Cleaning Mikuni Carbs

[Mustang]

Cleaning the Mikunis for Steamers
1. remove from bike (unhook the throttle cable at the twist grip it's easier)

2. you need to unscrew the float bowl screws and remove float bowls . keep 3 separate piles of parts  1 pile for each carb use the float bowl to hold the bits

3. now pull the float assembly off . unless you have a bad fuel needle , you won't have to mess with anything here

4. unscrew the main jet and pilot jet

5 assuming your tamper proof plugs are removed already(and if they are not and bike has been running fine previously just leave em alone) screw the pilot needles in until they lightly seat count the turns , write it down for each carb
now unscrew them and make sure you get the spring ,oring and flat washer out with them , don't lose the little goodies they are important.

6.now unsrew the screws holding each top on and gently remove the tops they have fragile rubber diaphrams under them that are attached to the slides, don't stretch them or tear them
leave the needles right alone as we are cleaning not rejetting
make sure you get the rubber oring under the vacuum port

7. now you should have all the basic bits removed and no more rubber bits left on the carbs you can take out the choke assembly's if you want but i usually leave them in

8 . get a can of gumout carb cleaner in the spray can and liberally hose down all three carbs
wash away all the crud on the outside of the bodys  and shoot some up in the pilot needle holes and pilot jet holes

9. use compressed air to blow everything dry and shoot air into all the little holes you can find

10. reassemble in the reverse order except clean the pilot and mains with the carb cleaner and hold them up to a light to make sure you can see light thru the little hole in them

11. when you put the pilot screws back in make sure you put the spring on the pilot screw first followed by the flat washer and then the oring , this is important . the diagram below shows the assembly order wrong .
the washer is to keep the spring from damaging the oring
screw the pilot in to either what they were set at     (lightly seat them and then back them out the # of turns you wrote down for each carb ) or set them at 2 turns works really well

12 when putting the float assemblys back in put a couple drops of oil on the orings it helps to seat the assemblys without damaging the orings

13. put the float bowls back on

14. reinstall the slides and diaphrams making sure the needle drops into the main jet tube and that the diaphram is seated in the groove don't  tear or stretch it  also make sure to put the oring back in place for the vacuum port.

15 . screw the top back on

16. if you didn't touch any of the screws on the linkage you won't have to re sync them  but it wouldn't hurt to check the sync with a carb stick or Morgan Carbtune  after you have them back on and bike running

17 before you put them back on bike take out the little cone filter that is inside the mouth of the fuel pipe where the feed line attaches clean it and put it back in place

if you were successful and did indeed have plugged plots it should start and be happy on idle and have fairly decent throttle response

heres a carb diagram from bike bandit