What tools and equipment do you need to clean the CX and GL carburetors?

Need to clean the carburetors on your Honda CX or GL V-twin? Here’s our list of what equipment you will need.

Location

This one isn’t really a tool, but it’s quite important – you’ll need a clear, well-lit and well-ventilated area to work in. Clear because searching for little carb bits and pieces underneath other random objects is tedious, well-lit so that you can actually see what you’re doing and well-ventilated because gasoline fumes are bad for you! As are carb cleaning fumes.

Containers/bags/etc.

You will want some sensible way of separating and labelling the parts; little plastic tubs with lids are good, or even ziplock bags. Mark them with something that won’t easily rub off like a permanent marker. Things may seem obvious when you’re disassembling them but if your process is interrupted for a long period of time it may well be unfamiliar by the time you return…

Cameras

Take photos, and lots of them. A current or recent phone camera is fine. Even before you start tearing the carbs down take a pic from each side and from the top and bottom in good light – even with good online guides you may have a set of carbs that has been made up from multiple other models so the photos you see online may not exactly match your set of carbs. You won’t know what you will need photos of beforehand, either – sometimes it’s as simple as "Which way around do I put the bar that goes inbetween the carbs??".

Flat-bladed screwdrivers

Slot measurements are.. I will measure them. Suffice to say you need at least two.

Spanner/sockets

To remove the emulsion tubes you’ll need a 7mm spanner or socket – a six-sided is best, followed by a 12-sided, followed by a spanner.

JIS drivers

You will want JIS cross-point drivers (eBay, eBay AU) in size #1 and #2 at a minimum, and #3 can come in handy too for separating the carbs. Don’t use Phillips drivers on these screws as there are no Phillips fasteners on a CX/GL and you’ll just strip out the fasteners. For more info on JIS bits see here and for one of our favoured brand reviews of JIS drivers see here.

Hooks/Picks

The humble hook and pick set (eBay US, eBay AU) can be very handy when working on the carbs – removing old O-rings and hooking/un-hooking the choke spring are two jobs that come to mind, and a straight pick (sometimes with a very slight curve in the tip) can be useful for retrieving an old, stuck mixture screw O-ring.

Aerosol carb cleaner

Even with a fancy ultrasonic cleaner on-hand aerosol carb cleaner is an extremely handy thing to have. Get some that has a plastic nozzle – if you sand down the nozzle tip slightly so it comes to more of a point it ought to fit inside the openings of the carb passageways neatly and allow you to direct a decent amount of pressurised cleaner down said passageways. Very handy. If you lack access to an ultrasonic cleaner and don’t want to soak the carbs but want to try cleaning them anyway some aerosol cleaner combined with compressed air is probably your best bet.

Compressed air

Air from a compressor is a big part of cleaning these – high pressure air (125-145psi) can be effective at clearing out some of the obstructions on it’s own before you add any other cleaning products into the mix. Also, you don’t really want the water that you’ll use to clear out the chemicals sitting in the passageways and compressed air is a great way of ensuring that they’re clear after cleaning.

It doesn’t need to be an expensive or large compressor – if you have a low-horsepower 110v/240v compressor with a small tank you’ll just have to use the air in short bursts and wait for the tank to re-pressurise. You can often get cheap compressors economically when they go on-sale at the big auto parts stores.

Ultrasonic cleaner and cleaning fluid

This is the bee’s knees for getting Honda CX/GL carbs cleaned. These devices are extremely effective at loosening deposits in the tiny internal passageways in the carbs – and without much effort on your part!

When buying one of these make sure that it’s bit enough to submerge at least one of the two carb bodies. Be careful when looking at capacities only – a 2L tub could be very shallow and long, which might be good for jewelry but not much help with the more square carb bodies!

Ultrasonic cleaners can be picked up reasonably inexpensively on eBay US, eBay AU.

Be mindful that just like with air compressors there’s usually a duty cycle with these – if there isn’t one listed it’s often an idea to check with the seller. Some, for example, are only supposed to be used for 20 minutes out of every hour or else you’ll burn out the cleaner. I have managed to blow one up fairly early on in the piece by ignoring the duty cycle so it is definitely a thing that happens…

Also, if you’re using detergent or another cleaning product in the ultrasonic cleaner you won’t want to leave the carbs in overnight or the carb bodies will discolour inside and out. The cleaning is more effective with a cleaning agent in the water – Simple Green is effective, but I would not use it at high concentrations – a very small amount is enough to be effective even in a large (15L or above) cleaner!

I’m going to try something like this product to see whether it’s as effective at cleaning as Simple Green without the risk of discolouration.

CLR or phosphoric acid

Calcium, lime and rust removal. Excellent for cleaning up deposits on brass components. Phosphoric acid works too – you may have this on-hand as a rust removal/conversion product, or you can buy it cheaper from a pool supply store. Very useful for removing rust from the insides of fuel tanks too, incidentally…

Hemostats

I have a medical background from way back when and always kept a few of these around as being darn handy, and I’m not the only one (Hi Larry!). They’re handy for holding little things in place and picking up small parts. Definitely not compulsory but a nice-to-have.

Straight Edges

Sandpaper

This is handy on a flat surface for re-surfac
ing warped components like the banana plugs. Does not need to be coarse grit as everything on the carbs is pretty soft.

Vernier calipers

For float settings

Steel wool

Handy for cleaning up the brass components, such as the emulsion tubes and the needle valve seat.

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