What do you guys use for carb balancing? I have read loads of stuff and most folk don’t like gauges, most prefer columns, some like the electronic ones and some like lollipop sticks!I have never had to balance carbs before (hence my desire to use a single carb manifold) so I want something bullet proof and easy to use. What say you?
I use a 2-column Carbtune. Excellent for both BMW and Guzzi.
http://www.carbtune.co.uk/carbdtls.html
+1
Dead easy to use and John Morgan very helpful.
ive got some cheap gauges with dampers that work well, also got a bosch diags system with eobd etc that fortunatly has good old fashion connectiosn for measuring vacume/dwel/co etc functions but the £20 gauges work just fine
To be honest I just check visually that the slides rise and fall together. Does for me.
Witht he convert if you get quiet you can hear the slides click down and hear if they are not together.
That is the first point of call
After that if you can’t borrow dials or whatever it is less to take it to someone who will do it for you
Be VERY careful if you use old style mercury guages you DO NOT want that sucked into your engine. The take offs are on the inlets and you WILL beed to choke the tubes to the gauages a small clamp will do it.
I used mine many times on the bevel. It’s not just the slides you adjust, I found that the idle speed could be brought right down and was really consistent even when hot. The engine always felt more crisp on the pick up after I had balanced them but the 40mm PHM’s are rather high maintenance… Big fan, me!
you need to start with valve clearences , timing .Then using a gas analyser set the co2/lambda readings the same on both cylinders and finaly move onto balancing the pots at idle and then with the throttle held openim so shocked how much better the t5 feels for taking the time to do each step over the weekend.pulling off is much smoother and once warm it idles nicely at about 1200rpm , any less and it gets a bit rough
Davida vacuum gauges set wot I got back in '82 or somesuch when I got the Spada. Still work perfectly. BTW ‘doing it by eye’ is still not as good as using the gauges, I ‘did it by eye’ this last time and still thought it sounded rough so then I thought actually I should get the gauges out and do it properly, it was still quite a bit out on both the stops and the cable adjusters. Just a quarter of a turn or less mismatch of either shows a very noticeable effect according to the gauges. Ain’t no substitute IMHO. HTH
Another vote for the Carbtune.
Easy to use, consistent and gives excellent results.
If you want a cheap accurate system make yourself a big ‘U’ tube manometer using clear windscreen washer tubing and Automatic Transmission Fluid (just in case some gets sucked into the intake). It’s a closed system so it needs no calibration.
Vaccumate for me . Youtube it for my wee demo. Very expensive though, mine was cheap off a well known auction site.
theone&onlymin
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And another one for Carbtune
Re how to do it go here http://thisoldtractor.com/gtbender/print/moto_guzzi_loopframe_carburetor_carburetor_balancing_synchronizing.htm
I know its for the square slide carbs but the principle is the same and untill I did it this way my carbs were never righttris2013-07-31 07:27:44
I bow to your superior skills Baldini, but us mere mortals need gadgets…
Tried ‘ninja’ balancing before and it failed miserably!!!
Welshguzzi, it is not ninja skills, it is experience.Otherwise known as old age.The carbs go out of balance so easily that unless you are racing it really isn’t worth the bother unless you enjoy it.
'Tis a pity you ain’t in the club.An article on this is worth a lot.Some simple things can be lost simply through fear of getting it wrong.If Welshguzz gets it wrong he can always go back to his measuring sticks.Delorto’s are simple.
As predicted, O. P. has merely prompted a dozen different opinions of what’s the best for themselves But going back over, looks like the gauges outnumber
Like many things it does depend on someones experience i have set the 30mm square carbs for yrs using the Haynes manual, WHEN I aquired some Morgan Carb tune guages and used them…the carbs were spot on.
As Baldini points out the bigger carbs are a bit more complicated.
Well, thanks again guys, Carbtune should be here tomorrow ready for the weekend and the cat’s away so the mouse can play!
The best of the lot, and by far the most accurate, is the home made manometer.
Bugger! too late Brian, it arrived today. Pretty much the same thing really, perhaps the Carbtune is little more sophisticated and maybe a bit easier to us, we’ll see!