Virago xv1100 Carb Disassembly, Cleaning, and Rebuild Part 3 - Reassembly

[@seniorrider9337]

Gotta say that this series was the most in-depth carb rebuild I have ever seen for Viragos. Very well done plus a lot of info and tips. Thanks, Steve.

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks man ! Yep, these have quite a bit of stuff to to take off to do a good cleaning and rebuild for sure so I figured I’d leave all of the details in on the videos. Probably it is too much detail for someone that has taken them apart before, but for folks just beginning to tackle the carbs, I figured seeing the tips and tricks might help some (especially with the slide guides as they are quite aggravating, lol.) Thanks again ! Steve

[@seniorrider9337]

@@StevesDIYs Thanks again for doing these great videos. Without videos like this, the home mechanic is left struggling to find good info on how to maintain these bikes, especially now a days when bike shops do not want to work on older bikes, AND the mechanics that knew how to work on carbs are rapidly retiring. When I removed and cleaned mine a couple of years ago due to the rear running extremely rich, I did not remove the slide guides. I brought a sonic cleaner and cleaned the carbs and parts that way. Then blowing out the passages and being careful with the adjustments. Again this year I had no issues after sitting over the winter. I believe it is important to make sure when storing the bike to make sure the tank is full of non-ethanol fuel with STA_BIL added. I use the marine grade STA_BIL due to Washington state being so humid. I also have started draining the fuel from the bowls and spraying WD-40 into the float bowls to keep things wet and lubricated. I would worry about the slide guides o-rings except that the bike runs great and gets consistently about 44-45 MPG. I am surprised that the rebuild kits do not have those o-rings in them. I will have to get those and put them in my spares bin.

[@StevesDIYs]

@@seniorrider9337 👍. Yep, unless someone takes the time to fire them up each week in the winter, the sta-bil stuff is the best way to go for sure. I too only use non-ethanol in mine as it doesn’t dry out the fuel lines and things so bad I’ve found.

[@boxer71c55]

Excellent vid series Steve! I love the paper sync test.

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks man and glad the videos help a bit 👍. Yep, these are some complicated carbs for sure compared to newer designs, but not bad to work on after taking them apart a time or two. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve

[@gefrinjim6803]

Thanks for these Steve. They gave me the confidence to tackle my carbs ! I followed step by step and all went well. I know now i can do it again. Thanks to your experience and patience to explain. Like most things, if you're shown then have a go yourself it's never as bad as you'd imagined😁. Best wishes from England.

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks and glad the videos helped some 👍. Yep, there’s a lot to these but if taken step by step they aren’t too bad. Hopefully it fired up and is hitting on two again for you 👍. All the best ! Steve

[@mestep511]

So you can rebuild a carb without an $800 ultrasonic cleaner and vapor blaster? Amazing. Thought I imagined my first 70 years. Great videos.

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey man ! Yep, the ultrasonic cleaners and things are really nice, but I’ve never found that I needed them…even for the nastiest carbs I’ve come across. I always just use that Chem Dip stuff (basically soaking the bottom of the carb and then the top, but not the rod for the butterflies as there are seals on the ends that add a bunch of work to replace if they get swollen and damaged by the Chem Dip). All the best ! Steve

[@kdsowen2882]

That bike sounds sweet . They are such great-machines, never really see them much under 2.5K down-here , with many asking around 5K Dave NZ

[@StevesDIYs]

👍. It does have a much different exhaust tone than others I’ve had…I think the exhaust is still full of acorns from where a squirrel used it for nut storage for many years at the guy’s house I got it from 🤣🤣. Each time I start it, more acorns blow out (they are all burnt and in little pieces now, lol), but the tone hasn’t changed much…hopefully it will continue to have that deeper sound once they are all cleaned out. The motor it’s self sounds amazingly good for a once non runner…the top ends are quiet and the transmission is also smooth. Definitely worth what I paid for it as the only real work to get it back on the road was having to weld up the rusted out tank…the rest was just things that would have been normal maintenance stuff anyway. I’m hoping I can get a couple of the other Viragos I got along with this one running as well. I just finished the rebuild on the Suzuki Intruder VS1400 that I got from the guy as well…that one took a bit of work, but finally fired up and dialed in really good this week so it is a runner as well. Now it just needs a paint job and a new seat cover and it will be good to go as well. Not a Virago, but it was a fun restore non the less, lol.

[@dextervonbakata]

Excellent video. I must do my carbs for the nth time. This time i just feel i am finally going to heal her black rich mix sparkplugs and awful fuel consumption. Good tips!

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks ! Yep, there’s a lot going on with these carbs inside for sure…one of the most missed items are the orings that are on the slide guide nose…if those are allowing a bypass, it can really throw off the amount of fuel to the emulsion tube. I’m not sure why Yamaha made it so difficult to get the slide guides out (glued in screws and the special anti-tamper torx head)…maybe they didn’t think these bikes would last for so many years so they were more concerned with the screws rattling out, lol ! Hopefully you’ll get it this time 👍. All the best ! Steve

[@tl1635]

Alright you seem pretty knowledgeable on these... I'm trying to bench sync my carbs off my 1000 virago after rebuilding.. it seems there's a lot of slack in my linkage?. I turn the screw between them and I'm crushing the spring way further than I should to get the slack out to get the butterflys moving in sync.. Am I doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with the linkage? Could it be just wore out?

