Wassell Amal copies (2012)

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ZFD said:
. This again contradicts the rumour about the "Chinese manufacture".
Joe
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No, not really. Having perused the Andover website (which is very good btw), it's just hit me, that Andover don't resell any Wassell product lines. While it's in the public's interest to have choice and competition, it's not in Andover's interest to do so. Hence, i'll take what you post on the subject, with a pinch of salt.

The reality is that for decades Amal Carbs have been sold and marketed 'Made in England'. Since the 900's have been re-tooled, there's no such claim anymore on the product, or any of the packaging. This is a fact that any member of the public can check and see for themselves, independently.
 
Hello,
as you can see from my user name, I am Mark Burnett of the Amal Carburetter Company.

All Amal Carburetters, including the 900 series, are made here at our factory in sunny Wiltshire.

We often conduct tours of our factory for customers and clubs, showing them our production facility.

Anyone who wants to have a look round is welcome - just turn up and buy something!!!

Mark.
 
Hi Mr. Burnett,
thank you for maintaining and improving the product line.
There are those who scoff at the Amal, I am not among them.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
All the best and thanks again.
 
There are those who scoff at the Amal, I am not among them.
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Likewise. A nice simple carb which if fitted properly works just fine. Mine got new bodies and chromed brass slides a while back and what I noticed was a substantial improvement in mileage. I don't think the old pair (from '99) were that bad but I definitely gained to the point where I could get 160 from my roadster tank. Only issues I had were that the old floats were a tight fit in the new bodies and jammed.
On the 'Made in England' front does that mean the castings are UK sourced and machined as well? Just interested Mark.
 
Mark Burnett AMAL CARBURETTOR COMPANY wrote

All Amal carburettors including the 900 series are made here at our factory in sunny wiltshire

this statement was posted to quash the rumors that the new 900 carbs are manufactured in England not China ???????

Please note i have recently purchased a set of Amal MK2 carbs from the AMAL CARBURETTOR COMPANY

These are embossed with MADE IN SPAIN on the carburetter body casting and packaged as AMAL MADE IN ENGLAND

Mark put the pointed end of the gun in your mouth !!!!!!!!!!!

Wassell dont hide the country of origin of thier product
 
Amal have been getting castings from Spain and building Mark 2 carburetters with them in the UK since the 1970s. Machining and crucial quality control were all done in the UK, as was the final assembly of the carburetters.

It would be surprising in today's world if some castings and components were not being sourced outside the UK but machining work, quality control and final assembly appear to have remained UK based. So does research and development which seems to be the crucial difference between Amal and Wassells. Amal is owned by carburetter specialists who have already introduced more improvements in design and quality to Amal carburetters than there have been in the last 40 years and who appear to have more in the pipeline.

Wassells are a spares distributor who make money shifting boxes. Cheap boxes from a Chinese shelf are all the same to them - and we can be sure their familiar standards of quality apply! As a sales strategy - well several forums appear to suddenly have squeaky clean new members who are full of tales of what a terrible company Amal are!!
 
Keith1069 said:
On the 'Made in England' front does that mean the castings are UK sourced and machined as well? Just interested Mark.
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We absolutely do source some castings (machined and un-machined) from outside of the UK. I’ll put some things in perspective for you. Burlen (parent company to Amal) use well over 5000 separate castings in the manufacture of their product ranges. A very small percentage (I would estimate between 2 and 4%) of these castings have been sourced from outside the UK. The reason for this is usually down to economics of cost/quantity/quality. We have used foundries in Europe and beyond. Contrary to popular belief, even China sourced castings can be of equal or better quality than the UK but only if you are prepared to put effort into a properly controlled UK vetting and quality procedure as we do. Conversely, Italy, well lauded as producers of fine instruments, has produced some quite terrible castings at great expense. So, of the 20,000 plus saleable stock lines we produce, yes, some will have seeds grown in other countries, however, assembly and quality control is 100% Salisbury, England. And for clarification, we have never hidden this fact.

