Back to my old Amal carbs

Like I say if you ride the Norton all the time it's always good to replace the needles and jets every couple of years, because the Amals are mounted on hard manifold and vibrations from the motor will affect the needles and after awhile the jets will wear oval over time.
When my original Amals slides were worn my Norton still ran good, started the same it just affected the idle mostly, but of course they got so bad and you could hear them rattle at low revs, but didn't really affect the running, never had any problems with slides sticking lol.

baz said:

Did you have problems with the mikunis on your 750?

Click to expand...

Just cold starting difficulties. Not as easy as the Amals. Once started, they were fine and had better top end than the Amals.
They were 32mm and both were more single/ left side orientated, I think. The air filters weren't a great fit in the frame and oil tank.
I put them up for sale in the INOA Norton News and the phone exploded when the issue came out. That was 1996 and pre ebay.
My wife answered most of the calls, as I was away on business. She wondered if I had more of them to sell

Deckard said:

Just cold starting difficulties. Not as easy as the Amals. Once started, they were fine and had better top end than the Amals.
They were 32mm and both were right side orientated. The air filters weren't a great fit in the frame and oil tank.
I put them up for sale in the INOA Norton News and the phone exploded when the issue came out. My wife answered most of the calls, as I was away on business. She wondered if I had more of them to sell

Click to expand...

I ask as I have a set on the shelf with ACK adapters
Planning to fit them one day
I have an Alton starter so maybe the starting issue won't apply
I used to have a VM mikuni that had been fitted with a tickler by a previous owner
So I know it's doable
Cheers

baz said:

I ask as I have a set on the shelf with ACK adapters
Planning to fit them one day
I have an Alton starter so maybe the starting issue won't apply
I used to have a VM mikuni that had been fitted with a tickler by a previous owner
So I know it's doable
Cheers

Click to expand...

Now I've seen that there are angled K&N type filters, so that eliminates that annoyance.

baz said:

Looking good
How many miles did you get out of yours before they wore out?

Click to expand...

I can only guess the cause of wear, if that was the actual reason for the poor interface.
The 850 had 1300 miles on it when it was discovered. But, it had been sitting covered by a mouse eaten tarp underneath a collapsed hayloft in a barn deemed too dangerous to occupy for 43 years.
I have no idea what or if any weathering affects (temps) might be in play but the slides were out of round as well as the housings.
Maybe they came from the factory that way? Someone put away a new bike for a reason.
Anyway...just like sleeving a cylinder in an engine block i am sold on this process for Amals as well.

ashman said:

Like I say if you ride the Norton all the time it's always good to replace the needles and jets every couple of years, because the Amals are mounted on hard manifold and vibrations from the motor will affect the needles and after awhile the jets will wear oval over time.
When my original Amals slides were worn my Norton still ran good, started the same it just affected the idle mostly, but of course they got so bad and you could hear them rattle at low revs, but didn't really affect the running, never had any problems with slides sticking lol.

Click to expand...

Ashley, if a person wanted to save every dime, I suspect you could just replace the needle jets.
The needles are made from very hard material and generally don't wear much at all while the needle jets take the brunt of it.
Obviously it's best to change both though.
I have sometimes used very ancient needles with new or newer needle jets and it worked fine.

Glen

Even if the needles and needle jets are worn, the motor will usually still perform OK - just not as good as it could be. For a road bike, it probably does not matter much, unless you like to get silly with your mates.
It is probably the main thing which makes my motor quick enough. When I was young, I was never aware of it.
One of the first thing some people do when hotting-uo a motor is enlarge the inlet ports - that affects the part of the carburation which is controlled by the needles and needle jets. Less vacuum requires faster taper on the needles, or the motor can be slower. The Jaspanese were always into this stuff in a big way, in the 1970s.. These days they use fuel injection and an EMS, with better results. It would be very difficult to get similar performance and reliability, with Amal carbs using petrol.

acotrel said:

Even if the needles and needle jets are worn, the motor will usually still perform OK - just not as good as it could be. For a road bike, it probably does not matter much, unless you like to get silly with your mates.

Click to expand...

Worn needle jets will cause worse mileage, worse performance, fouled plugs, increased bore wear and fuel-diluted oil. I'm not ok with that. It's worth buying a set of plug gauges to make sure the ones you buy are to spec and that a pair are matched. They're not so useful for measuring wear since the wear tends to be oval and the plug gauge will only indicate the minimum diameter.

acotrel said:

Even if the needles and needle jets are worn, the motor will usually still perform OK - just not as good as it could be. For a road bike, it probably does not matter much, unless you like to get silly with your mates.

Click to expand...

