Tuning Twin Engines with Twin Carburettor (Mk1 Concentric)
To start with, slacken the throttle stop screws and put the twist grip into the shut off position, to allow the throttle to shut off. There should be a slight back-lash in the cables where backlash can be obtained, if necessary, by screwing in the cable adjusting screws on the top of the carburetter.
Then, with the handlebars in the normal position, and with the throttles closed, adjust the cable adjusting screws so that on the slightest opening of the twist grip, both throttles begin to open simultaneously.
To set the carburetters, follow the procedure as given on sheet 7 , and bear in mind these "hints" which may be useful. Main jet sizes are selected by checking the effect of the mixture on the sparking plugs, after taking a run at full throttle over a straight piece of road. The smallest pair of jets that give the best maximum speed is usually correct provided that the plugs do not show any signs of excessive heat. It might be that for really critical tuning, one carburetter might require a slightly different jet size from the other.
For slow running, set the twist grip to make the engine run slowly but just faster than a "tick over". Then gently screw in the throttle stops to just hold the throttles in that position, and return the twist grip into the shut position, leaving the engine running on the throttle stops.
The next thing to do is set each carburetter according to paragraph 2, on sheet 7 , to obtain the idling by screwing down the throttle stop screws and adjusting the pilot air screws accordingly.
Regarding the setting of the pilot jets, a fairly satisfactory method is to detach one sparking plug lead, and set the pilot air adjusting screw on the other cylinder as a single unit, and then reversing the process to the other cylinder. It may be found that when both leads are connected to the sparking plugs, the engine runs slightly quicker than desirable. If this happens, a slight adjustment of the throttle stop screws will put this right. It is essential that the speed of idling on both cylinders is approximately the same, as this will either make or mar the smoothness of the get-away on the initial opening of the throttle.
It is essential with twin carburetters that the throttle slides are a good fit in the bodies, and also that there is no suspicion of air leaks at either of the flange attachments to the cylinder.
With regards to the lower end of the throttle range, which is always the more difficult to set, one can only take excessive pains to make quite sure that the control cables are perfectly adjusted, without any excessive backlash or difference in the amount of backlash between one carburetter and another, otherwise one throttle slide will be out of phase with the other, and so resulting in uneven running.
To check the opening of the throttles simultaneously, shut the twist grip back so that the throttles are resting on the throttle stop screws in their final position of adjustment. Then, insert the fingers into the air intakes and press them on the throttles. With the other hand, gently open with the twist grip and feel the throttles lift off their stops at the same time.
