the first carb and use it on this one. That way I'd have one nearly perfect one. We'll see.

 

 

[lostviking]

Another thing I might do is use electrolytic rust removal on the rusty the steel linkage parts. I've got everything I need, just need to set it up in a little pint container. Or I might just take them to work and media blast them in our machine shop.

Edited March 23 by lostviking

[Ivan_B]

That's a very dirty carb... Don't let them get this way, anymore

So, you are still taking pictures even though you just did one just like it? 😂

[lostviking]

Of course. I did say I was going to write up a detailed guide. That takes good pictures. Maybe read the post before you start laughing next time. No, I don't need them today, but who knows when I'll need them in the future. 65 year old brain cells don't get better with time I've heard.

Edited March 24 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Same part as above, after 40 mins in the ultrasonic cleaner. It's amazing how the surface stains show up in the picture. In real life it looks a lot better.

 

 

 

Edited March 25 by lostviking

[John-T-53]

Wow, now that's clean. Good work!

[lostviking]

I took the throttle shaft out today and measured. Yep, about .010 clearance. .001 is about what it should be, so definitely need to bush this one. While it was just iron, I popped it into a plastic container of water/washing soda and I'm removing all the rust with electrolysis. Same technique I used to restore the rusty heater I bought awhile back. It will be spotless.

 

Probably take the bottom off the first carb and do it also, just not today.