The whole ‘made in the UK’ argument has started to become a bit pathetic to be honest, and I don’t see the point. We would never intentionally lie about the provenance of our products – not only does it actually ‘mean’ something to be able to say ‘made in England’ but it would be against the law to mislead. As a company, we are not perfect and do not profess to being so, but I am proud of where we have taken the Amal brand and I look forward to continued development in the future.

ebsbury said:
Amal have been getting castings from Spain and building Mark 2 carburetters with them in the UK since the 1970s. Machining and crucial quality control were all done in the UK, as was the final assembly of the carburetters.
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Ebsbury is 100% correct. In addition, we have never been totally happy with the quality of the castings from Spain and as such are currently producing new tooling..... and.... you’ve guessed it...... it’ll have ‘made in England’ on the casting....... because....... it’ll be made in England!!!!!
 
Mark Burnett said:
We absolutely do source some castings (machined and un-machined) from outside of the UK. Contrary to popular belief, even China sourced castings can be of equal or better quality than the UK.
The whole ‘made in the UK’ argument has started to become a bit pathetic to be honest,
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Personally, it doesn't bother me if the castings are made in the UK,Spain, or China. I'll still purchase my regular 30mm/32mm's.
The castings..... top,body,float chamber,slide etc ARE the carburettor.
Importing such castings is fine, but brainwash marketing 'Made in England' the carbs because they are assembled and put in a box (which must take all of 2 minutes tops) just doesn't sit well with me. I visited Salisbury less than 12 months ago, and yes, there was assembly, but there wasn't any manufacturing.
To me 'Made' means manufactured, not 'Put in a box'. But, i am old school.

Though i am not alone :-

The Famous UK Made in England Petition
 
The long suffering chrome argument is simple.... chrome adheres well to brass, Mikuni offered them for years. Plating the cast pot metal slides.. not so much. So, chromed brass is GOOD, no issues, chromed pot metal BAD.
 
Wassel are renowned for their 'our parts won't fit and won't work' vision statement. If I was looking for a sound-bite to sum them up it would be 'Wassel are cheap and horrible'. Be afraid, be very afraid, in your crash helmet no-one can hear you scream
 
Hi all,
I know this question has been asked before but now they have been around for some time, what carbys do the smart people buy, Amal, Wassell or another ‘knock-off’ brand. I’m not interested in a Mikuni conversion.
I read some older posts where people suspected the Wassell might not be as good as it is a copy but from experience, Amal’s just aren’t that good themselves. The fact they make a premium carburettor doesn’t really impress me as all their carbs should be as good as possible and not continue with known weaknesses.
I guess money isn’t the prime motivator and all things being equal i would purchase Amal just for the originality but if someone tells me that Wassell carbs are either superior in performance or longevity I would be interested to hear.
regards
al
 
Alan L said:
Hi all,
I know this question has been asked before but now they have been around for some time, what carbys do the smart people buy, Amal, Wassell or another ‘knock-off’ brand. I’m not interested in a Mikuni conversion.
I read some older posts where people suspected the Wassell might not be as good as it is a copy but from experience, Amal’s just aren’t that good themselves. The fact they make a premium carburettor doesn’t really impress me as all their carbs should be as good as possible and not continue with known weaknesses.
I guess money isn’t the prime motivator and all things being equal i would purchase Amal just for the originality but if someone tells me that Wassell carbs are either superior in performance or longevity I would be interested to hear.
regards
al
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I don’t know what the perceived weaknesses are on the Premiers. I fitted a pair last year. They appear really well made and, more importantly for some look virtually identical to the original mk1’s. Very important to a lot of people.
The only issue I had was that the pilot jet needed cleaning before use. This is well documented so should not come as a surprise.
I guess some people will find this unacceptable.
They are simple, mirror the original carbs, suitable for modern fuel and are more wear resistant than originals.
I have fitted standard air filter. Dismantled them after about 2000 miles and found no wear visibly on the slides. Easy to set up, good tick over.
I think one of the secrets to good carb wear is good filters. Says he who run bell mouths on the road in my early years.
Very destructive for the whole motor for every day road use!
 
+1 on filters. Commando has a good filter. Burlen sells those conical screw ons and although nicely made and good fit how they filter anything smaller than
a grain of sand I do not know.
 
