Triumph T160 carbs

Shelby-Right · 2026-10-03T14:34:27-0600

Hi, I have a T160, can some one give advice, if I was to buy new premier carbs, they list pack 125 for a T160 but that has #4 cutaway slides, and from what I read they generally replace them with 3.5 cutaway slides to remove the slight lean condition front 0 to 1/8 throttle.
There are quite a few variations of carb sets, but the pack 124, for 73 74 T150s, already have the 3.5 cutaway slides and the same specs.
Is this pack124 the right set to buy, are there any other differences, they need to have long ticklers. Cheers.

Fast Eddie · 2026-10-04T01:28:50-0600

T160 was set up very lean on the carbs and strangled by the black caps. They do still run well though, so if you want high mpg and low exhaust noise, go with the T160 carb pack and stock black caps.

But if you want it to go and sound like a proper Trident, then you want the T150 carb pack and something other than black cap silencers. Viking are on your side of the planet and make some ace straight through black cap copies. Ray guns work great but IMO don’t look right on a T160 (just personal taste). My personal favourites are Norton peashooters.

There’s mixed opinions on the T160 airbox, many say it’s good, many say it strangles them. I replaced it with a T150 ‘date box’ version on mine, before replacing that with velocity stacks. They sounded awesome with the induction roar, but weakened it enough on the slides to cause a slight stutter.

Shelby-Right · 2026-10-04T02:14:15-0600

Hi, I have a 3 into one, not sure but it might be viking with a roudy muffler tapered with about 6 or 7 pipe holes, oval K&n style pod filters on each, my carbs are early T160 626 R72 etc carbs which the internet says have 3.5 slides, but it has 4.0 cut away, I developed a decent off idle misfire on number one so I checked out all the electrics, and found a whole lot wrong. Battery wasn't charging could only get 12.7 reving the engine, it needed a better earth not to the rubber mounted battery tray.
Plugs were resistor, caps were resistor, so 10K ! then I found the coil HT lead had gone in crooked and had some fuzzies inside HT coil, then up under the battery box I found a ballast resistor, it had been fitted with Tri spark and 12V coils, so I fixed all that, and fitted a tri spark mosfet, brought all the earth's together and to the battery. It was a lot better, and I then moved onto the carbs and stripped and ultrasonic them for over 30 minutes in different fluids, now I'm not sure what you call it but the pressed in brass nozzel, the one around the needle, had come out of number 1 carb, I've just loctited and refitted it, it can't get into to motor, but felt tight enough, I think the slides probably have too much clearance, have to decide if I get one new carb body and 3 new slides, this would tidy it up for a while, I went for a decent 100km ride today and it had a bit more torque, ran fairly smooth, but had a bit too much over run burble, I set the pilots at 1 1/4, I'll reset to 1 1/2 and see what that's like. Cheers

Shelby-Right · 2026-10-04T02:59:59-0600

So, if I buy new pack124, 73 74 T150.
Cheers.

Fast Eddie · 2026-10-04T03:00:07-0600

Shelby-Right said:
Hi, I have a 3 into one, not sure but it might be viking with a roudy muffler tapered with about 6 or 7 pipe holes, oval K&n style pod filters on each, my carbs are early T160 626 R72 etc carbs which the internet says have 3.5 slides, but it has 4.0 cut away, I developed a decent off idle misfire on number one so I checked out all the electrics, and found a whole lot wrong. Battery wasn't charging could only get 12.7 reving the engine, it needed a better earth not to the rubber mounted battery tray.
Plugs were resistor, caps were resistor, so 10K ! then I found the coil HT lead had gone in crooked and had some fuzzies inside HT coil, then up under the battery box I found a ballast resistor, it had been fitted with Tri spark and 12V coils, so I fixed all that, and fitted a tri spark mosfet, brought all the earth's together and to the battery. It was a lot better, and I then moved onto the carbs and stripped and ultrasonic them for over 30 minutes in different fluids, now I'm not sure what you call it but the pressed in brass nozzel, the one around the needle, had come out of number 1 carb, I've just loctited and refitted it, it can't get into to motor, but felt tight enough, I think the slides probably have too much clearance, have to decide if I get one new carb body and 3 new slides, this would tidy it up for a while, I went for a decent 100km ride today and it had a bit more torque, ran fairly smooth, but had a bit too much over run burble, I set the pilots at 1 1/4, I'll reset to 1 1/2 and see what that's like. Cheers

Wow you found a whole lot of issues there, it’s a wonder the old gal ran so well, I’m sure she’ll pay that back to you.

With pod filters and an unknown 3:1 exhaust you have no choice but to experiment to find the best set up. And sometimes it can be counter intuitive, for example putting a Maney 2:1 on my Commando required weaker needle settings on mine and I would NEVER have guessed that, and without the dyno telling me I kinda doubt I’d have ever found it out through experimentation!

Fast Eddie · 2026-10-04T03:03:38-0600

If you’re not already, it’s worth joining up on triplesonline.com you’ll get a lot of experienced answers from those boyz. Just be aware that like anywhere with anything, you’ll get a wide range of differing opinions.

www.triplesonline.com

baz · 2026-10-04T09:29:53-0600

I expect to be hung drawn and quartered for this but I have 28mm mikuni VMs on my t160 fitted with a t150 date box
I liked them so much I fitted a set to my rocket 3 as well
The only drawback is the pilot jets are prone to blocking
I realise it's not the question you asked so apologies for diluting the post but the difference it made on both my bikes is remarkable

Shelby-Right · 2026-10-04T11:56:10-0600

Fast Eddie said:
Wow you found a whole lot of issues there, it’s a wonder the old gal ran so well, I’m sure she’ll pay that back to you.

With pod filters and an unknown 3:1 exhaust you have no choice but to experiment to find the best set up. And sometimes it can be counter intuitive, for example putting a Maney 2:1 on my Commando required weaker needle settings on mine and I would NEVER have guessed that, and without the dyno telling me I kinda doubt I’d have ever found it out through experimentation!

This whole episode started off with the brake light not working, which turned out to be the handle bar switch adjustment initially, but then that brown feed wire actually had some missing insulation or a few untidy strands, that were very difficult to see, anyway after a bit of a short the original triumph connector had melted a pin, someone had already bodged it with two other wires going around the outside and a made up pin, so I had to chop that out, and fitted a new spade connector, but more issues were from the tail light light, which has worked fine for the last 3-4 years of ownership, it was beyond me, so I got a sparky mate, he found the earth had broken off back there, and the wire colour's were correct but needed to be swapped around as it was doing this weird earthing thing to work, it was over my head, so that's all been sorted and changed around so the correct colour's match. This all happened before all the ignition work.

Triumph T160 carbs

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