Virago xv1100 Carb Disassembly, Cleaning, and Rebuild Part 1 - Disassembly

[@BloodshotGrim]

Hell yeah man!! I see your doing videos on the bikes I just sent you in messager acouple day ago.🎉 thankyou again man. You Godfather of virago just like I told you man. 🎉🎉

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey man ! Yep, finally getting some editing time for the videos on the recent ‘96 1100 restore 👍. The videos are a bit long for the carb rebuilds, but figured some of the specific details might help some with these since they are a bit more complicated compared to the Hitachi’s. Thanks man and Al the best !

[@wesjames6060]

I use a very tightly balled up piece of course metal wool in a couple of those hoses to make a bit of a filter to stop that crud getting into the carb. 30k miles on it since and no problems

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey man ! Yep, that is a good idea 👍. Something to catch the big dust and stuff, but not so tight that it restricts the air flow and changes how the diaphragms lift.

[@Treibs]

All three parts of this tutorial were incredibly helpful. Best videos I have seen out there for the 1100 virago. Question for you, I was rushin a bit taking the slide body torx screws (anti-theft/anti-tamper) out and ended up snapping the head off one. Suggestions on where to find a replacement?

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks and glad the videos helped some on the carbs 👍. For the broken torx screw, I’m not sure if they have something similar, but I get all of my metric bolts and things from Belmetric.com as they have a really nice selection of different ones that sell. Other than them, it would be hard to find an OE replacement unless you could find a scrap set of carbs someone was selling. Thanks again and all the best ! Steve

[@petersawicki9772]

@@StevesDIYs Same here. Thanks for the fantastic videos. I have snapped both screws on the rear carb. I ended up having to drill a 2mm hole in the bit that was stick still in the carb and use the extraction tool to get it out. Heating the carb body with a little torch made it a lot easier. I used the torch on the front carb and the bolts came out OK. You have to keep heating it up while turning the screw as alluminium really quickly dissipates that heat. I removed the plastic body from the carb first to avoid affecting the plastic with the heat. I have also used F clamps to push it out of the carb - the rubber o-ring was stuck hard to the carb (Not sure if it was necessary to remove it after all. It may have been OK but I just wanted to rule out any reasons for the carb to be running rich. Lambda reading 73-78. Oh yes I have welded the Oxygen sensor bang to the exhaust and got the O2 analyzer to get things right - quite a project. Waiting for the rebuild kit to arrive from Japan in a week to put it all back together. As for the screws it is hard to find zinc plated steel but possible to get stainless in the M4 x 0.7mm x 12mm with the security torx. Bolt and nut Australia is where I got mine from: www.boltandnut.com.au/ www.boltandnut.com.au/m4-x-0-70p-coarse-stainless-a2-70-g304-button-post-torx-t20-machine-screws

[@russellburns9480]

i was thinking that some PB blaster or other penetrating fluid to loosen the screws. Let it soak over night.

[@StevesDIYs]

👍. Yep, that would probably help I’d say as well. I’m always impatient once I get going on cleaning them so I’d have a hard time waiting…thus using the option to whack them with the impact driver, lol !

[@russellburns9480]

@@StevesDIYs I understand completely

[@bdr4212]

I am inspecting the carbs from a friends 1999 Virago 1100. I cannot get the needle out with the floats, nor after I remove the floats. Any suggestions?

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey ! Yep sometimes the float needles get stuck in there from old gas. Since I replace the float needles with new ones on a carb refresh, I have a small pair of needle nose with very slender tips that I grab the sides of the needle where it’s square and twist it a little back and forth after spraying some carb cleaner on it.

[@GarysnewYT]

Hi there Steve, Just out of concern for your health, when I noticed gas-fuel get on your hands that you’re not wearing any rubber gloves to protect yourself from kidney damage over time.

[@StevesDIYs]

Thanks man 👍. Yep, long term exposure to fuel and cleaners can be tough on the body for sure so good rubber gloves are important. I’ll almost always wear them when dealing with chemicals for long periods of time…I was actually not expecting any fuel to be in those vent hoses so that was a surprise for sure.

[@MichaelLovelace-sy4ld]

I have a 95 Yamaha virago 1100 that needs this done Steve you interested

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey man ! I usually only work on my bikes as I don’t have a lot of spare carb parts available in case something needs replacing (like the diaphragms for example) or one of the hard to remove screws that hold the slide guides in twists off. There is a guy out on the Virago Facebook forums that rebuilds them though, I believe he is on the “Virago Nation - All things Yamaha Virago” forum if you wanted to make a post on there to get his name and info.