I’ve had my Hartford HD200S for about 7 years, and I have around 52,000kms on it now. It didn’t pass the environmental inspection, so something needs to be done about the carburetor. Should I just fix the old, factory one, or should I get a different one? If I do get a new carburetor, what are my options? Can I expect better fuel economy or smoother performance from a different brand? Any suggestions or experiences?
If your old carb had no problems then why get a new one? Any mechanic can adjust your carb so it will pass environmental inspection. Carbs do wear out, but if you get a performance carb or go bigger then it won’t give you better fuel efficiency but will give you a little more power. If you bike really needs a new carb and your bike is stock then just get the original one.
It can’t pass the environmental inspection anymore, that’s why I’m looking at my options.
Right now it’s the stock carburetor, but I’m wondering if I can get something better. I’ve never felt the throttle was smooth, so I’m wondering if this may be an opportunity to improve that. Also, can I get a carburetor that can improve upon the fuel economy without sacrificing my already meager power? I know that stock parts are seldom the best options, so I’m looking for some suggestions here.
[quote=“SlowRain”]It can’t pass the environmental inspection anymore, that’s why I’m looking at my options.
.[/quote]
Why can’t you pass the environmental inspection? You can 100% have someone adjust your carb to make it so you pass. Then go back and readjust the carb back to normal. You need to find out why it won’t pass. You bike is only 7 years old, there is no reason why it shouldn’t pass.
Actually stock parts are usually the best option. It is when you start modifying when you get problems. Maybe stock brake calipers or suspension can be improved from stock which will be better, but people usually change carbs to get more power not better fuel efficiency. If you throttle isn’t smooth, it could actually be your throttle causing the problem.
You really need to find out what is causing the problem to not passing, but most likely your mechanic should be able to get your to pass no problem. Trust me!!!
I get my modded motorcycles and scooters to pass every time with the help of my mechanic.
It almost didn’t pass last year. The guy had to trick out the test even then. I always adjusted the carburetor back to normal in the previous years, but they had to get some fans to blow on it last year. I guess it just isn’t working properly, and they couldn’t make it pass, no matter how much they monkeyed with it.
I don’t mind having a bit more power at my disposal, but how much can I expect it to impact on fuel economy? What carburetor would you recommend as an alternative to the stock one?
Its probably just dirty. I,m told black hands don’t like cleaning them because its fiddly, time consuming and doesn’t usually involve much in the way of new parts, charging for which is the basis of their bizniz model.
I’ve cleaned a couple a couple of times (I don’t use bikes much and park outside, so they tend to sludge up). I boil them up with washing powder, and then use a water-jet from a hypodermic syringe (with a screw-on needle, otherwise it’ll blow off) to blast out small passages. Small parts that get tarry (needles, jets) I remove and soak in carb cleaner separately, in a small glass bottle.
If you’re careful (make sure screwdrivers etc FIT the slots or you might chew things up) and perhaps take a lot of pictures (I’ve TWICE put the float back upside down which you wouldn’t think was possible) it’s not too bad. Quite enjoyable in a Zen-and-the-art-of kind of way.
Re passing emissions testing, you might try chucking some ethanol in your tank just before testing, and/or find a tester that’s not so bloody picky.
Its probably just dirty. I,m told black hands don’t like cleaning them because its fiddly, time consuming and doesn’t usually involve much in the way of new parts, charging for which is the basis of their bizniz model.
I’ve cleaned a couple a couple of times (I don’t use bikes much and park outside, so they tend to sludge up). I boil them up with washing powder, and then use a water-jet from a hypodermic syringe (with a screw-on needle, otherwise it’ll blow off) to blast out small passages. Small parts that get tarry (needles, jets) I remove and soak in carb cleaner separately, in a small glass bottle.
If you’re careful (make sure screwdrivers etc FIT the slots or you might chew things up) and perhaps take a lot of pictures (I’ve TWICE put the float back upside down which you wouldn’t think was possible) it’s not too bad. Quite enjoyable in a Zen-and-the-art-of kind of way.
Re passing emissions testing, you might try chucking some ethanol in your tank just before testing, and/or find a tester that’s not so bloody picky.
Could there be something wrong with the engnie instead? As RK said, carbs can be adjusted to make the mix leaner or richer, but I’m wondering if there’s somwthing wrong with the engine, in example: worn out o-rings that make your smoke white/black/dirtier.
My mechanic said I don’t need to replace it, just fix it and add something in (I didn’t ask him what). It would improve fuel economy, but decrease power a bit. He also said there are no aftermarket carburetors for my bike, which I find strange. I’ll do a bit of internet searching tonight to see if that’s true, but my Chinese isn’t good enough to evaluate them if I do come across any discussions.
Does anyone have any information on carburetors for a Hartford HD200S?
[quote=“SlowRain”]My mechanic said I don’t need to replace it, just fix it and add something in (I didn’t ask him what). It would improve fuel economy, but decrease power a bit. He also said there are no aftermarket carburetors for my bike, which I find strange. I’ll do a bit of internet searching tonight to see if that’s true, but my Chinese isn’t good enough to evaluate them if I do come across any discussions.
