Sleeved Amals

Just got my carbs back from Lund this evening. Less than 2 weeks. Seem a lot tighter than even the anodized slides in the old bodies. We'll see how they work, it's supposed to be warmish the next few days, but snow and mud will prevent me from riding.



Dave
69S

Looks good Dave.
I get my Amals resleeved by Bruce Chessell. He cleans the outsides a bit better. How come Lund didn’t install the longer ticklers for you? I would check the flatness on the flange with the o-ring groove. Make sure its dead flat and don't over tighten your Stud/Lock washer/ nut. Use a spot of 242 Loctite to hold things where they should stay. The best way I clean the outside of the Amal is with Pinesol 50/50 with water and score some steel wool scouring brillo pad from yer old lady (what she uses for pots and pans) and rub the outside. Better ask her where she buys it. She would probably shoot you if she saw you using it and putting it back. Oh and use rubber gloves with pinesol. It will come out nice and bright. You might just want to do the fix for cleaning the pilot jet by tapping out the other side of the carb. I use an old airscrew and cut the tapered end off. Tap to 10-32. Use a spot of silicone on the screw to keep it there once you find all is clear. Easy to get off if you suspect the pilot is clogged. One last thing is the plug at the mouth of the carb. Check the plug is air tight (the hole that is blocked) of the three. Use a dab of JB weld to smear over that plug just to make sure. Oh and by the way if you haven’t changed out your Needle and needle jet, do it. If you are using your old ones from your old sloppy air valves then they will be worn out. Use all New and your bike will purr like a kitten
Best of Luck.
Cheers,
Thomas
CNN

Already got all new jets and needles. It'll be interesting if I can get this thing so I can take my hand off the throttle finally. I've never been able to do that. Otherwise it was running fine, I was just trying to improve the idle. The anodized slides got me about half way there. It was a lot less than new Premieres.

I'll try the pinesol. I've got plenty of my own scotchbrite.

Dave

Before they even bore the bodies,they will straighten the flanges and clean the pilot jets.It's good for business,because those 2 things alone will fix a lot of carbs but the credit will go to the sleeve job.

I've turned a few slides down and fitted sleeves,and ended up with the best idling bikes I'd ever owned.A slow and consistent idle,at about 1/2 the previous rpm.

True enough that slow idle or any idle is worse state for Commandos, none the less its a fine test of a well tuned engine and so so pleasant to indulge in now and then for yourself and strangers delight. My P!! dragster came set at 600 and my Trixie Combat stored for years in New Orleans shop started right up and settled down to 450 rpm! I bump idle to 900-1000 for road use and have thumb screws on the slide adjustment so done from seat and helps equal out the exhaust puffs on each side. A leaking carb slide will not allow very low idle. They say it takes about 2000ish rpm to oil surf flat lifters and about that to charge with lights on with factory alternators.

I should have bought a lottery ticket!
I had my Amals re sleeved by Lund. I was heading down Rt128 outside of Boston heading to the Larz Anderson European Motorcycle event, when the throttle would not close completely. After about 45 minutes in a parking lot I discovered that one of the sleeves had rotated on the slide and was hanging up. I took it out and filed it down and it got me home. I called Lund and they took it back and re-sleeved it. They said that it had never happened before. Just my luck. That was at least 5 years ago, they have been fine since then.

The Craven bags come in handy, to carry plenty of tools on the road!
BTW, Craven has a website and they seem to be in business again.

http://www.cravens.org.uk/

MF

I too had Bruce to mine- best thing I ever did on the bike. Would recommend it to everyone - stop all this Mikuni nonsense.

How about contact info for Lund? I've been searching Lund Machine on the web, and have only found some sites that are doubtfully carb rebuilders. I have found contact info for Chessel, but would prefer a US rebuilder due to shipping hassles.

For the benefit of posterity, it would be helpful to many to have a short list posted here of US, CA, UK, EU, and AU rebuilders. I will compile the list and repost it from your contributions. I know the list cannot be comprehensive, some deserving shops may be left off, and will become obsolete in time, but having a place to start is of benefit.

