Bent Needle

[egleaves]

Can someone tell me if this is as bad as it looks? This is out of the #3 carb and it may be difficult to tell in the picture, but the tip is bent starting from about 1/8" from the end. I'm having a little trouble fine tuning the carbs to eliminate the 5K stumble; could this have anything to do with it?

[The Lorax]

I can't say for certain, but I believe that might be part of your issue. You should be able to find a replacement easily enough. either one of the carb sites (motorcyclecarbs.com) or ebay , or maybe Doug has one in one of those "extra" carb bodies he's got laying around. otherwise a bone yard in the area might be a good place to look. that's all I got, have a nice day and ride safe

[cowboybob998]

I have one out of an old carb, not bent but has some wear on the upper end, dont know if it is good or not you are wellcome to it if you want it, ask someone on here if the wear on the upper end is important or not, i dont know.

[Crazcnuk]

It certainly won't help, but what you have to check now is the emulsion tube it went into, to see if it wore the hole oval.

If so you need a new needle and emulsion tube.

You may be able to straighten the tip, if you're careful.

[DGXSER]

Hey Eric,

That certainly is not a good thing. I would suspect it is at a minimum causing that slide to hang up a bit higher at low load. Would have a similar effect to my misassembly of the needle into the slide I would suspect, but may effect you up through higher RPMs as it may cause it to sit higher. Causing that cylinder to run rich. Just a guess really. Of course if my theory below is correct, the needle is not bent enough to interfere, it may just block off more the flow and cause it to be lean? So I guess I don't frickin know!

If it were me, I would replace it if you can. I would also take a close look at that emulsion tube like Crazcnuk stated. It does not look bent enough to cause that kind of trouble though. The emulsion tube is a straight through diameter hole IIRC. So it is about the diameter of the fatest part of that needle and the tip looks to be inside of that diameter, if that makes sense. Which would keep it from doing damage, but look close just the same.

Now the question is who dropped your slide?

Cowboybob - every one of my needles has some minor grooves in them up near the top where they line up with the emulsion tube edge when the slide is seated. My bike seems to be running fine with them like that.

Hey Matt, the only yard around here is Skipps and this time of year, he knows he has what EVERYONE wants. His prices about triple in the spring for anything, let alone a rare part. And he is not that cheap in the winter either!

[The Lorax]

Well, may haps you guys should come up this way, there's a bone yard 15 min. tops from my place, the guy who runs it acts like nothing is worth putting time or money into, but he's a pretty good fella, prices seem reasonable, I've bought several things from him over the years, I got the carbs for my bike from him, not unreasonably priced, $150 and they were pretty clean, didn't have to do much to them to fire it up the first time, he even let me pick out what main jets I wanted for them from his stash. He knows quite a bit about old bikes too...bonus. have a nice day and ride safe

[DGXSER]

Not bad pricing Matt. When I went through my mixing screw adventure in December, Skipps wanted me to buy a full set from them instead of selling me a body from a 650 set or a few 1100 sets they had in an old bus that had been canabolized pretty badly. He had a set full of kerosene he would sell me for $200 in December, told me they would be minimum $300 come spring.

[Cobia]

Bent needle

Jack,
I would replace/repair anything that's out of spec. A bent needle raises a big red flag for me right away, I would also closely inspect the condition of where it goes in as well.

btw - just don't use it for shooting up...OK?? ...LOL!!

[Ivan]

You might could finesse it back in to some sort of shape by rolling it on a flat surface with some pressure. I would only use this as a stop gap measure to keep from going into detoxification withdraws from not riding while UPS takes their sweet time getting to the door.

I would look into a new needle and tube. I think MikesXS has them or they should be available from anyone that sells mikuni jets. There is a number at the top stamped in that you could use to order it.

The other answer is to leave it out and run at full throttle all the time, like I do. I have no throttle, just a switch.

[egleaves]

Go, or no go. I like it , Ivan!

Thanks all for your input, it looks like I'll be running the credit card through MikesXS again. There's no way that needle bent under normal operation, right? Maybe the same guy who broke the float post dropped the needle and didn't notice/fix it.

[drooker56]

Not sure if the '79 needle will work but I have a brand new one your more than welcome to. Email me your address if you need it or if its compatible.

[DGXSER]

Hey Drooker, unfortunately, that 79 will not work in the 80 carbs he has.