Hitchcocks Forum

A mistake to avoid; On Sunday, I reset the needle on my Amal Mk.1 concentric, which was on the top groove; with a conical filter and a Goldie silencer, I thought it might be running lean.
I took it out for a ride; obviously not right; very difficult to set the idle, noise, soot. I kept having to stop to clean the plug, and it got worse until it wouldn't go at all and I pushed it the last 1/4 mile home.
Thinking to put it back on the top groove I removed the throttle slide. I found the needle clip was not engaged with any groove at all and the needle had pushed way up to the point that it was not really doing anything, making the engine run monstrously rich.
I may have pushed the needle up while refitting the slide, it may have caught momentarily on the side of the jet opening. If so, it took very little force to dislodge it.

So, no damage done but just something to watch out for when reassembling an Amal, or a Mikuni/Micarb for that matter.

I gave up on the MK1 as the thing distorts and I got a whole range of problems ..some like yours , in the end they will rattle and jam , now I'm on the MK 2 now and find it a far better carb , takes longer to set up if the engine is in a high state of tune , rather lumpy for the first 5 mins then it's just fantastic and can be converted to run on meth or ethanol very fast but I had to cut off the fuel tank bolt plate and grind the frame lug for it to fit , a great carb for road or track and with the rubber conector pipe needle hight changes are very fast , the methonal/ethonal kit is a bit pricy but hey we all know a new war is looming so order your distiler now .