Carb rebuild rubber pipework

[Wilf]

Well it has been a while since I was here, apologies as I have been tied up with A)Life & Work B) A Honda NSR400R rebuild, now complete at last.
So well overdue I now have my 1988 2MA on the bench.
I have used the TZR before but it lacked power, about 90mph tops and after discussions on here decided that it was the crap YEC race pipes that were fitted to the bike when I bought it, now replaced with a set of Martin 77's, so hopefully that is that part of the problem sorted
The other part is the now 35 year old carburettors which are in desperate need of some TLC, as I said I have ridden the bike and it went pretty well but could do better.
I now have a vapour blasting cabinet so will be giving the carbs a major clean in that before getting them ultra-sonic-ally cleaned prior to rebuilding.
Looking at my carbs, the rubber pipework is not in a happy place, very solid!and some split in places.
I have had a look on Fowlers and many of the pipes are available but my god! they charge like a wounded Rhino! It's only rubber pipe at the end of the day and the work I am doing to the bike is really just a long overdue problem solving session, I am not looking for Concours or a nut and bolt restoration, I want to use it at the end of the day.
My carbs cannot be the only ones to reach this state in their lifetime so what have you done? swallowed the cost and bought OEM or did you find an alternative option?

Thanks in advance
 

[Kev]

Hello Wilf, just measure the pipes you want to change, all of them preferably, all are available on ebay,most from small bike shops in the uk. Do you vapour blast parts for other people? My local firm has closed.

[Kev]

Give me a shout if you need float bowl gaskets, I bought 50 as it was cheaper and will never use them all.

[Wilf]

Thanks for that, in answer to the vapour blasting, I would do it for others but I am not very local to you, I am sure there would be someone nearer, the cabinets are reasonably cheap to buy for the hobbyist such as myself, I say cheap....about a grand which is a lot for many I know but if you have enough bikes to do up it would make it worth having one and do a few cash jobs on the side, if you have time....which I don't.
I will let you know on the float bowls gaskets but I have an Idea I already have them as I bought a kit a while ago.

[m in sc]

on mine i ultrasonically cleaned them, they are fine and I rebuilt them, etc. the pipe routing to the fuel petcock on mine was an issue it turned out. i had a similar issue to yours, made no sense to me at the time. would pull to redline in all 5 gears then top of 6th it starved. somebody prior had re-routed the fuel to travel BACK under the carbs, then feed UP to the T between them. took a while to find it in the manual, but i fount ONE illustration that showed the fuel line from the petcock going forward, to the LEFT & FRONT of the left carb, to the left leg of the T, the lower part of the T feeing the left fuel inlet, then the right leg of the t feeding the right carb. That worked.

I also made sure the little filters were removed from the carb fuel inlets, and run a 3/8" bronze element (large, as in for a car) filter on the fuel lines from the tank to the petcock.

as far as the fuel line itself, i use blue urethane from parts unlimited here in the states, never have any issues w that stuff.

hope that helps. good luck! -M