My Locost Carb Balancer...

[robocog]

My Locost Carb Balancer... is made from fail as well as other household junk
I have one of the Gunsosns "pea in a graded tube" effort ...works 100% on the throttle bodies on the car (using the supplied thingy that fits over the trumpets)

But it just will not work on the twin cylinder carbs on the motorbike when using the carb takeoffs

It has a pair of vacc takeoffs on the carbs
but it just sucks the pea to the top of the pipe...so no use

Can't be bothered to find the Gunsos job which is buried under tons of shite in the shed, take the air filters off

So I built a manometer type affair
Just a plank of wood some clear tubing some cable clips and some fork oil

Theory /was/ sound enough and saw the idea on here

method..
fold the clear pipe in half and clip it to the plank
fill a small quantity of fork oil into the pipework (which eventually settles at the bottom of the loop)
hook both ends to each vacc takeoff
start bike, tweak balance adjuster till both pipes oil levels are as near as damnit

needless to say it has all gone horribly wrong several times already with alternate cyls sucking a gobfull of oil and no happy balance found

One plug oil soaked and since replaced with a new one

Sick of filling the pipework with fresh oil and then waiting for it to settle/ find a level only for one cyl to suck it all out before I get chance to do anything...and dont want to kill my spare new plugs by oiling them up

I'm sure I did this ages ago using the DIY balancer and it worked brill and got them as close as could be expected but now kicking myself I didn't bother to use the locknut on the adjuster...DOH!

Exhaust is a 2>1 affair so no use in checking they are making the same noise or same pressure out the back as suggested in the manual

Looks like I should have just bought the type with gauges (assuming they will be ok for what appears to be quite a massive vaccum)

Meantime I have got the bike running so it "sounded even" by trial and error
then alternately pulling the HT leads off each side and twiddled the balancer till the "firing on one cyl" RPMs are as close as I could hear by ear

Bike seems to pick up RPM and drop off faster than before and sounds crisper (so should be close ish?)
Also put some new points and condenser on there and timed it to perfection, so could be that making it run better

What balancers are happy when using the vacc takeoff on carbs?
Seen the "sets of gauges" on ebay...worth getting or hopelessly inaccurate?
Looks like they could be a faff to setup...involving valves to try and balance the gauges before you start?

Been offered a loan of a 'Morgan' unit would this be happy with the seemingly high vacc takeoff point on my carbs...or is it going to be the same as with my Gunsons where the pea just gets sucked to the top?

Regards
Rob
____________________
Needs a bigger garage...

[.]

Most of these gauges run a damper of some kind, sometimes it something as simple as an insert with a very tiny hole through the middle to reduce/restrict the connecting tube diameter.
might be worth trying something with your set-up

[robocog]

may try agin with a set of mig welding tips stuffed in the pipework over the weekend

It may give me enough time to shut the ignition off before it sucks the oil in..LOL

Regards
Rob
____________________
Needs a bigger garage...

[temeluchus]