Rare Earth Magnets in your fuel system

[pinholenz]

Its been about a year since I put small rare earth magnets into my carbs and in-line fuel filter. I did this because I have an old untreated tank with a whacking great dent in it. It will be replaced when I find a suitable tank. The magnets just sit in the bottom of the bowls

Recently I did a total rebuild on another set of carbs and have just removed the original carbs to inspect them.

The rare earth magnets have done the business. They were covered in a dusting of  fine brown rust particles but the bowls were nice and clean.

After cleaning, I popped them back into the rebuilt carbs.

The only bad experience I have had with this method is when I went to put the new carbs on. I turned the carbs upside down to check that the pilot jet cover was snug. One of the magnets dropped on to the float bowl support and caused the float bowl to stay in the closed position. (The bike would only run on one cylinder)  Easy fix when I twigged what was happening.

I'd recommend adding a rare earth magnet into each of your float bowls to help minimize ferrous junk getting further into your carbs. Mine are little rounds ones. Approx 5mm x2mm - about half the size of your little finger tip.

[hoverhead47]

Where to you find them to purchase?

[Rikugun]

Good info here so thanks for posting. There is something elegant about effective treatments that are simple in design.

The only thing I wonder about is although fuel height will be the same, it's volume would be less. Obviously the bigger the magnet the less fuel will be available. I'm not sure if a small magnet would make an appreciable difference but thought it worth mentioning.

The more I thought about it the less significant it seems....   ???  :)

[The Prophet of Doom]

The rare earth magnets are unbelievably powerful for their size; easily enough to attract any magnetic particles in the fuel. 
If I only had enough cash for one magnet though, I'd be getting a magnetic sump plug instead.   

[pinholenz]

All shapes and sizes of Rare Earth Magnets are available on line through eBay. The prices have dropped significantly.

They can also be found in places like your local model shop or electrical hobbyist shop (Jaycar in NZ)

Having used these for over a year, the 0.04 cc of space that they occupy in the carb bowls makes no difference to the running of the bike. In fact I doubt that a larger size magnet would either, provided that the fuel pump is working OK. The crud that they collect is testimony to their power and effectiveness

My first line of defense is a rare earth magnet inside my inline filter. Its quite a large (ugly!) filter with a plastic housing. I drilled a hole into the intake side before the paper filter, popped a magnet in and bound it up with self sealing radiator hose tape. Works a treat.

Next oil change, as POD suggests, I will epoxy a  bigger rare earth magnet on to my oil plug to collect any crud floating around in my sump.

[The Prophet of Doom]

If you have a parts bike I believe you can use the rear transmission plug which already has a magnet in it.  Not tried it myself though.

[jefferson]

There is an aluminum drain plug available from Bike bandit that has a magnet in it and it was less than $10. I am pretty sure they had steel ones too. 14 by 1.25 and 14 by 1.5.
The light weight aluminum one got my money.

[fret not]

The magnetic plug is for the rear drive, and fits same as the engine drain plug.  So, if you have a parts bike you can have two magnetic drain plugs, and both are original Yamaha parts.

It's not difficult to drill a hole part way through the drain plug and slip a magnet into the hole.  The magnetism keeps it in place since the plug is steel.