What does it cost to get carb clean and balance?

[bobbleheadbarne]

hello all how is it going, i want to take me sv650 to a garage to get me carbs cleaned and rebalanced as it seems to be running rough also need tappets doing how much do you think this will cost if any one lives near fareham or in portsmouth could you point me into the right direction to get this done

thanks folks

[sz1]

i had an i/l 4 carbs balanced cost £30.00 as for strip and clean if i was having em balanced would do it me self couple of days before.

[Dave20046]

On the assumption of an hourly rate I'd say you're looking at 1-2 hours for a carb strip & clean plus the balancing fee/time it takes to do that (under an hour?).
I think you ideally want carbs balancing after a service (or if it's been serviced very recently) if that's not the case I'd get them to clean/swap your airfilter while they're in the general area (or get it serviced too).

Edit: btw I'd strongly suggest you either ask them to diagnose the fault before work or make sure you're 100% you need the work you've specified doing. Because if that doesn't solve the problem it's unnecessary cost and you're then going to have to pay them to sort out the rough running on top of what you've told them to do.

[johnnyrod]

Cleaning the carbs is something you can do yourself, balancing isn't hard but you need good gauges. Don't get suckered by ultrasonic carb cleaning, it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut and is way too expensive. BTW balance the carbs last, you need to do the tappets, air filter, etc. first and also check the chokes aren't sticking (classic problem).

[Dave20046]

Cleaning the carbs is something you can do yourself,
I thought this but, if it's a first time, carb cheese bolts might destroy the will to ever work on a bike again :razz:

[5hort5]

Anyone got a carb balance gauge thing in the north west I can test mine with when it's back on the road?

[Dave20046]

Anyone got a carb balance gauge thing in the north west I can test mine with when it's back on the road?
My local garage does, would have thought he'd be able to do you a decent price. (if you have no luck)
There are guides on the net of how to make a hydro one, but was a bit too much farting around for me.