A Big Thank You

capehorner · Apr 9, 2013

To all you guys and girls I would like to say thank you for all your help (and kidding) . I am new to the Norton Commando and am learning as I go. You have helped me thru the winter and now I can say the bike is ready for the Wyoming rally. A special shout out to Rob Snow, here in Missoula, Montana. He is the English Bike guru. The last thing I did today was tear down the Mikuni and found it plugged solid with a very light green like paste in the tubes. After a day of acetone all is good but does anyone know what this build up is...starting fluid, bad gas,?? I just want to avoid this problem in the future. Again Thank you all and hope to meet some of you in Wyoming this summer.

comnoz · Apr 9, 2013

The green sludge is from alcohol fuel and water reacting with the aluminum in the carb. To avoid it you would want to drain the carb and probably the tank when you park the bike for an extended period. Jim

capehorner · Apr 9, 2013

Thanks Comnoz really appreciate that.

Dances with Shrapnel · Apr 9, 2013

No doubt moisture but aluminum? Green? I would say water reacting with some of the brass bits in the carb.....but I have been wrong before.

Hobot · Apr 9, 2013

Old rubber o rings can leach a greenness into fuel. Algae need water so maybe some 2 stroke oil added to store and preserve but goofed with boozed gasoline? Aluminum is about impervious to ethanol, so rise in those tanks sold but ethanol my reaction with some its alloy additives. Zinic oxide that blocks jets is a white-ish color that other things add stain to.

acotrel · Apr 9, 2013

I use methanol in my Seeley. After I've used it I always remove the jet caps from the bottom of the carbs, and put them on theshelf,so no fuel is left to take up water, and cause the white zinc oxide to form and block up the jets. Years ago I neglected to do this, and locked up a T250 Suzuki two stroke when it was on full noise.

comnoz · Apr 9, 2013

Dances with Shrapnel said:
No doubt moisture but aluminum? Green? I would say water reacting with some of the brass bits in the carb.....but I have been wrong before.

I don't recall the exact chemical reaction and I can no longer find the link to the chemist who had explained it. As I recall it just took old alcohol fuel -water -and aluminum to make the green jell. It is a bit different from the white corrosion normally seen although if you have white corrosion the green jell will turn the white corrosion green. Jim

xbacksideslider · Apr 9, 2013

Whatever it is, we all ought to be really pissed at the farm/green lobbies for foisting this junk gas upon us. It is costing millions and millions in repair costs and downtime and wrecked or junked machinery. Everything from boats to weedwackers is affected. The darned politicians are the true source, because they are the ones who are supposed to refuse the "contributions" in the first place; they are supposed to say "no" to a really bad idea.

I use a turkey baster to suck all the gas I can out of my lawn mower and then I run it dry - how much smog is that creating?

I do the same with the weed wacker and with my motorcycles and outboards. Inevitably, I spill some gas when I do it; how much does that evaporative emmision, multiplied by tens of thousands forced to follow similar rituals, add to pollution?

Unintended consequences.

Old Bloke · Apr 10, 2013

Let me tell you American chaps, that our uk government is worse than yours. They manage to look at all the negative reports in the USA about, for example ethanol and fuel, and still go right on and impose it on us here in the UK, oh and of course the EU tells us what to do also. Fracking for shale gas is the latest shafting we are getting in the UK, listen to all the reports, look at all the EU countries that have banned it and then hand out tax incentives to companies wanting to drill in the UK. All the common man here seems to be getting from it is fecking earthquakes when they started fracking!

davecox2 · Apr 10, 2013

I would agree on the "thank you"! I haven't been very active on the forum, but searching here has got me to the point that my rusty old '74 basket case has actually started. Kudos to the whole community here!!

ILLF8ED · Jun 18, 2013

xbacksideslider said:
Whatever it is, we all ought to be really pissed at the farm/green lobbies for foisting this junk gas upon us. It is costing millions and millions in repair costs and downtime and wrecked or junked machinery. Everything from boats to weedwackers is affected. The darned politicians are the true source, because they are the ones who are supposed to refuse the "contributions" in the first place; they are supposed to say "no" to a really bad idea.

I use a turkey baster to suck all the gas I can out of my lawn mower and then I run it dry - how much smog is that creating?

I do the same with the weed wacker and with my motorcycles and outboards. Inevitably, I spill some gas when I do it; how much does that evaporative emmision, multiplied by tens of thousands forced to follow similar rituals, add to pollution?

Unintended consequences.

Yea, but thier reaction is to tell us stop driving internal combustion engines. Like that's an option in the current age.

A Big Thank You

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