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey ! For the xv1000, I believe those are Hitachi carbs so yes, unlike the Mikunis (like in this video), those do develop a lot of movement in the linkage from the roller going up and down in the slide in the middle. If the roller has a lot of side to side movement it will cause the sync screw to have to be tightened more. The other thing to check is to be sure the link at the top of the carbs has them pulled tightly together and they are locked together by the little tabs each carb has. The good news is that Hitachi put the idle stop on the rear cylinder’s carb so once you get them lifting together right, you can tweak your idle sync by just adjusting the screw stop on that carb so they can be sync’d at idle with screw and then sync’d at higher throttle (like 2000 to 2500 rpms) by the center screw with the spring. If yours has the Mikunis like the 1100’s, then it will be difficult to sync them with a worn linkage since those typically didn’t wear very bad and there’s no idle sync stop on them. Hope this helps a bit and all the best ! Steve

[@tl1635]

@@StevesDIYs hey sorry. Iv referred to your videos on the 750 carb rebuild a few times when I was in doubt.. I clicked the wrong video when I commented about my issue haha.. anyways yes it's the side to side movement of the roller in the track I think is causing my problem. Almost looks like if I added a thin washer it would take the slop out. You ever try anything like that? The only other option I see is just tighten the adjustment and crush the hell out of the spring and call it good.. Didn't really want to do that because it's going to cause me or someone else problems next time.

[@StevesDIYs]

@@tl1635 hey again, I’ve never tried to take the roller and slide apart for loose ones I’ve had…I just tighten the screw till it syncs. I did have one that the linkage was soooo worn that the sprig was fully compressed when sync’d, but I eventually acquired a bad set of carbs with a better linkage and swapped everything out.

[@tl1635]

@@StevesDIYs thanks for the help. At least I know it's something that its kinda normal issue with these. This bike has been rode hard and put up wet. And been tinkered with by everyone and their brother.. I think Im the only one that has tried to do things the right way and make it half way reliable.. for the time being I can tighten it enough to get them synced. Thanks again.

[@StevesDIYs]

@@tl1635 thanks man and glad to have helped some 👍. Safe riding and all the best ! Steve

[@alexeykalmykov8722]

The best👍

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks man !

[@zizii26]

Greetings! What size o-rings did you use? 10mm x 1.5mm I can't push in! :(

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey ! I actually tried metric orings, but could not get them to push back in either. I ended up using orings from the imperial (US sizes) oring kit and found one that would stretch a bit to allow them to slide back in with some slight force (and petroleum jelly applied to them). Unfortunately, I can’t remember which size oring it was, but none of the metric sizes I had would fit. As long as the two orings seal up, any size that fits and gives a nice seal would be fine.

[@zizii26]

Thanks for answer! I will try different sizes!

[@iszuh4882]

Hey does anyone know what the plastic emulsion tube housing is called in the beginning of the video? And where to get those rubber O RING assortments?

[@StevesDIYs]

Hello, I believe it’s called the slide guide, but I have never been able to find a replacement other than taking one from a donor carb unfortunately. For the O-ring assortments, I picked those up at Harbor Freight 👍. All the best ! Steve

[@iszuh4882]

Dude thank you so much! Your vids are the best and most helpful

[@iszuh4882]

Hey do u think you’d be able to show a video on how the manifold boots are all connected I’ve got an issue trying to see where it’s all connected to on my bike I noticed my rear intake manifold boot has a little nipple at the top that is sealed off while the front has some tubing connected to it but is not connected to anything desperately need help thanks

[@StevesDIYs]

@iszuh4882 hello, there’s actually another video in the xv1100 playlist that shows how the small vacuum lines were originally attached if you still have the AIS system on. If the system has already been removed, the rear boot nipple fitting is probably capped off, but the front one still needs to go to the timing advance module that sits right on top of the two coil packs up front. For the original setup (with the AIS) the rear goes to the system and then the front one goes to a 4 way tee with one of them tee’ing off to the timing advance module. Here’s a link to the other video that might help some: Yamaha Virago xv1100 Carb Removal when they are being difficult kzbin.info/www/bejne/homtg56Do9qVrLM . All the best ! Steve

[@iszuh4882]

Hey thx so much for the information that helped a lot,Ok so I believe my bike no longer has the AIS system I see a 3 way tee on my front carb manifold boot but can’t seem to see where it actually connects to it’s quite a weird set up

[@adrianbozie]

hi steve, can i mail my gen 2, 1100 and have you set them up for me ill pay for the shipping,?

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey man ! They actually aren’t very hard to rebuild…just takes some patience and only a couple of non standard tools (like the anti-tamper torx bits for example). I’m really not setup to rebuild the carbs for folks as I don’t have a test motor setup to be able to test and adjust them after the rebuild to be sure they are fully functional. I did just finish my 1st Gen motor test rig and do have a spare running 2nd Gen motor I could make a test rig for, but it will probably be a couple of months before I finish it.

[@galupas]

The O ring size is 10 x 1.5 mm The size you gave is too tight

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks man 👍. Good to know the actual size as I only had the standard kits so I used one that fit the best out of it.

[@galupas]

@@StevesDIYs You're welcome Steve

[@adrianbozie]

carburetors