So I have two more modifications I would like to do to my bike before I tear it apart and powder coat the frame. One of those things is to address the carburetor issues I have been having. Foxx suggested I get a Lectron carb, and after hearing his and other's positive thoughts on them, I decided that it would work well with my setup. I spoke with Dennis at Packard racing and ordered a carb custom set up for my altitude and motor setup. It arrived along with a new throttle housing (more on that later) that must be used with carb. Dennis suggested that I first boil the intake and carb together for a five minutes so the rubber would relax to the larger size of the new carb and not crack. I purchased a new intake from Kawasaki and waited for the wife to leave the house so I could steal her pot and stove. I measured the water to make sure it hit the carb where it needed to, got it boiling, and then perched the carb on top of the pot so that just the intake and carb horn were in the water. It looked something like this:
I had previously modified the new intake per Sandblaster's instructions to use the VForce 2 reeds that came with my motor. I bolted that all up to the intake and began the process of shoe-horning the carb into the now very small space. A couple of tips if you are going to do this swap:
1. Buy longer bolts for your clamps, the carb is larger than stock
2. You will probably have to move your airbox boot clamp, as it won't fit below the carb anymore due to a larger bowl. I used an allen bolt on top of the clamp to make it easier to tighten.
3. Put your throttle cable in first, you won't be able to work on it after the carb is in.
The carb takes up nearly the entire area, and it a bit of a bear to get in place. There is a little bit of room for the throttle cable at the top, but it is a tight fit.
The darn thing looks cool on the bike:
Now I was on to the throttle. As I put the new housing on my handlebar, I ran into a problem. The throttle housing is made by Magura, and is round all the way around. This doesn't allow any room for the front brake lever to move. I called Dennis, and he suggested that I use the stock housing if I could. Unfortunately, the new throttle cable does not have the screw in adjuster/stop like the stock cable. I was able to make it work by cutting the adjuster/stop off the stock cable and making the following modifications:
1. I cut a long slot lengthwise with a Dremmel tool and a cut off wheel. I also sanded the end flush so I could drill it out larger.
2. I put a nut on the shaft and used that to hold it in a vise without crushing it closed. I then drilled the end out to just over 1/4" so the new cable would slip in.
3. I cut housing and the adjustor/shaft down so that it did not pull on the throttle when fully closed. I made sure that you could tighten the adjuster/stop down all the way without it interfering with the cable pivot.
Voila! Now I am ready to see if it will run. Unfortunately I have a swim meet to go to this weekend, so a ride report will have to wait a bit.
Have a great weekend everyone!
