Need carb sync in Colorado

[Kurt]

Anyone have the tools to sync carbs near Denver? I need it done, and the local shops want 200 to do it.

If anyone can help me out it would be awesome!!

Thanks

[mro]

If no one to help

Cheep gauge set-up.
I use a single vacuum gauge (I take it off of the brake bleeder)
and threaded a hole into a piece of 1 1/4" plastic tube which is about 16 inches long. then duck taped ends of pipe closed.
Put another hole in pipe with threads to screw in a brass hose barb which I have a 20" piece of vacuum hose attached to. One other thing I did was to put a small hose clamp on vacuum hose with a small bolt laying along hose so it pinches the hose when clamp is tightened. (I tighten hose clamp after hooked up to a intake boot and engine running to "dampen" the vacuum gauge needle, otherwise it will just jump around.

With this set up, check vacuum on #3 first, then move it to #4 and set #4 to #3. Will have to go back and forth a few times to double check as vacuum will change enough during tuning to screw things up. Then do 2 & 1 and match #3.

Been meaning to check if the plastic tube (pvc pipe) is even nessesary as the clamp/bolt on the vac hose is needed to steady vac gauge needle.


mro
btw, don't forget to place a good sized fan blowing on the engine
to help keep it cool.
btw2, above works very well...just takes longer than having the carb sticks

[pggg]

Before I scored a 4 gauge vac setup I'd always used just a single vac gauge, it does the trick fine, just takes longer with more fiddling than a 4-gauge. No need for pvc pipes or anything, just plug in the hose and damp the pulses either with a small hose clamp like mro's or even better, an aquarium air-valve

[Dragon Tamer]

Some time back I built a carb sync tool with about $4 worth of parts from a local hardware store.
Get about twelve to fifteen feet of 1/4" clear tubing and staple one end of it to a four foot one by four in a "U" down and up so the tubing runs side by side about and inch apart. Plug the end that is on the board after pouring in enough water to fill the tube about one half way up the "U" (put some food color in the water to make it easier to see). Hook the long end on the carb and start 'er up. You may have to slightly crimp the tube to stop the quivers. Mark the spot where the water comes up to with a clothes pin and go to the next carb. Remember to keep adjusting the idle to 1000 as you sync. The damn thing works better than the expensive fancy one I got later and I still use the old one most of the time. Once you have them all synced you can really fine tune them by hooking one carb to each end of the tube and fine sync them until the water level is even. Don't do this until you have first gone through them because if one is way out it will suck the water out of the tube into the more closed carb and this will cause 'er to miss for a few seconds!

[AlanB]

Hi Dragon Tamer,

I like the sound of that; Any chance of a pic?

AlanB

[Dragon Tamer]

I don't, but will make one and post it as quickly as I can.

[Dragon Tamer]

OK, will see if I got the hang of putting the pictures in here, hope it works. Please note the blue plastic cap on the short end of the tube, you will need this or some type of plug (golf tee works also) to prevent the water from being pulled out of the tube. You can also see the clothes pin marking where the water level went. As the bike is not running in these photos the water level is equal. This particular setup has a restrictor in the hookup tube (where the black and white hoses meet at the front of the seat) it is made of a 29cent push on coupling with a snug fitting cotter pin pushed into it. This does a very nice job of damping out the pulses.

[Kurt]

Thanks for the advice,

Dragon Tamer... what kind of pipes are you running? those look sweet!

[John]

Them's would be Jardine Spaghetti Pipes. A few of us have them. I have them on my 80 and I have a set to go on the 81.

[Kurt]

Anyone have a set of thems for sale?

[acof911]

there are some on ebay now, kind of rough though.
Item number: 130124657792

[Dragon Tamer]

Kurt,

John has it right. Jardine four into two (spaghetti) pipes. Old Yamaha dealer about fifty miles from me had them on the shelf a number of years back. Don't know if they are available yet or not. (other than e-bay etc) I am pretty sure he won't have any more as I bought pretty everything he had along the line of parts that would fit an XS!

[Kurt]

Yeah those are pretty beat... ug.

[firecrackerboom]

Hey, I think I will try this. Just a couple questions:

1. Do i need some sort of adapter to get the hose into the carb boot?

2. Where do I adjust the carbs?

3. Should I clean the carbs out before doing this?

4. If so, how do I clean the carbs?

Thanks guys! (and girls?)

--Darrek

[Dragon Tamer]

Hi Darrek,
The hose I used is 1/4" ID and just pushes onto the boot nipples, needs no adaptors. Do remember that if those vacuum covers are original or have been there for a while they will be hardened and difficult to remove. If that is the case they WILL leak after you put them back on and this will screw up your whole operation. You can find new ones at any auto parts store and I would recommend that you start with new ones on there.
The sync adjusting screws are located between the carbs along the main carb shaft. The #3 carb is NOT adjustable and therefore is your base carb. Put the bike up on the center stand, start and warm it up (put a box fan or something in front of it to get some wind on the engine or she WILL overheat), set the idle at 1000 rpm and check the vacuum level on #3 and mark that level. Then check the level on #4, with the screw between #3 and #4 adjust #4 to the same level as #3. At this point you will probably have to re-adjust the idle back to 1000 rpm to get the same levels. Then adjust the #1 carb and then #2. The screw between #2 and #3 will adjust both #1 and #2 at the same time to bring them to the level of #3 and #4 if needed. Remember to keep adjusting the idle as it will change every time you adjust a carb! At this point I usually run through them again to double check every thing. It is a lot easier than it sounds 'specially after you have done it once. If the bike is running fairly before you sync you may not have to clean the carbs, if syncing the carbs does not help, then you will have to clean them, they MUST be removed from the engine and dissasembled to do so. Use the search function, there are many threads on this sight that can explain that procedure better than I can.