How To Clean Header And Center Chamber?

[neta160]

Hello everyone,

It appears that starting a fire inside one end of the header pipe and propping it upright for 30 minutes or so, while the goo burns out, works for steel pipes. Apparently the goo will make a huge gray cloud.

However, this approach won't work with aluminum since it will melt. Oven Cleaner doesn't work. Brake fluid doesn't work.

How does one clean the goo out of the aluminum center chamber??? Or, is it better to replace it?

[lee harris]

Most center boxes are packed with steel wool. This burns very very well so dont try and burn out the middle box cos you will have a loud bike with no power afterwards. I have had reasonable success filling a blocked off pipe with diesel or Gunk/Jizer and leaving it for a week and then using a hot pressure washer to clean it thoroughly, after "drip drying".

One very good alternative is to cut the box open, clean wash and scrape it to remove the packing and gunge and the repack and weld it up. Try the degreasing method or diesel method first.

HTH

Lee

[technowaldo]

the easiest way of them all is to give your bike a good roasting every now and again

[neta160]

I have found that blasting the bike up a long hill helps some but it doesn't get a majority of the hardened stuff and goo, out. It appears that the cheap, but time consuming approach, is to use Gunk, Diesel fuel, etc. I no longer want to experiment with lighting a fire in it, nor do I want to try some of the more corrosive solvents, like Caustic Soda or Muriatic Acid. So, I will try the cheap way first. Worse case, I can cut open the chamber, remove the old wool and have a local shop reweld it for probably $50 USD. I believe a new chamber costs around $400 USD.