Does anyone have any information on carburetors for a Hartford HD200S?[/quote]
Well look at it this way. There are many different carburetor manufacturers and many different sizes. When someone installs an aftermarket carb it usually means that they have upgraded to a bigger carb. That upgrade isn’t really an aftermarket carb, it was just used on a different motorcycle. So in a sense you mechanic is right because Hartford wouldn’t have a specific aftermarket carb, but I don’t think your mechanic really understands. There are lots of different carbs that you could use. I don’t know what the stock size carb is for your Hartford, but it is probably a 26-28mm. If you want some more power, then most people will go up in size a few millimeters. Maybe from a 28mm to a 30mm. The bigger the size the more power, but usually the bigger the size the more problems too. You sound like you aren’t interested in performance mods. You know carbs do wear out. Your bike is 7 years old, then maybe it really is time for a new carb. If that is the case, then why not buy the stock carb again. You aren’t going to find a different carb for your bike that is going to improve your fuel efficiency. Anything aftermarket will make it worse most likely. Also maybe you should get a second opinion. Find another mechanic and see what he says. I don’t know why he would be adding something to your existing carb which will improve your fuel economy but decrease power. This sounds fishy.
I decided to have the mechanic just fix the old carburetor. The part he installed translates as an environmental air purifier (環保空氣淨化器). It was 1200NT, and installation was 700NT. There seems to be an ever so slight decrease in power, but nothing unbearable. I may not have even noticed had he not mentioned it. I haven’t taken it for the environmental inspection again, but I’ll do that next week.
He lubricated my throttle cable, which made a HUGE improvement. That took care of my little complaint from above.
Here’s a picture of the doodad he added:
If you can notice the power difference and you don’t like it, than just take it off after you pass inspection. Learn how to install it yourself (I am sure it is super easy) and next inspection put it back on. Done and done!
[quote=“SlowRain”]I decided to have the mechanic just fix the old carburetor. The part he installed translates as an environmental air purifier (環保空氣淨化器). It was 1200NT, and installation was 700NT. There seems to be an ever so slight decrease in power, but nothing unbearable. I may not have even noticed had he not mentioned it. I haven’t taken it for the environmental inspection again, but I’ll do that next week.
He lubricated my throttle cable, which made a HUGE improvement. That took care of my little complaint from above.
Here’s a picture of the doodad he added:
[/quote]
Ah, the old "environmental air purifier ", combining smoke with mirrors wherever Chinese is spoken.
Anyone know what it is? The box-thingy looks like some kind of vacuum diaphragm demand valve.
I’ve got some things that look a bit like that hanging off my car carburretor, which seems to be screwing up lately. (Fuel economy has plummeted). Its pretty complicated and likely to be much less pleasant to dismantle than an (old) motorcycle carb.
Old is good.
One of them seems to be supposed to back off a high idle throttle stop once the engine gets going and generates some vacuum, (Its function isn’t described in the manual, so I’m guessing a bit) and it seemed to stop doing it a few years ago, so the idle stayed high. Setting the high idle stop low seemed to stop the engine racing, but I lost the choke function around the same time.
I tried to understand it at the time but I got a headache.and gave up. Don’t absolutely need the choke here anyway.
It seems possible if you had, say, an automatic choke function partly controlled by such a diaphragm, and it was bust, your choke would stay on, and your engine would accordingly run rich all the time.
EDIT: Or maybe its a crankcase breather. If it is, (in which case the square thing is probably a PCV VALVE - Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve) and it was missing, or more likely faulty, there was probably nothing actually wrong with the carb, and they might have failed it for leaking crankcase gases rather than exhaust emissions.
As I understand it (I don’t think I have one) the PCV opening varies with the intake vacuum, being smallest at idle, when the vacuum is highest and the blowby is least, and opening as engine output (and blowby) increases and intake vacuum falls. Since its essentially a controlled air leak, I suppose if it was clogged up it’d make the engine run rich. Dunno what, if any, direct effect on exhaust emmissions there would be if it was stuck open, since it’d then run lean at idle, but if it was bad enough to misfire that’d raise emissions, or I suppose if it was applying so much vacuum at idle that it was sucking up and burning a lot of crankcase oil vapour, that might raise HC emissions too. ENDEDIT
This seems to be classic REAL BIKER DAFTNESS, unless you’ve got a good reason for saying it which you havn’t shared. It is a BAD idea to remove a crankcase breather, which is what I think this is.
If you simply leave it open (at the carb and/or crankcase end) you risk contamination from sucking dirt into your induction path and the crankcase.
Crankcase scavenging will be less efficient (though some blowby will escape directly to atmosphere) so your oil will tend to sludge up more.
You’ll probably upset the carb, which is, theoretically at least, tuned to work with the controlled air leak. (might not idle properly unless tuned rich to compensate), and of course you’ll increase pollution, from blowby and from upsetting the carb, which you may not give a shit about, but should, given that you gain almost nothing from it anyway.
If you seal the ends off, the effect on the carb perhaps won’t be so severe, but the effect on the crankcase will be worse. More sludging, pressurisation, oil leaks, and (real-biker-appeal here) possible loss of power from crankcase pumping losses.
You could probably make, or perhaps even buy, a draft-tube with a filter that’d vent to atmosphere. This might reduce pumping losses, but it seems a lot of (illegal and perhaps a bit immoral) hassle for a probably negligable power gain.
If the observed power-loss is real (and if it is I bet its tiny) its probably from running a bit rich before. If the OP really needs this he could probably achieve it by a re-tune, and leave the breather alone.
I run an open carb on my cafe racer with a velocity stack on the street. I have never had problems. Yes shit can happen, but until it does…zooooooooomm
Relevance?
IIRC this is the cafe racer that you run without an air filter (but I suppose “velocity stack” sounds much “cooler”).
This is not the same thing, though it is a nice parallel example of real-biker mechanical antipathy. Perhaps you’ve also disconnected your crankase breather, which would be directly relevant.
What you do with your machine is up to you (apart from the legal aspect, which is unlikely to be enforced), but you are offering advice here.
The OP may not consider his machine to be so disposable.