amal revival

Just a few days ago I put my amals back on my 73 850. They have been resleeved by Lund and they did a good job b.t.w.
At last the engine idles as long as I want it to idle. I followed as closely as possible the instuctions given by bushman's to reinstall and
set everything as precisely as possible.
He tells us to set the pilot mixture screw at 1,5 turn out from all the way in to start with.
On my bike it turns out to be she runs best after all the adjustments with a pilot mixture screw out only 0.5 turn from closed.
Does this mean she will be to rich on idle, should the screw be more out always?
There is no muffler popping or carb coughing anymore with the setting as it is now. Also no black smoke if I blip the throttle a few times.
She picks up aggressively and the response is very good at every speed, any rpm.
So, would the 0,5 turn out be safe in my particular case?

Thanks, Gaserop.

'73 850 mk1a
82 ducati 900 ss
73 bmw r75/5
85 yamaha xt 500
2005 hd 883 anniv.
64 an 66 solex mopeds

If you have followed the procedure for setting the idle mixture, go with it.

gaserop said:

I followed as closely as possible the instuctions given by bushman's to reinstall and
set everything as precisely as possible.
He tells us to set the pilot mixture screw at 1,5 turn out from all the way in to start with.
On my bike it turns out to be she runs best after all the adjustments with a pilot mixture screw out only 0.5 turn from closed.
Does this mean she will be to rich on idle, should the screw be more out always?

Click to expand...

The '1.5 turns' recommendation is only a basic starting point, so the best pilot screw setting can be anywhere between approximately .5 to 2.5 turns out. So if yours need setting to .5 turns out (provided the engine has been fully warmed up?) then that should be the correct idle mixture setting and not be over-rich.

This is from a thread some 6 pages down and might be helpfull to find explanation. Concerns the effect of the float height.

quote:
Re: Pilot screws and the workshop manual
by rbt11548 » Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:06 am

stevefiendish wrote:
I've just had the bike completely rewired, it's a 73 850 and is now very effectively wired up thanks to Ferret of Electrickery. As I had also fitted new amals which had not yet run I read the set up section of the Norton workshop manual. It states that I should screw the pilots in, and then out, one and a half turns. I did this and kicked the bike over, after about ten minutes of constant kicking I had lost about 2 stone and my leg looked like a turkey drum stick. My girlfriend who was taping the whole thing for posterity was collapsing with laughter, then it started. It revved it's nuts off and I hit the kill switch. Then, having learned a bit from the experience, I unscrewed the pilots, gave it a kick and it started and ran correctly. Have I got the set up information wrong? I did exactly what it said in the manual.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,
Just saw LAB's post after I wrote this but just in case it isn't the throttle screws this may help!
At least you know it runs which is a bonus.
I take it it is the Amals?, what it states in the manual is the 'starting' setting for the pilot screws, sometimes they may be screwed in or out different turns, each carb will probably have a different number of turns.
What can affect the screw settings is the float bowl height, I had set the float height what I believed to be correct , I think it was about .080" from the top of the float chamber, however I discovered that they would only run with the screws about 3/4 out on one side and 1/4 out on the other any further out and too much air was getting in, this was being caused by ]too low a fuel level and the pilots only needing to be a small distance out to let the correct ratio of air in. It turns out Amals of different years have a different fuel level .
If you go to this link to the Amal site http://www.amalcarb.co.uk/TechnicalDetail.aspx?id=13 it explains the differences.

There was also a thread on it here
new-amal-floats-t5220.html?hilit=float.

Once I got the float height set as it should be the pilots were in around the one and a half range and it was running smoothly
Robert]

unquote

Yep .5 turns out implies too lean a condition, such as low float level of clogged pilot jet. Guess which is most likely in rebuilt carbs. Low float level will make the whole range of tuning need to compensate for baseline lean condition on top of baseline leaness of new gasoline formulas. Figure out what it takes to get good idle very close to 1.5 turns out to get everything right as rain.

hobot

How much $$ is the carb re-sleeve?
Stephen

chasesa said:

How much $$ is the carb re-sleeve?
Stephen

Click to expand...

Neighborhood of $100ea.

The only tools you need for Amal carbs is a wrench to get them off and then a very large hammer to fix them once and for all. It will give you an excuse to replace them with something that works flawlessly - 32mm flatslides.

I guess all this boils down to: folks that hate Amals/folks that like Amals.

I have had no issues with Amals at all. Once sorted out, they work great. You couldn't ask for a simpler or easier to work on carburetor. One of the issues, IMO, is that folks are complaining about a 40 year old carb, comparing it with a new carb of some other manufacturer. A 40 year old carb has ISSUES that must be addressed before condemning it, mostly involving poor prior attention/overtighteneing and associated warpage, etc.

If an original pair of (trued/sorted) Amals will idle smoothly at any RPM, pull smoothly through the entire rev range, and deliver the flow/fuel, necessary to make max power on the engine, what is to be gained by replacing them? Certainly if someone wants to replace them "just because," that's certainly the business of the owner. But I think it's misleading to imply that some other setup is going to be better. What the "other" setup is, is NEWER. But Amals can be put in "new" condition and I haven't seen any objective evidence (dyno) that a different setup will out-perform them.