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[windmill john]

In case none of you are aware, this is the cursed carb of MichaelV:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11049

I thought I could exercise the demons. It’s early days and Max Von Sydow is still looking into it.

[Adrian]

This is probably why Amal changed from zinc alloy to aluminium alloy for the Premier version of the Mk1. You can get heavy brass slides for the basic Mk1 which ought to last a bit longer.

A.

[Wheaters]

I’ve never owned the proverbial piece of plate glass for flatting down parts using abrasive sheet, but I found that a good quality piece of kitchen worktop (the chipboard and “Formica” faced type) is just as flat and true.

I made my garage worktop from the stuff, keep it clean and just use that. Over the years I’ve made a number of items from ally plate and trued them up on it. I also trued up a cylinder head from a Reliant.

I reckon a few minutes of careful “fettling” would sort that carb face out. It’s surely caused by distortion at the engine joint side. If the carb itself is OK, I’d also take a long hard look at the Tufnol spacers. If they need trueing up, be very careful with dust control; it’s nasty stuff.

[windmill john]

I wouldn't have gone down this route if my monobloc started first, second, third, fourth ,fifth ZZZzzzzzzzz.........

Definitely not keen on the colder weather, so you would assume it needs more choke, or a slightly richer mixture. I try starting all ways, all techniques and eventually just kick start it in a frustrated manner and he starts.

[Wheaters]

My 350 with the 26mm Wassell concentric doesn’t need any choke, only a tickle till the fuel first shows. Having bought a choke cable and lever from our host, I realised it was just an unnecessary complication, so I removed the entire mechanism and blanked off the cable inlet.

The cold starting method I use is fuel on, pull in the clutch lever and kick once to free the plates. Then release the clutch lever.
Next, hold down the tickler until the fuel appears at the button (normally for a count of five), then release the tickler.

Holding the decompressor lever in and throttle slightly open, kick over twice. Find the “just over compression” position and release the decompressor lever.

Ignition on and a “long kick” normally starts it in one. If not and it kicks back (very seldom does that, tbh) I pull it through a couple of kicks to clear the spent gases from the cylinder, tickle it slightly more, find the just over compression point again and give another long kick to start.

When it’s hot, similar without tickling.

Tbh, Clearing the spent gases from the cylinder seems to be the secret.

[windmill john]

I followed your method to the letter when you posted it before; well not quite to the letter, I have no decompressor.

When I have some pennies, I might get another slide for the concentric and give it another bash. But at about £30 each, it might be a while for a luxury purchase.

[Wheaters]

There is another way to find “just past” TDC after the compression stroke, which is where it needs to be kicked over from. Put the bike in gear and rock it backwards until you feel compression building.

We used to do this as teenagers on a methanol burning 500 J.A.P. Speedway bike. It had no kickstart and a 15:1 compression ratio.

[windmill john]

Due to the fact that I haven’t sold my Transalp, Gupta is behind the house and it’s too awkward to move him round in the dark, so I’ll only be able to get him out on the weekends. I’ll try anything to get him kicked over quicker.

Actually only getting him out once a week exacerbates the issue, which makes for a good test.