Hitchcocks Forum

Apart from the silencer, this R.E. 535 GT was in standard trim before the fitting of the Hitchcocks carb kit. Here is a short test run, with the carb fitted. The only adjustment made to the carb 'out of the box', was to turn the tickover screw down a touch. It went very well, with easy starting and no flat spots ... https://youtu.be/v2239Fgl48s

Nice; I had the same result on my C5. Just adjust the tickover and forget. Beats me why anybody bothers with a PCV.

I have a PCV and wish I hadn't bothered tbh. It has the silencer and filter but it made little or no difference except to my bank balance.
how easy are the carb conversions to fit? Do you have to drill the tank for the petrol tap? Dave

Hi Dave, all the bits required come in the kit, as well as instructions. This is the second kit I have fitted and it is do-able in a day. The only 'fiddles' I found are getting the carb on to the manifold - you have to tilt it [instructions mention this] and the replacement head steady plates and choke lever, getting the fuel tap into an accessible position to operate it and getting the original throttle cables off. This is all done 'once only' and then you are left with a carb you can tune to match whatever exhaust etc you wish to fit to your machine. Regards, Paul.

Oh and no - no drilling required !

If it’s the same as the C5 one you get a nice plate that is provided with a threaded hole in it to take the supplied fuel tap. Basically you just replace the original plate on which the fuel pump is mounted with the new one. The fuel level sender unit remains undisturbed. Because the FI bit of the system is no longer there the MIL will latest on permanently unless you opt to disconnect the wire to the bulb, in which case the MIL will never light. Originally I had the light on as it was a handy way of knowing that the ignition was switched on. When I fitted our host’s LED voltmeter using a switched live it became apparent to me that in fact that in itself demonstrated that the ignition is on, so I disabled the MIL light. If I were to start afresh I’d buy an ammeter to replace the whole MIL instrument, but really I don’t need both the voltmeter and ammeter and until the ethanol dissolved the fuel level float I might as well keep the MIL instrument anyway. I believe the instruments are different on the CGT so this may not apply. I have to say that IMHO it looks better with a carb and the induction noise is better as the air filter is where it should be, not down below somewhere. I also get an extra storage area, vacated by the original air filter, though again this may be different on the CGT. I have had two different aftermarket exhausts on mine, both easily catered for by adjusting the carb. Not so easy with a PCV if you have to buy another map, assuming you don’t fancy playing with it yourself.