What is syncronising?

[zach5187]

If i have my carburetors sycrinized what will that do?

[shefkat2000]

Duh? They will be in sync.

[ZukiFred]

Basicly It is seting the carbs so they are all pulling the same vacume presure.

[zach5187]

is this something that i can do on my own or do i have to have that professionally done

[shefkat2000]

Yeah thats what I said. Right?

[Teh_K]

Basically, the way it works is each of your 4 carbs pulls in a mixture of fuel and air. If your "carbs are out of sync", then that means that 1 or more of the 4 carbs are drawing in more or less of the mixture than the other carbs. Thus, not all 4 of your carbs are doing "equal" amounts of work - some are doing more work than others - which is less than ideal.

This can cause loss of power, higher heat build-up, increased vibration, and lower gas mileage.

You can sync your own carbs (I do, as well as many others on this forum), but it does require the use of a special tool - vacuum gauges. Personally, I use the Morgan CarbTune II, but it's, like, $200. If you do plan on doing your own carb sync (and even if you don't), I suggest you get a service manual for your bike, which will explain in detail how to sync them.

[The CyberPoet]

Basically, the way it works is each of your 4 carbs pulls in a mixture of fuel and air. If your "carbs are out of sync", then that means that 1 or more of the 4 carbs are drawing in more or less of the mixture than the other carbs. Thus, not all 4 of your carbs are doing "equal" amounts of work - some are doing more work than others - which is less than ideal.

This can cause loss of power, higher heat build-up, increased vibration, and lower gas mileage.

Very good explaination

What Teh_K didn't mention and I feel may be worth mentioning to a newbie is that whenever you change the valve clearances, you are changing the amount of vacuum each cylinder creates. The sync operation rebalances the draw across each of the carbs to even it all up.
The other thing he didn't mention is that serious differences in power being created by the cylinders can also create greatly increased wear on many of the reciprocating and especially on the rotating components in your engine, since they are now being stressed unevenly.

Like Teh_K, I also use the Morgan CarbTuneII, which is $108.55 at today's exchange rate with the hoses & pouch, or $91.04 without the extra's (they are made and sold in England and you can order via the net & pay via paypal). There are cheaper alternatives (such as MotionPro mercury sync tools) starting around $50, but they use mercury rather than solid slugs like the Morgan.

Maybe FloridaKat will post a pic (to help illustrate the idea) from this past weekend when I went over to his place and sync'd his carbs following us adjusting his valves.

You can find a basic how-to on my website with some pics (showing Tim's vacuum-dial gauge set-up):

http://www.motorcycleanchor.com/katana/trinc/sync.htm

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[zach5187]

Well thanks alot for the help everyone i have a much better idea of it and i appreciate the help again zach......

[FloridaKat]

Maybe FloridaKat will post a pic (to help illustrate the idea) from this past weekend when I went over to his place and sync'd his carbs following us adjusting his valves.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

Their coming CP (including shots of the drain hole in the spark plug wells). Look for a "release" of the photos this weekend.

BTW - my 7 month old bike has never run better than after the valve clearance adjustment, replacing the plugs, high-quality oil change and re-synch. I would have never thought such a new bike needed service so desperately. I guess I became accustomed to the way the bike ran before and thought that was the norm. Man, am I naive.

[KatanaJim]

I did the home made method. It worked fine and cost me about $8 in parts...

[The CyberPoet]

I did the home made method. It worked fine and cost me about $8 in parts...

If you have the space (garage) and sufficient height to use the home-made version of a carb sync, by all means, do so. The home-made version uses water or hydraulic oil of some sort (such as automatic transmission fluid), which means because of the weight difference, the tool has to be made extremely tall (a story?) to work properly -- and if the RPM's won't hold steady but tend to run high (bumping up to 4+k RPM instead of locking in around 1800 RPM for the sync operation), it can be problematic, sucking the fluids into the engine (which is why hydraulic oils are often used).

Finally, because of fresh air concerns, you should always sync in the great outdoors, or at least with good ventilation. Remember, a 600cc engine consumes about 20 cubic feet of air a minute at 1850 RPM...

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Black_peter]

[ The home-made version uses water or hydraulic oil of some sort (such as automatic transmission fluid), which means because of the weight difference, the tool has to be made extremely tall (a story?) to work properly --

True.. the conversion is about 13 to 1..
For every 1 foot of mercury (common tuners are what? 1 1/2 feet?)
you need 13 feet of water. (total 20 feet!!!)
Oil will be more...