Amal life

Not wishing in anyway shape or form to bring this back!
But yesterday i dropped off a set of forks i have restored, the guy who was very "well versed" in Commandos...well he had owed his for the last 12 years and covered 120000 miles!
Well over a brew we talked "norton" to my surprise he told me his Commando boasted the same Amal carbs for the last 120000 [ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY K] and started 1st-2nd kick , ticked over spot on, and pulled clean and even.
Makes me think about all the 6000 mile worn out issues :roll:
I mentioned the forum [which he knew about] and smiled when i said about the low mileage carb issues..so what can we make of that?...are his worn out, but still perform OK?
He's doing the perfect frame check at the monent and found a 2mm frame /cradle mis-alignment,he welded up one hole and re- drilled it...fussy or what?

Ask about how long his speedo has been working so long and accurate too. The smoother the tune the better Amal likes it though.

I have seen some Amals with pretty high mileage. No question the body was worn but it didn't seem to affect the running.

The important thing is to keep good slides in the carb. They tend to start breaking up with pieces going through the engine at about 20,000 miles from what I have seen. If he said he had 120,000 K on the slides I would say he was pretty lucky. Jim

Whatever Lund does to Concentrics seems to make my 932's last forever--I might have 100,000 miles on the set on my '72 Combat--now on the RH10 E-Bay chopper--they'll idle at 900 rpm all afternoon


Tim Kraakevik
kraakevik@voyager.net

My Amals have done over over 60,000 miles and was still running good on my 850, it started first or second kick every time and still has the same slides in them when I replaced the orginal amals in 1980 with these ones, I got over 60,000 miles on the orginal Amals as well but the slides were worn, but the bike ran ok with them on they just played up on idle, but I got a good tax return last year and put a set of Jim's flatside's carbies on, one thing I did do with the Amals is replace jets, needles etc ever 2 to 3 years, I have owned my Norton since new and it had done a lot of miles with the Amals, they have never let me down, but the flatslides work so much better with my Joe Hunt.

So yes you can get long milage out of Amal carbies, but like anything you need to look after them and do any maintenance they need.

Ashley