Maybe you should re-read post #39

Carb kits are cheap to buy so pulling the Amals down every few years and replacing the jets and needles, O rings for the air and idle screws new float needles and new gaskets to me is all part of long term maintenance for good running.
Yes Al I do in your own words do get silly with my mates, I don't pussie my Norton when up in the Ranges or back roads, I like having a sweet running Norton from slow run around town to opening it up in the twisties so keeping it running sweet is all part of having a good reliable road running Norton and also one of the reasons I invested in a Joe Hunt Maggie and not relying on a battery or wiring problems.
I have had more ignition problems in 46 years of ownership than carbie problems and the JH solved all thoughs problems, my Norton always ran well with Amals, but sometime you don't realise how good they are until you experiment, been a bit busy the last few days so be taking the Norton out this morning for a run and final carb tune, but it's firing up first kick everytime I kick it.

Well just back from first big ride with the Amals back on had to reset the air mixture screws and set the idles but one small problem the slide cables are as low as I can get them and both slide are even but the idling is a bit high the idle screws are out but the slides not dropping down no further so got to fix that, but other than that the bike is running great good at slow revs in the suburb and town, can run in 4th gear at just on 40mph and it's reving through the gears from low revs to high revs without any hesitation at all but the idling needs to be lowered as it's a wee bit high.
What I am going to do is pull the slide cables out and remove the locking nuts on the cable adjusters that will give me enough room for the slides to drop down a bit more, it's not far off.
The cable were used on the PWK carbs I have spare cables but they are the same length as the ones on the carbs, I have a few spare cables so might have to see if I got longer cables, just been so long since I had Amals on and not sure I used different cable for the PWK carbs.
But only minor adjustments other than that am happy the way it's running and getting use to using ticklers again and when need to use them.
I dropped in at 2 old mates place while out. Paul has known me all my life and we all grew up and both into old British bikes and when I first rode pass his place I stuck it into the Norton then later stop there he said it sounded great sticking it through the gears to 3rd and then down to my mate with the Hot Rod he said to his mrs it definitely British lol, when I pulled up.
So the old Amals live another day and they are working so well, this is the first time I ran the Amals with the Joe Hunt and I can tell you this they are both working together great and the motor is loving it.
So just a little bit more fiddling but am a happy chappy.

Ashley

You can use a drop of wicking Loctite to hold the adjusters in place without the locknuts if necessary.

hhh said:

You can use a drop of wicking Loctite to hold the adjusters in place without the locknuts if necessary.

Click to expand...

It's the plan but first I go through all my cables to see if there are longer cables in my spares.
I think these cables came with the PWK carbs but not sure the old memory not working to good on what came with the carbs.

Was great out riding the Norton again, it's been too long with life getting in my way, who said you have plenty of time when you retire, well after 9 years retired I still struggle to find spare time and so far the last 12 months has been full on with house renovations and just life, my wife can no longer drive because of her eyes sight so now I am her taxi service and what a pain going shopping with her (don't know how they can spend so much time looking at things) one good thing was in the lingerie section with her the other day lol, but why does she pick the horrible looking knickers lol.
Now I am getting the old Amals sorted the Norton will be getting out more, with the other carbies float sticking a lot I wasn't riding the Norton to far from home, that will change and back up into the Ranges where the Norton thrives.
No wonder they call them Featherbed throwing the Norton around yesterday it feels like your floating through the corners, it's such a light weight.
I have missed riding it and the big smile on my dial proves that.

All fixed now found the orginial cables under my work bench and guess what 30mm difference the orinials are longer all changed over and slides sitting lower, adjusted both cable and slides are opening together and even lift all I need is fire it up and set the idle but being a good neighbour and Sunday and all I will wait till tomorrow besides after 8 cans of beer and a few more on the go a wise decision lol on my part.
So the PWK carbs have shorter cables and I should have picked that up at the beginning but after a few beers the memory seems to work better and I know I have the original cables as they have wear marks on the outer casings from the tank not sitting right now I have the proper Featherbed frame tank rubber mounts on the frame, fuck this is hard writing with a few heavy beers but only took a short time to sort out and now enjoying my Sunday afternoon listening to some great music and looking at my Norton.

Double take hehe and not a drop of oil under my bike been like that all its life, frigging freak but I fucking love it.

And the original speedo cable with a kink in it and it still works, I replaced it 2x and they all failed in a short time, kinky, well what do you all expect after drinking all afternoon.

ashman, if you have a pic of what your top engine mount looks like, I'd be really interested to see it. I'm building a similar bike, thanks.

What's with the splitter dangling under the tank?

The splitter is just hanging there for the cables the thing is I like all my cables to run in a natural position so no chance of getting tight spots or hang up anywhere, a nice free running throttle.
I can hide it but to be honest after a few beers I didn't think about it before putting the tank back on.