What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Ash, I'm interested in the vinegar soak idea. Worked well to clean out the inside of my fuel tank. I saw a lot of doom and gloom about using vinegar on the carbs so I didn't do it this time.
 
Took my avatar bike to get it weighed, as part of finally obtaining a title for it. It has been a ton of work.
 
Fast Eddie said:
What kind of doom and gloom?
Click to expand...
Vinegar is acidic but won't eat away the alloy/pot metal, I have had my Amals soaking in vinegar for days after pulling them out of storage and my left carbs was so blocked in the polit jet passaged, it loosened the crud up and when I hit it with the air hose it shot out and hit my finger that was covering the hole so hard it stung.
A old biker friend put me onto the vinegar trick he's old school in everything he does and been using vinegar for all carb cleaning jobs.
 
Saber said:
Another one
Vinegar is an acid, and will damage the zinc. You should only use hydrocarbon solvents for cleaning carburetors
Click to expand...
Never had those problems with using vinegar on any Amal carbs and been doing it for a very long time and my mate also uses it without problem for over 30 years, hasn't damaged zinc, pot metal or alloy or cause rust so far and the acidic in vinegar is not too strong that it will eat metal, but it eats the crud.
 
Spent most of yesterday swapping the intake insulators from the 1/16" thickness (063459) to 1/8" (062700).

For the kind of riding I'm presently doing I found a lot of positives running a single carb. There are a couple of negatives that come with it though. One is the lack of space above the central mounted carb for cable access/adjustment and carb top removal due to the frames descending top tube. The other minus is the proximity of the rear of the carb adapter sleeve with the front of the ham can front plate - exaggerated a fraction by the use of a thicker insulator.

With the 1/16" insulator...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

And connecting hose removed...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

And now with the 1/8" insulator installed...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Getting the rubber hose back in there almost makes removing the twin carb manifolds a breeze!...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

A hair dryer to warm the hose, a dab of red rubbers grease, a thin plastic scraper and some good plastic bicycle tyre levers (and plenty of swearing) it finally went in...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

You may have spotted that I chose to install the L/H carb this time. I prefer to have the adjustment screws and tickler on the right hand side, but thought I'd take the opportunity to rotate the wear on the carbs...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
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All didn't go to plan with the above.

Being a clumsy tw*t, while cleaning the carb, I managed to drop the wonderfully smooth premier hard anodised throttle valve onto the concrete path taking a nice chunk out of it :mad:. Lucky I had the other one.
 
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Bonzo said:
Spent most of yesterday swapping the intake insulators from the 1/16" thickness (063459) to 1/8" (062700).

For the kind of riding I'm presently doing I found a lot of positives running a single carb. There are a couple of negatives that come with it though. One is the lack of space above the central mounted carb for cable access/adjustment and carb top removal due to the frames descending top tube. The other minus is the proximity of the rear of the carb adapter sleeve with the front of the ham can front plate - exaggerated a fraction by the use of a thicker insulator.

With the 1/16" insulator...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

And connecting hose removed...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

And now with the 1/8" insulator installed...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Getting the rubber hose back in there almost makes removing the twin carb manifolds a breeze!...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

A hair dryer to warm the hose, a dab of red rubbers grease, a thin plastic scraper and some good plastic bicycle tyre levers (and plenty of swearing) it finally went in...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

You may have spotted that I chose to install the L/H carb this time. I prefer to have the adjustment screws and tickler on the right hand side, but thought I'd take the opportunity to rotate the wear on the carbs...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
Click to expand...
Do you know RGM can supply a narrower filter and grill Bonzo?
 
Bonzo said:
Spent most of yesterday swapping the intake insulators from the 1/16" thickness (063459) to 1/8" (062700).

For the kind of riding I'm presently doing I found a lot of positives running a single carb. There are a couple of negatives that come with it though. One is the lack of space above the central mounted carb for cable access/adjustment and carb top removal due to the frames descending top tube. The other minus is the proximity of the rear of the carb adapter sleeve with the front of the ham can front plate - exaggerated a fraction by the use of a thicker insulator.

With the 1/16" insulator...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

And connecting hose removed...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

And now with the 1/8" insulator installed...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

Getting the rubber hose back in there almost makes removing the twin carb manifolds a breeze!...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

A hair dryer to warm the hose, a dab of red rubbers grease, a thin plastic scraper and some good plastic bicycle tyre levers (and plenty of swearing) it finally went in...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?

You may have spotted that I chose to install the L/H carb this time. I prefer to have the adjustment screws and tickler on the right hand side, but thought I'd take the opportunity to rotate the wear on the carbs...

What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
Click to expand...
You can use the non threaded type carb top
And have the cable adjuster further up the cable
This gains a fair bit of space I've probably got a spare if you wanted to try it
 
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
A bit of mud bogging
What Did You Do With Your Commando Today?
 
Fast Eddie said:
Maybe both methods combined would be best. Boiling agitates the carbs a lot, loosening off crud and freeing it up to float to the surface. If vinegar softens the crud, then a vinegar soak followed by a good boiling would sound ideal.
Click to expand...
Ok, so that takes care of the wife and her mother….now what about the carbs ?
 
I ‘ve given myself 6 days to revitalise the 850 Fastback, last used in 2003, for a short trip to France starting, 30th May…. So yesterday it was off with the wheels to start cleaning the flanged alloys: 1500 wet and dry is good for initial removal of spots!

First stop was Alchemy in Potters Bar for an aftermarket pair of rear indicators, as one had snapped it’s plastic stem over the years in storage.
Then down to Enfield, North London for a pair of Avons ( very good prices from Tyretec), and then the very helpful Zenith Motorcycles of Tottenham who fitted them.

Then to local Halfords for a sealed Yuasa battery, again competitive pricing. This is the bike that took me to North Cape of Norway in 2002, so once it’s running, should be good, subject to inlet valve seals , for which I need a certain Indian rope trick…..

note I have mentioned two other brands of bike inadvertantly!
 
jan nelder said:
I ‘ve given myself 6 days to revitalise the 850 Fastback, last used in 2003, for a short trip to France starting, 30th May…. So yesterday it was off with the wheels to start cleaning the flanged alloys: 1500 wet and dry is good for initial removal of spots!

First stop was Alchemy in Potters Bar for an aftermarket pair of rear indicators, as one had snapped it’s plastic stem over the years in storage.
Then down to Enfield, North London for a pair of Avons ( very good prices from Tyretec), and then the very helpful Zenith Motorcycles of Tottenham who fitted them.

Then to local Halfords for a sealed Yuasa battery, again competitive pricing. This is the bike that took me to North Cape of Norway in 2002, so once it’s running, should be good, subject to inlet valve seals , for which I need a certain Indian rope trick…..

note I have mentioned two other brands of bike inadvertantly!
Click to expand...
just made up the new battery connector wires, and overhauled the original master cylinder, which worked great with twin 14 inch Norvil lightweight discs back in August 2002, when negotiating Norwegian fjord descents!
Front wheel back in, and oil changed. I checked the Hemmings one way anti-sump valve in the oil line: full of runny oil, so refitted and filled the downstream pipe and reconnected. However, it hadn’t prevented nearly all the oil draining into sump, over 21 years!
 

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