Carb holders - Which are good?

[Incubus]

I have come to the conclusion that my carb holders, which I knew were not great, in fact totally and completely suck - and, sadly, not only from the intended direction. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and replace them. This, I think, was a great contributing factor to my recent traumatics, chronicled so well in my last thread.

My XS runs again, but I don't think I can really synch my carbs beyond a bench synch. I believe that the various leaks throw off the vacuum readings and, when they appear to be synched, they are, in fact, strangling the air flow.

Which is a very long lead in to a very succinct question. I have found various placed to buy carb holders. Stock, of course, for a cool $180 with shipping, or aftermarket, for about half that. Partsnmore has them for $90, Georgefix on Ebay has them for about $97 with shipping and Sirius Consolidated has them for about the same price as George Fix. Do the relatively inexpensive ($36 a pair) carb holders Mikesxs offers fit our 1100s?

Has anyone used these aftermarket manifolds? Will Succubus be happy with them? Or should I instead wait until I can hide a larger amount of money from SWMBO to spring for the fancy OEM stuff?

Opinions, as always, are encouraged.

Thanks for this and for all the help so far bringing my scoot back to life. This forum, and all you helpful folks, are great.

Patrick

[DiverRay]

Patrick,
IIRC the XS1100 needs the proper intake boots. P&M boots have been used by some of the members, and they have been happy. Try doing a "search" on carb boots, or intake boots and see what can be found.
Ray

[TopCatGr58]

Patrick,

Before you shell any $$ out, pull the carbs and then the intakes. Look inside of them. Are there any cracks on the INSIDE? Very doubtful, they are double walled, and the outside can be very cracked, but the insides can still be pristine. Get some black RTV sealant, some disposable rubber gloves, and slather the RTV all around the outside working it into the cracks, and smooth them out. Let them cure, and then put them back on.

Also, inspect the head mating surface, the rubber that covers the underlying metal can dry/rot/crack/flake, etc. and THAT can cause vacuum leaks. You can remove the dead rubber to make the surface smooth, and then use a gasket and some Yamabond type sealant...NOT RTV for the mounting surface.

Now, if you find any cracked thru from out to in, then replace them, otherwise, recondition them as above and save lots of $$!
T.C.

BTW, I believe folks have already checked and tried, and the intakes from MikesXS will not work, not the correct angles!

[JWSanders]

Ditto what TC said.

But, if you do find you need them, I have bought many new parts through Georgefix and have been pleased everytime. Seems to be a no-nonsense guy. Gets a thumbs up from me.

[Czekus21]

That's a good thing to hear about georgefix. I just bought a new cam chain from him. Should be in by this weekend.

[Incubus]

I checked before I put them on when I was working on the head a few months ago and the cracks didn't go through. I had issues at two places. The mating surface between the manifolds and the head and around the vacuum tubes.

I tried using permatex on the mating surfaces bwteen the manifolds and the head. With the two vacuum tubes that pulled completely free when I pulled the crusty old vacuum lines of them, I used gorilla glue to bond them to the rubber and then a bead of silicon around the base of all the vacuum tubes to try to make them airtight.

I thought my repair looked pretty good, especially when the bike ran. Until I tried to synch them last weekend and essentially disabled my bike. Well, maybe the disabling took place when I initially "fixed" the wires from the advancer. Dunno. But when I pulled the carbs after that episode my gauges had shown them almost exactly even, but the butterflies were visibly very different. The only explanation I can arrive at is air leaks somewhere between the carbs and the heads. Either the holders aren't sealing well around the barrels of the carbs, or one of my repairs is not repaired.

Before I shell out the equivalent of a springtime electric bill for the new holders I likely will ry once again to get these to seal. The bike runs now, but I can't get the idle down without synching the carbs and I can't synch the carbs without disabling the bike.

Not an enviable conundrum....

Patrick

[John]

Pat, I had the same issues with some carb boots on my 81. I just cleaned them real good, and wrapped them in about three layers of electrical tape. I made some gaskets from some t'stat housing gaskets from a Ford 2.3L 4 cyl. The bolt pattern is offset just perfectly, and with some some trimming, they work great. The vacuum caps can be bought any any parts store. they are 3/16 inch.

[nashville_bill]

The PartsNMore boots are good quality and a lot cheaper than stock. The XS650 boots won't work.

[Ken Talbot]

When/if you can get the motor running, have you tried the procedure from this tech article to see if or where you might be losing vacuum?

[Incubus]

John, is there a specific year or a range of years for those t'stat gaskets?

[John]

It is probably an older application. We had a bunch of vintage 1940's former military aircraft tow tractors at work, and some had been converted from a flathead 6 cyl, to the 2.3 Ford engine. This had been done about 20 years ago, so I would get some from an old Mustang/Ranger application. If you have a carb boot off, then just take it with you to the parts store, and match up the gasket to the boot. Some trimming is needed, but it is very minor. The biggest thing is that the bolt pattern matches. Be sure to remove the old material that is on the gasket surfce of the boots, as it may cause a leak. I didn't use any kind of sealant on this joint, just a clean, dry installation.

[Incubus]

Four Ford Pinto t'stat gaskets - $3.96

One tube Permatex RTV black - $3.99

A smooth 1,000 rpm idle and a throttle that will adjust both up and down - priceless.

What a difference it makes when you don'r have air gushing through your manifolds with tornadic force.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I am going to need to change these carb holders at some point, but they're airtight right now. I also have confirmed that that was the problem with my idle.

It's 68 right now headed for a high of about 75. It's sunny, with only a very slight breeze.

Please don't expect me to see any replies to this posting for at least 100 miles.

Patrick

[John]

Yea Pat!

Don'cha love it when a plan comes together? happy riding. Does that mean that we will be seeing you in a few weeks?

[Incubus]

I want to, John, and my odds of making it increased dramatically today. I have some charging issues, but I don't expect they will be too difficult to solve. Probably a bad ground, or something simple, as I've checked all the components and they tested good.

I can say, however, that my XS was promoted today from sometime dream to transportation. She idles well, the engine speed drops like it's supposed to when I ease off the throttle. She flat grabs and goes.

Now to make her perfect.

Patrick

[webbcraft2150]

Its funny how they go from a POS to the love of your life.