I've been following this general thread for almost all the time (I think) that
its been running and
I have to say I'm becoming disappointed in what appears to be the level of
enthusiasm many are
showing for the carb balancing device. Aren't we all getting a bit too
over-dependent on gadgetry?
What's wrong with the 'old fashioned' way described ad nauseam in a plethora of
workshop manuals and
car handbooks?
Mixture strength can easily be checked by pushing the palm of your hand against
the exhaust tailpipe
to verify misfires and smoke - and to then 'smell' the palm for richness or
weakness. Yes, you
really can 'smell' it! Having then initially set the slow idle, you can use a
short piece of garden
hose pipe to one ear to compare the level and pitch of intake hiss. One of my
'tools' (and I copied
it from many colleagues) was to use an old twin tube stethoscope. That way, on
a twin SU set up, you
can hear the hiss in 'stereo' and do the fine tuning that way. I later
graduated to a single tube
steth that in itself was extremely useful for diagnosing other internal rumbles
and rattles before
they became serious.
I guess some may think all this too non-scientific? For the record, I used
those bits of equipment
less than a month back to reset the carbs on the UK Raffle Spitfire before it
went in for its annual
(and mandatory) safety test. It fires up instantly from cold, the choke can be
pushed fully home
within two minutes and the exhaust emissions were within limits established for
a car of its age.
I'm no ace mechanic but you really can accurately set up a set of dual or
triple SU's without having
to resort to a colour tune and visual balancer and all achieving exactly the
same result. What's
more. countless thousands of people have done it too and its certainly not
rocket science.
Jonmac
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