A bike that I recently bought had been sitting for a couple months, and it needs a carb cleaning/tune-up. I have heard of dealerships and shops raping riders on the carb-cleaning fee, so I'd like to do it myself. The problem is I'm not very knowledgeable mechanically, and have never worked on a bike before. The bike is an '88 FZR400, and the manual is a bit rough.

What is a reasonable price for a carb cleaning, if I choose to have someone else do it?

And if that price is way high, is it too complicated for me to attempt with a service manual?

 

Depends on how technical you are and what toold you have. I am not sure on the cost for a carb rebuild or cleaning.

 

Carbs are not that hard, take pics as you disassemble so if you forget anything you can reference your pics.

You also need to make sure you take out all the pilots, needles, springs, clips and clean everything. Spray cleaner in all the little holes and it should take about 6 large cans of cleaner. I buy the biggest and least expensive carb cleaner from the auto parts store.

If you're paying the stealership to do it I can see it costing 225-325 and you will never know how good of a job they do or more likely do not do.

 

What are the chances I can forget a part or put it on wrong? By that I mean, is it pretty straightforward, or somewhat complicated?

Also, what tools will I need. I don't want to be going in blind here

Big thanks btw to any and all posters.

 

lots of little peices - but not to hard if you are mechanicly inclined.. if you take disassembly pics then you can never go wrong.

 

I did mine just recently. Wasn't too bad at all. I only used 2 mondo-sized cans of gumout carb cleaner, but I also didn't remove the jets. Just sprayed down them with the cleaner. Took everything else apart though. The toughest thing to take apart for me was the float valve holder (not sure of the technical name for it, the thing the actual valve goes into). That was a bear to get out. But the rest was pretty straight forward. Not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be. It's definately prepared me for doing my jet kit over the winter. Most of the tools you'll need are pretty basic. For checking your float height though it would be nice to have a set of calipers. Just take your time. Label everything you take apart. ziplock baggies and a sharpie are very useful in this situation. I didn't take any pictures, but I can see how that could be helpful.

 

yeah carbs are like cake, easy to do long as you follow the two rules of carbs#1 get the service manual ,#2 Organization is next to sanity,we just switched suppliers were using Sea form depentrating cleaner the stuff is crazy its the best on the market right now, everyone reading this STOP run or ride, skip, hop to the store and get a case of it, But really carbs are super easy once you havea full understanding on how the system works off the Venturi effect, Clean ALL passage ways...... Cough*(even those covered with epa plugs that we dont know about) Cough*, yeah if you run into any problems Ie tech wise, refer back to rule 1, or www.kawasakiforums.com, only clean the carbs once, do it right and clean the first

 

Never pay someone else for a learning experience you choose to avoid. It's all nuts/bolts; patience and persistence.
You can do it.

 

As mentioned above, if you are only half mechanically inclined, then you can do it. But do it right the first time. You are talking about a baseline, where if you screw this foundation point up, your hours of frustration is because of not doing it right the first time. Get a manual, a parts fiche print out, (first time carb cleaner tools), place a towel on your bench and keep things organized. No big deal.