Would this work for super cheap carb balance?

Hey guys,

In the realm of better-than-not-doing-anything-at-all :

For balancing carbs without the real balancer tools, could you take clear fuel line, fill it with benign hydrocarbon substance (seafoam or something), and attach one end to cylinder 1 and the other to cylinder 2.

Run the bike with the line in a loop lower than the cylinders, with the loop down around the crank area lets say. One cylinder pulls harder, bigger vacuum, pulls the liquid up a little higher. You balance until the liquid is level on both sides of the loop.

Continue as normal to do 3 & 4, then the two sides together.

Yes, I am running out of money on my project. Would this method be worth my time? Would almost be free materials wise - and I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work.

I've never balanced carbs before...

 

carb sync bottles are the easiest and cheapest way to go i think. if you've got two glass bottles and some vacuum line, you've got your tools. use the search.
but yes some have done the idea you are thinking of. and it does work. the problem i had even with the bottles is if one carb pulls alot harder it will pull all the fluid to one side and with the bottles if you put too much in it will suck up the line and into the engine... don't ask how it ends up.

 

look in HalfCentury's gallery.

 

rnice, check out the FAQ suggestion forum, I did a how to on making a 2 bottle synch tool, works great. I post the link here but I haven't figured oout how to do it. I used ATF fluid in mine as it won't hurt the carbs if it gets in them. Good luck & if you have questions about the tool just ask on this thread or PM me. Good luck.
Gregg

 

I used stabil in my setup and reduced them down with 1/8" tubing then a peice of carb clean straw.

 

Yes you can. You can also cut your loop at the bottom, insert a T connector and do 3 at a time. Put 2 Ts in the bottom and you can do all 4 at the same time.

 

Yep, check my gallery. The bottles are super cheap to make and are much faster to perform the synch and I believe more accurate than the meters.

 

If you're looking for a budget solution, here is an in-depth article on how to build a carb sync tool. The title is the $4 carb sync tool. Don't know if it is that cheap, but maybe.

http://www.airheads.org/content/view/183/56/

 

I don't like those tubes because you can suck that fluid into the intake if your carb pair is horribly out of balance. My first two carbs (3/4) were incredibly out of balance.

 

Half agreed. I didn't like the risk of going the cheap route, but that may just be me. So, I forked over the dough for a vacuum balancer.

rnice, I just remembered that the wiz posted a pic of his set-up that can probably be done cheaper than a balancer. Check out a pic of his set-up here.

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15989.html

 

I have 25' of tubing going from the loop about a foot off the floor up tp the celing and back down so they hang and are easy to attach to any vehiclw I am working on. If you suck fluid threw 12.5 foot of tubing you aren't just horribly off you shouldn't be running. You have to remember that with a loop there is always vacuum on both sides so it is less likely that you are going to suck in fluid. with a open resevior yes you could probably suck in something.

 

I use something like this.

HowTo: 2 bottle sync

Works great and can't pull the fluid into the engine, no matter how long it takes me to get the balance right.

 

Thanks for all the feedback.
I realize that the one-tube method is only marginally easier than using one or two bottles - just wondering if it was legitimate at all.

I was hoping to give one of your suggested methods a whirl today, as I finally got the carbs back on from a winter on the work bench, and the wheels back on with new rubber.
No starting the motor though. I'm really really hoping that its the spark plugs, which I've got new ones on the standby, and that the battery is beat to death twice over. I tried turning it over with the fast charger connected. It just turns and turns.

When its running I'll try one of these idea out...

 

a Yard stick 6 feet of clear tube ( like the ones used in fish tanks) some twist ties and oil.

its the cheapest I see so far this gut claims $1.55US


http://www.powerchutes.com/manometer.asp

not sure on how accurate it is

someone put up plans for balancer here recently