HELP! sticky slides. and pics!!

hey everyone, this is my second post here. the first being about backfiring and poor power in the mid range. I decided to tear the carbs down and give them a good cleaning. I had previously noticed that my throttle would not return on its own ( dont worry... ive only ridden the bike 2 miles.) so i figured i would lube cables and check the return springs. what i found was that neither of my slides fit properly! the carbs seem to be in good shape, everything else on the bike would make me think they were properly cared for. So far i have checked spring, cleaned everything, lubed cables, and even tried switching the slides to see if the PO had gotten them backwards. I really need some help as to where i should go from here or what my problems could be, this hiccup is the only thing stopping me from riding my beautiful motorcycle. Here are the pics i promised from my last post.

Assuming you have the original Amal Concentrics? They are notorious for slide wear which can cause one or both to jam in the carb body, hence a sloppy throttle. Its a dangerous situation if they jam on when you are in traffic. Take out the slides and examine them closely for scuffing and score marks on the front and rear faces. At best you can very carefully rub them down with fine wet n dry emery and then finish with metal polish. But that is only a temporary measure and the idle tends to run roughly. Fitting new slides won't help either as the body bore is worn too. You can get the slides re-sleeved and the body bores honed to size, but frankly the best thing to do is buy a new pair of carbs from the manufacturer Burlen Fuel Systems, and they also now make a anodised tough slide that is supposed to obviate the slide wear problem.

Mick

thanks for the reply, I am running the original amals but i believe the owner purchased them 2000 miles ago, they seem to be in really good shape. The slides i have are a newer set and also in very good condition. to get the bike running i put the old ones back on and they were in only slightly worse condition than the newer set. I am wondering if there is an option to sand them down or have somebody bore out the carb bodies slightly? any tips will help thanks.

Nortoneer

If it looks like new carbs are in order you may want to consider going to a single carb conversion kit.
The most common is a Mikuni VM.
Including manifold the cost probably less than two new Amals.
Newer technology, simplicity of one carb, chrome air valve for durability and enricher circuit (choke) that works great for me.
Several vendors sell kits jetted for your bike.
There are two sides to this, the purists and the lets make life simpler.
Both sides valid so you can pick either one.

Bob

nortoneer850 said:

I am wondering if there is an option to sand them down or have somebody bore out the carb bodies slightly? any tips will help thanks.

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What I did in a similar situation was to lap the slides to the bodies using metal polish (or T-Cut will do).

Apply the polish to the slides/bores and work the slides up and down until any tight spots are removed.

However, the only permanent solution is to have the carbs sleeved by a specialist.