Amal 1037 and1036 carbs choke?

A

Andysouthampton

New member
Location
Leicester, UK
My ebay laverda came with amal 1036 1037 carbs and rusty chrome manifolds, I've fitted new rubber rings and tufnol spacers but can't work out how to choke bike to start. It runs if I tickle it too death but fuels going everywhere. Were the amals fitted with a choke mechanism, as my carb tops only have a single hole. The greenbook shows a choke but most of photos in net don't. I really don't want to resort to easistart!
 
Procedure is to tickle the carbs and put fuel everywhere. You could use a catch tray to keep fuel off the starter as on old british machines where it would keep fuel off the magneto.

Put your hand over the intake to choke a carb.

What bike is this? Can you post a photo?

Paul
 
It seems the 1000 series Concentrics weren't equipped with a choke slider, I've never come across a mixing chamber top that would accept a choke cable (in much the same conundrum regarding my Matchless thumper, looking to replace the smallish Monobloc with a 1034). Chokes could be fitted to both the 600 and 900 series Concentrics.

Bike should start with only a slight tickle, fuel should stop dripping when you release the tickler. If it doesn't, what I am understanding, you have an issue with the float valve and/or float heights.

piet
 
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sfcpiet said:
It seems the 1000 series Concentrics weren't equipped with a choke slider, I've never come across a mixing chamber top that would accept a choke cable (in much the same conundrum regarding my Matchless thumper, looking to replace the smallish Monobloc with a 1034). Chokes could be fitted to both the 300 and 600 series Concentrics.

Bike should start with only a slight tickle, fuel should stop dripping when you release the tickler. If it doesn't, what I am understanding, you have an issue with the float valve and/or float heights.

piet
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The man says he tickles it to death which means fuel all over the place.
Maybe if he needs to tickle that much to get it started, problem is elsewhere than the carbs.

Paul
 
Does the bike seem to run ok, idle etc after you do get it going? It sounds like there are other setup issues. As with Piet, all my experience with Amal and other tickler type carbs is that it is only necessary to just push down the float until it just shows fuel at the overflow. One kick and they idle.
 
This is first start aftet complete engine stripdown, ill check float levels tomorrow. Timing is spot on. Valve adjustments look correct, good suck thru carb with hand over bellmouths, its a weird one.
 
Are the carbs thoroughly clean? Flooding will serve no purpose if fuel channels are clogged.

Photos of the bike?

Paul
 
All a tickler does is push the float down to open the float valve and allow the float chamber to fill up to the top, beyond where the float action would normally stop the flow. Raising the fuel level beyond the normal float level makes the starting mixture richer.

There's no point in "tickling it until there's fuel everywhere". As soon as the fuel appears at the tickler hole, that's enough, the float chamber is completely full. Any further tickling won't increase the amount of fuel level in the float chamber, it just spills the excess out through the tickler overflow, wasting fuel and creating a fire hazard.
 
Or in the case of no external overflows, it runs in and drowns the spark. From my old British days, you hold down till it just starts to come out and then you let go. Plenty would do the up-down up down tickling which doesn't make sense. You not pumping a tyre up. BTW what's the drama with Start You Bastard, Either sprays. I use it all the time on my Mower, saving any back injuries or breaking the pull cord. I did hear once a stupid comment about engines getting addicted to it, what's that German word attributing human emotions to animals and engines in this case? Google helped again. Anthropomorphis
 
The first time I saw ether being used it was my mate trying to start his S1 Land Rover. He said “get in and push the starter for me” while he was under the bonnet spraying in half a can.
My response: “the petrol gauge says E, how do you reckon it’d go with some gas…?”

