Amal needles

I have looked back at some of the posts about amal jetting and needle clip positions etc for clues to help me get 850mk11 running less rich and smoother, mains 260 slide 3.5 needle jet 106 look ok but needle has three clip grooves and three marking grooves, I can only find reference to needles with two or four marking grooves, is this needle ok to use ?
running bike with peashooter exhaust and k+n filter. pw3 cam
bike runs rich at slow speed and very flat at higher revs (5500) + any suggestions welcomed
thanks Sam

850 Sam said:

needle has three clip grooves and three marking grooves, I can only find reference to needles with two or four marking grooves, is this needle ok to use ?

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The needles with three marking grooves are generally meant for two strokes: http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/di ... d=56&pos=9

You need the 928/104 4-ring needles and the 928/107 special spray tubes.

L.A.B. said:

The needles with three marking grooves are generally meant for two strokes: http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/di ... d=56&pos=9

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I do not claim to be an expert on Amals; however, It's my understanding that the 928/107 notched spray tube came in with the 850s with the black-cap silencers. I think that the 750s and the first 850s did not have the notched spray tube. Am I right?

My 73 850 has new carbs. They're Amals that I bought from Norvil in the UK. The carbs have regular spray tubes. And they work fine with my pea-shooter silencers. No flat spot that I can discern. Kicks to life first time if I flood the heck out of it.

The needle needs to match the spray tube, so if your carbs have the notched tube (p/n 928/107) then you need the four-marking-groove needle (p/n 928/104). If you have the flat spray tube (p/n 622/074) then you need needle p/n 622/124 (with two marking grooves? - not sure).

I've read that some people used two-stroke carbs on Commados. The pressed in pilot jet was a patch put in place by Amal to smooth out the idle on Triumph Daytonas, and then became the four stroke standard. Some tuners preferred the removable pilot jet for Commandos.

When I bought my bike it had hode-podge Amals with two stroke bodes (wth the screw in pilot jet) and the late Commando spray tube and needles but with a different slide (maybe from a MkII) that is bigger OD than the regular 930 MkI slide. At least, the slides from these old carbs won't fit in my new ones.

Burlen fuel systems here in the UK now fully support AMALS, both concentric and monobloc, they also do mail order. There is an online catalogue that may be worth a look. For those of you that get Old Bike Mart from the UK you can see some of their handy work they did for a customer in this months issue.