Bandit 1200 Carburetor Cleaning Part 1 - Carburetor Removal

Bandit's warm-up problems continued to get worse. Crappy idle, bad mileage, cylinders cutting out. No amount of SeaFoam or StarTron seemed to help so I decided to pull the carbs and clean 'em out.

Required supplies are a can of Maxima contact cleaner and a can of Berryman's B12 Chemtool.

Allow a couple of hours to remove the carburetors from the bike.

Easy stuff: remove seat, tank, side panels. Remove the tank bracket behind the air box.

Remove air box bolts.

Adjust throttle cables for maximum slack at the right grip, the remove 3 screws from throttle housing and disconnect throttle cables at the grip.

Pull throttle position sensor connector at the right side of the carburetor.

Disconnect choke cable at the carburetor end.

Loosen air box clamps.

 Loosen clamps at the intake boots.

There is an overflow hose on each side of the carburetor that needs to be unclamped.

Remove vacuum hose from carburetor 4.

Loosen throttle cables at the carburetor end. Pull the air box back toward the rear of the bike, disengage it from the carburetor air intakes. Pull the carburetors toward the back of the bike, and down, to release them from the intake boots. This requires some force.

Put a rag over the engine to protect the paint, then pull the carbs out on the right side of the bike.

Be careful of the overflow hoses.

With the carbs halfway out, remove the front (push) and rear (pull) throttle cables.

The rear throttle cable can be difficult. Removing the fuel hose can help free space to remove it.

Finally remove the carburetors the rest of the way.

My Bandit's carburetors are covered in black grime--old gas and dirt.

Note: it is highly recommended to wear eye protection before using any type of aerosol spray cleaner!

I zapped the exterior with contact cleaner, trying not to get any in the round ports on either side. After using up an entire can it was cleaned up pretty well.

 Stay tuned for part II, cleaning jets and float bowls.