About to balance my carbs...

1. Tuning your carbs before you've done things like a valve clearance check is going to be a band-aid solution to any problems your bike is having.
2. If you suck large amounts of water in through the vacuum hoses it's NOT going to be pretty.
3. How large a tolerance for error do you think a couple of tubes of water have when compared to a purpose built balancing gauge set? Is this the sort of tolerances your comfortable with whilst tuning your bike?

If all of the above checks out then go for it! A bit of backyard ingenuity is what i always try to encourage.

 

The 3ln doesn’t have a vacuum nipple to connect a plain tube to. I don’t know about the 2kr but the zeal doesn’t either. Oh and yanking the tubes off while the engine is running is also not the best idea you have ever had.

 

- Yanking tubes off is definitely not going to be a wise idea.
- Valve clearances are NOT difficult to do. Just be patient and check everything you do carefully.

Also, as Ciaran said... the FZR doesn't have anything to simply attach a tube to. So you need the screw in thingamajiggy* that will go into the vacuum hole once you've removed the hex screw.

* Commonly acknowledged technical term. My brain's not working quite right at the moment... might be too much kerosine whilst cleaning my chain or perhaps i need a minor service and some R&R.

 

thingamajiggy = vacuum nipple

 

The best walkthrough is actually a good service manual with pictures! It's really a straight forward process when it comes down to it, but there are a few things that you can mess up. Firstly, the entire exercise is about physically measuring the distance between the cam lobe and the shim bucket so you need to know how to get a feel for what feeler gauges 'fit' and what doesn't. There's a fine line where by you can slide it in and feel resistance but not have to force it at all.

Then of course there's the fun of playing the shim shuffle game whereby you write them all down on a piece of paper, calculate the ideal clearances then play around with them to minimise the number of shims you need to buy. Speaking of which, when it comes to ordering shims i'd highly recommend doing a search for Precision Shims. That guy is brilliant! I had my order in on a Wednesday morning and i had my shims by Thursday midday in the post... not to mention he's also ALOT cheaper than getting them through the workshops.

 

The 2kr has nipples ay. Yeah yanking the tubes off will create an air leak in the intake manifold. The engine will run extremely lean if at all. Sometimes if a leak is bad enough the engine rpm will rise to redline by itself. If the bike isn’t shut down at that point it will eat itself alive. A couple of seconds until you hit the kill switch probably isn’t going to be so horrific but its not good form.

I would bet a **** load of people have sucked all sorts of liquids into their engines using this method. I proper set of gauges are just allot easier to use. As for the fluid jumping around maybe try having a longer lead of air to dampen the fluctuations....

Let us know how it turns out.

Oh and thingamajiggy is most definitely a technical term.

 

i did this just a couple of days ago (yes i tried the water mothod first ) and went out and bought the gauges, but you stil get alot of fluctuation, so i found that if u put a tap somewhere in the air hose, open it right up, and then slowly shut it down until the fluctuation stop (not completely shut off) you get an accurate smooth reading

 

As far as timing is concerned it isn't a problem that I've seen raise its ugly head but every once an a while and rearely twice on the same bike. If timing is off on a bike, it is generally a problem that is going to turn ugly.

 

If the timings out my guess is you are going to have more noticeable problems than a jumpy vacuum gauge.

 

i no this is an old thred but i didn't want to start another. when useing vacume gauges to the vacume port's i only have screws. so where or how can get a hold of some vacume nipples

 

I think you are looking at the wrong thing..

One of the vacuum nipples is shown here on the underneath of the rubber boots between the carb and the head. This photo taken from underneath the carbs shows the nipple with the rubber cap and a clamp on it. The cap comes off and the vacuum hose goes on.

 

The picture dave is showing is from a 2kr. The 3ln doesn't have a spigot running from the intake manifold like that.

I got a set with my vacuum gauge from these people but you can buy them separately under accessories.

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I have been shot down in flames - aaarrrrrrggg crash and burn dave <!-- s:alcoholic: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_all_coholic.gif" alt=":alcoholic:" title="Alcoholic" /><!-- s:alcoholic: --> <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_roll.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling LoL" /><!-- s:roll: -->

Your input appreciated as I have never had a good look at the 3LN model

 

thanks for the reply dave.

my bike doesn't have that it just a bolt where your vacumme nipple is.

 

Ciaran thanks for the info.

just one more question is it 5 or 6mm

 

I knew you were going to ask me that.

Ok, just got back from the garage and the set I used in the 3ln where 6mm. I just got the nylon ones and they work fine.