12/10/06
Haven't been working on Vicious much in the last few months
but I did get to take it on an inaugural side draft
carb ride and was quite impressed with the get up and go it now has. My brother
on my old and his new Valk
said he had to open it up a bit to keep up with me. That impressive considering
the power displacement
variances between these two bikes. We only tootled around town to a cruise
in at a local Sonic, so light to light stuff,
but getting to 50 in third was immediate. I had not done a shake down run and it
was last minute buttoning up some things to
take it on this ride so I wasn't about to try the highway, after dark, on a
first run, with a bunch of last minute turns of the wrench!
Some have wanted to see what I have been working on with this
setup. The intake is made up of iron pipe from Lowes.
One "T" and three elbow joints combine both jug intakes and drop the
piping down under the fat Valk tank, rotate slightly forward
to clear my right leg, and a spigot connection on the end and on the carb. This
has proven to be a slippery connection
with the bouncy ride on these streets and the carb starts dropping. Most
currently I was working on some supports
that will bolt to the carb and to the faux head fin bolts. Today I ordered a
boot made for the carb that has a flanged
mount for two bolts on one end and the spigot end on the other. I will be
welding a flange on the end of the intake to
bolt the carb up to. When I get that process in place I will get some shots of
the intake off of the bike and then
some shots of it in place with the tank off. For now, here are some shots
on a wintry looking 50 something degree
day in Plano TX on Dec 10th, my sister's birthday.
In this shot, I just barely stuck the breather plate cover
back on so both are listing a bit downward and exaggerate
the listing carb problem.
Here is a shot from the front to show how much the carb sticks
out. Not a pretty site but kind of chopped backwoods
engineering looking.
Here is a shot with the cover and plate removed. The adapter I
picked up on Ebay for about $30 is for a Hyper Charger. If I
get the money in the future and feel like a little ram air effect is in order,
maybe I will try it out. But the expense doesn't
justify it for now.
This carb is Mikuni 40mm which is rated for street bikes
with 450-650CC cylinder heads. From what I can tell from my first run, the
carb and jetting is right on. Most Mikuni's you see for sale now are 42-48mm and
$450 on up. I picked this one up on EBay
for $80 disassembled by some moron. He cut the choke cable, lost the fuel bowl
screws and throttle assembly roll pin,
and a few other parts I had to make and or replace. It was well worth the
money.
You can see where I had to weld the two elbow joints together
on this last turn out. Some double band clamp sewer pipe
rubber union was used and the carb soft rubber boot fits inside it. This is
where I am getting the slippage that drops the carb.
I am only using the pull cable for the throttle and you can
see the carb assy has some missing pieces where the
cables used to attach. I haven't found a screw that fits the idle set screw on
the throttle return and it was sticking
slightly open so I had to add an extra return spring to pull it closed.
The red and black wire you see goes to
one of the two purple led that lights up one of the jugs at night.
Maybe when I have this apart for the intake changes I will
polish and/or powder coat some of the carb
pieces to make it look nicer. But for now, this is my challenge to finish
up Vicious.
Update 12/26/2006
Today I pulled the intake off of Vicious and cut the end off
and welded on a homemade flange to bolt
the carb on. I have had the new rubber flange adapter for a couple of
weeks and only now getting
to use it. Here is the intake manifold outside of the bike with the new homemade
flange welded on.
Not real purty is it? lol Into the powder coating oven for a
20 minute bake with the powder chrome
and this is what she looks like now.
The carb is kinda nasty looking too you know....wonder what it
would look like with this powder chrome on it?
So I tore down the carb and pulled all the linkage and sliders out of it, pulled
the floats and jets, and plugged all the holes.
Into the oven with the body and bowl and voila...I have a new looking
polished carb (that won't lose its luster!).
While the carb was baking I installed the cooIing intake manifold and snapped a couple of shots.
Much nicer than the purple. The flange turned out real nice as
well. I welded the seam inside and out to make sure
it was on secure and airtight. Below shows how the new setup will bolt on. MMmm
shiney!
Here's a shot with and without the flash.
From the back side.
Here's the setup with the air breather installed again. Carb
looks really new doesn't it? JUst saved
me $600 for a polished Mikuni! lol
Here's a comparison side by side draft. ;-)
Picked up a new battery and fork seals for the final project
that I know of. I need to up the fork tube spacer
sizes and replace the seals. Maybe I can finish it up and get it out this
weekend so I can fine tune the carb back in
again and I won't even have to synchronize the carbs on this bike anymore.
Thanks for reading.
Gonz
Gonzo
02' Shadow Spirit "Vicious Cycle"