Slick

**begin rant
I don't know why folks make such a big deal about shipping things across the US/Canada border. Used/old parts being worked on there is no duty. I've had AMR work on my timing cover, no biggie. I've bought used parts from the US with no customs problems or charges, and shipping via USPS is really cheap and faster then Canada Post.
I am always frustrated by vendors (ebay, Amazon) that have free shipping for US customers and charge $39 dollars for a $5 item to Canada, just baffles me. Had a headlight nacelle sent up from the us - $6 in postage. I've ordered parts from the UK on Monday and received them on Friday - by regular post!
End rant**

Hhttp://www.amalsleeve.com/ad my Amals done by Lund quite a while ago and haven't even thought about them since, the sleeves do the job.

Doesn't this seem like the wrong way to do this fix? If you sleeved the body instead of the slide, then the body would probably never wear out again and you could also fit standard slides at will for tuning purposes.

The way Lund is doing it once the body wears out again it is probably finished for good, plus if you want to fit a different slide for tuning you are out of luck unless you pay Lund to make it for you, or it happens to be a larger cutaway than you already have.

71Roadster said:

Doesn't this seem like the wrong way to do this fix? If you sleeved the body instead of the slide, then the body would probably never wear out again and you could also fit standard slides at will for tuning purposes.

The way Lund is doing it once the body wears out again it is probably finished for good, plus if you want to fit a different slide for tuning you are out of luck unless you pay Lund to make it for you, or it happens to be a larger cutaway than you already have.

Click to expand...

I was wondering about that myself. Right now I have 36700 miles on the re-sleeve, by Lund, and they still work well. I am thinking about putting the 932 carbs on my 68 Commando and getting the new Amal Premiers for the '75. Has anyone had much experience with the new ones yet? I know they haven't been out that long.
Any issues with putting 932's on a 68 Commando? I don't ride the 68 anywhere near as much as the 75.

71Roadster said:

Doesn't this seem like the wrong way to do this fix? If you sleeved the body instead of the slide, then the body would probably never wear out again and you could also fit standard slides at will for tuning purposes.

The way Lund is doing it once the body wears out again it is probably finished for good, plus if you want to fit a different slide for tuning you are out of luck unless you pay Lund to make it for you, or it happens to be a larger cutaway than you already have.

Click to expand...

I see your point and I don't know what Lund charges for just a sleeved slide, but since you'll have to pay someone for the slide, whether it's Lund for a refurbished one or another vender, you're going to have to pay for a slide. And it seems that a hardened slide is the way to go as even the Premiers have hard anodized slides to address the problem. It may just be that it's cheaper to work on the slide rather than the body so costs less. I know that after thousands of miles the bodies of my Amals show only a slight polish in the area where they usually get scored badly.

The different metals, zinc and whatever the sleeve is made of, goes half way toward solving the problem. The original design was stupid - zinc on zinc - and was a penny pinching idiotic idea by bean counters at Amal. Recall that the Monobloc and the GP designs both used chrome plated brass slides instead of the stupid idiotic zinc slides of the Concentric.

After thinking about it, I wish I'd gotten brass sleeves, but I can't find the CAN guy anywhere anyhow, so its a moot point by now. I'm certainly not capable of doing this kind of stuff. It will probably last as long as I can ride it anyhow.

Dave

PM me someone else did.
CNN

DogT said:

After thinking about it, I wish I'd gotten brass sleeves, but I can't find the CAN guy anywhere anyhow, so its a moot point by now. I'm certainly not capable of doing this kind of stuff. It will probably last as long as I can ride it anyhow.

Dave

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Dave
your sleeves should be fine nothing but good trails. Like ludwig stated keep her above 1000 rpm on yer Norton. Leave the 650 RPM numbers for Listor 6-1 diesel gen sets.
Cheers
Thomas

Dog T, I think you will be happy with them if the idle passages are clean. I had my 32mm carbs off my 74 850 Sleeved by Lund three years ago and mine have been great and idles perfect when pulling up to stop lights or stop and go traffic now. It use to stall and die all the time unless carefully blipping the throttle to keep it running.
Good Luck with them!

A nice steady low idle has many uses

Glen

http://m.youtube.com/index?#/watch?v=jbN-jO11vKg