His response was muted, but certainly vulgar
 
Vince said:
Or in the case of no external overflows, it runs in and drowns the spark. From my old British days, you hold down till it just starts to come out and then you let go. Plenty would do the up-down up down tickling which doesn't make sense. You not pumping a tyre up. BTW what's the drama with Start You Bastard, Either sprays. I use it all the time on my Mower, saving any back injuries or breaking the pull cord. I did hear once a stupid comment about engines getting addicted to it, what's that German word attributing human emotions to animals and engines in this case? Google helped again. Anthropomorphis
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Come on Vince. It is not just attributing, it is accepting that machines are in fact animal, which is why we all swear at them, coax them, thank them. Why else would the makers name their product for "bastard" machines? 1036 Amal are still the old concentric, dead simple despite being crude and nasty. I had one on a single once where the outlet from the plunger wasn't drilled right through, fuel came out up the shaft, but as the float bowl was supposed to breathe through that orifice, it didn´t handle more that a few seconds at full throttle, a real head scratcher.
 
Yep, Concentrics must be one of the simplest carb designs on the planet, absolutely no rocket surgery going on there. Hammering the tickler is just a vain attempt at puncturing the float.

Original Laverda1036/37 especially for early SFCs are rare, these carbs were mainly fitted to 2-strokes, are the needle jets correct for 4-stroke application? Shouldn't have much effect on starting, but might have a large influence on rev pick-up.

piet
 
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Tickling the Dell'Orto MD 27 on my Falcone brings jets of fuel all over the place. I then know the float bowl is full and I can kick it over a few times with decompressor actuated to prime the engine, and then 1 sharp kick against the 6/1 compression and away we go to the end of the world. Or Taranto?

Once again, if the 750 in question doesn't start with the float bowls full, either the carbs are completely blocked or something else is very wrong.

Pictures please?

Paul
 
Vince said:
Or in the case of no external overflows, it runs in and drowns the spark. From my old British days, you hold down till it just starts to come out and then you let go. Plenty would do the up-down up down tickling which doesn't make sense. You not pumping a tyre up. BTW what's the drama with Start You Bastard, Either sprays. I use it all the time on my Mower, saving any back injuries or breaking the pull cord. I did hear once a stupid comment about engines getting addicted to it, what's that German word attributing human emotions to animals and engines in this case? Google helped again. Anthropomorphis
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Have you ever considered buying a Honda? Mine starts at 2nd pull latest, even after a lay up of 6 or more months and with "crap" ethanol-containing fuel!

All machines can show animal/human traits, but they're a lot more reliable than humans when set up correctly and they're by far not as picky as to whom they serve. :rolleyes:

piet
 
I had 2 choices of Motor when I bought my Victa, a Briggs and Stratton and a Yep a Honda, I have one. It goes great but usually takes 10 or 15 pulls to start. With Ether, it's half a tug. With all the wet weather this year, it hasn't been mowed for 6 months and I am dreading that job. It will fill 180litres of recycling bins. That one full-size Otto bin and 3 40 litre garbage bins and that's probably just the backyard. Did I mention it's raining again and the forecast is for all week again.
 
Vince said:
I had 2 choices of Motor when I bought my Victa, a Briggs and Stratton and a Yep a Honda, I have one. It goes great but usually takes 10 or 15 pulls to start. With Ether, it's half a tug. With all the wet weather this year, it hasn't been mowed for 6 months and I am dreading that job. It will fill 180litres of recycling bins. That one full-size Otto bin and 3 40 litre garbage bins and that's probably just the backyard. Did I mention it's raining again and the forecast is for all week again.
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Brutally hot summer here, instead of the weekly mowings (you can watch the bloody stuff growing during a normally wet spring/summer), I've only had to mow once the last 3 months! Nice to have a bit more spare time.

piet
 
My 750 with those carbs starts readily after depressing the ticklers till fuel just escapes the hole, as has been mentioned. It runs great on them and even idles reasonably well. Given the bike is new to you go back to basics and confirm cam and spark timing, then take a closer look at the carbs. Typical settings are in the green book, my notes say I have a 35 pilot, 280 main and 107 needle jet. No mention of needle (odd).
Obviously there are no chokes, but if all is well they should not need them.
 
sfcpiet said:
Brutally hot summer here, instead of the weekly mowings (you can watch the bloody stuff growing during a normally wet spring/summer), I've only had to mow once the last 3 months! Nice to have a bit more spare time.

piet
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I have not mowed the lawn this year, it looks worse than the Serengeti. A week ago we had the first three hours of rain since May. Some tiny green spots appeared after that, but they are already withering again.
 
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