My 850 came with a single mk2 34 Amal from c.2013 with a round K&N filter. It had 3,400 miles on it. It was pretty clean when I dismantled it, despite a lot of standing with fuel in the bowls. The 3.5 slide is barely worn and smooth operating. The float bowl to body had no serious deformation. I bought and fitted the maintenance pack from Burlen. The only issues I had were:
- original gasket (between bowl and body) had split and leaked;
- the new stay up float kept sticking. It had a mark, like a centre punch, on its spindle, which created a burr. It worked properly once I removed it with wet and dry;
- the rubber which connects the carb body to the manifold (using jubilee clips), had deformed and torn.
Fair enough after 8 years. I played around with 22 and 20 pilots and it is happiest with a .15. 600 miles later, it runs and ticks over fine once warm. I like how simple it is. Happy customer. But that's a mk2 Amal on an 850.

Edit: for some reason, I am drawn to a twin carb set up though... maybe next year.
 
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Alan L said:
Hi all,
I know this question has been asked before but now they have been around for some time, what carbys do the smart people buy, Amal, Wassell or another ‘knock-off’ brand. I’m not interested in a Mikuni conversion.
I read some older posts where people suspected the Wassell might not be as good as it is a copy but from experience, Amal’s just aren’t that good themselves. The fact they make a premium carburettor doesn’t really impress me as all their carbs should be as good as possible and not continue with known weaknesses.
I guess money isn’t the prime motivator and all things being equal i would purchase Amal just for the originality but if someone tells me that Wassell carbs are either superior in performance or longevity I would be interested to hear.
regards
al
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I think you’ve miss understood the Premiers to be honest. They are very much a concentric carb by design still, but they address pretty much all the common weaknesses of the original concentric (which was very much ‘made to a price’ back in the day).

Massively reduced slide wear (Glens look new after 20k + on his Vincent) and the removable, cleanable, changeable pilot jet are two design improvements that make these carbs the clear choice IMHO.

The ‘stay up’ float is a debatable upgrade according to some reports though.
 
Keith1069 said:
Wonder what these are like :eek:
http://britishbikebits.com/wassell-carburettors
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Just installed a pair of the new Wassell carbs on my 76 850.
Quite pleased. No drips or issues. Came set up for my bike. Runs very well.
The only difference I can notice other than the name ( doesn't bother me ) is the slide and bores are a slightly smaller diameter. This would tell me perhaps they wanted to deal with the known warping bodies issue.
 
The Wassell carb Jets are not screwed in tight enough. Dropped a jet assembly to the bottom of a float bowl and 8 stroked on one side , swapping plugs to get to some help in Northern Ont. , fully loaded with wife too. 8 m.m. , 1/4 " drive borrowed socket tightened up both assemblies back into place. 900 Kms. trip , only real problem. Lavigne rally. Tighten up your jets. As supplied no good.
 
Hi,
Im yet to decide but I will probably go for Amal Premier.
The only comment I would make is that many posts seem to beat up the fact that Amals are quality items.
I would suggest they may be the best of a bad lot but in reality the are absolute crap.
The much vaunted Premiers are only making improvements to a very average design that should have always been incorporated from day one.
I imagine their is many an old Kawasaki 900 with carburettors as good as the day they were made and running in perfect tune.
The most cursory inspection of this forum will indicate that many of the posts revolve around premature wear and trying to get our Amals correctly tuned. We are all enthusiasts, however when Norton’s were new their market was riders who just wanted to get on an ride, not constantly tinker and fettle their bikes.
If Norton had of specified a carby of the same quality as the Mikunis and Kiehins that were fitted to their Japanese opposition Norton it may have contributed to norton survival (perhaps).
As such I don’t feel any particular brand loyalty to Amal other than keeping the bike as original as possible. I have to ask the question, why wouldn’t Wassel make as good a carburettor as Amal? Obviously with modern production methods they would easily be able to exceed the quality and dimensions of the 50 year old Amals they are copying. As the ‘challenger’ I can’t see they would have anything to gain by making an inferior product. Obviously Amal will always have the ability to command the higher price as ultimately they do have the name.
The intention of this post is not to claim that Wassel is better than Amal or visa versa but to encouraging us to be objective in our criticism
What do others think? Am I being too critical. Of course our bikes were somewhat anachronistic even when new though they did ‘fight above their weight but it doesn’t excuse poor quality carburettors and electrics
regards all
al
 
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