carbtune

[hairman]

Can I use a vacuum/pressure gauge test kit instead of a carbtune? Will this give better results than the carbtune? Any other ideas? I am going to try to post a picture of one that I found on ebay. Thanks hairman

[CMIKE]

I think if you have 4 of them...you may could do it...object of the game is to sync #1 to #2 cyclinders then 3 to 4...then sync both sides together. I have noticed as you adjust one...the other goes down.

[Squidley]

You will need 4 of them if you are going to use them to syncronise the Venture. There are some folks (V7Goose) that have made a sync tool like that. I personally like the carbtune, I have one myself and it works great. I would think by the time you made a gauge setup out of 4 of those gauges and it being somewhat unruly to negotiate with it would be easier to buy a carbtune

[hairman]

something like this ? I found it for 79.00 thanks hairman

[pegscraper]

That type of gauge is not anywhere near sensitive enough to do an accurate carb sync. If someone gave you a set, they're better than nothing. But I wouldn't spend any money on them. That type of gauge reads absolute vacuum levels, which relies on each gauge to be accurately calibrated, and even more importantly to perfectly match the other gauges. Even if that were possible, which it is not, they do not read fine enough variations to get all the carbs exactly the same. What is needed is a set of gauges that read relative vacuum levels, where each one is balanced against the rest of them. There's no calibration to them and there's no way they can be out of adjustment. This is the way the carbtune operates, as well as the plain old mercury stick. The mercury stick works fine for me.

[KiteSquid]

HOWEVER anytime you use a mechanical device like a carbtune or gauges, you must check them for variations BEFORE you try to synchronize your carbs.

 

You do this by connecting ALL indicators to the same source and adjusting them.

 

The gauges need a screwdriver to get at the adjustment screws, but this is best left to a calibration lab so they will all read the same over the entire range of the gauges.

 

Mercury (or any other liquid) Manometers do not suffer from this. but they do have other drawbacks like sucking the liquid into the engine, or like the Mercury ones, they are not available anymore thanks to IDOTS who could not control Mercury emissions the EPA has laws governing it's sale and use.

[V7Goose]

something like this ? I found it for 79.00 thanks hairman

That four gauge set is what I use, and it is excellent. IMHO, FAR better than the Carbtune. I have used several Carbtunes, and they stick incessantly. One was way out of calibration, with no way to effectively fix that problem.

 

Whatever you use, make a small manifold that allows you to hook all four together and to a single vacuum source to verify equal reading. And don't even think about trying to do a decent job with only one or two gauges - a few people will try to tell you that is fine, but ain't no way. It is even hard to get some bikes into perfect sync with four gauges where you can see all of them together - totally impossible to effectively do this with less than 4. The reality is, if you can't see them all together, you have NO idea if they really are pulling the exact same vacuum at the same time under the same conditions. And you cannot make ANY change to one that will not affect at least one of the others at the same tme.

Goose

[skydoc_17]

Last week the Carbtune was going for $78.27 US. Here's a link to the thread from last week:

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?p=303544#post303544

 

I got one and it worked great for me.

Earl