What about a new synch tool?
In the early 80s, I bought, with a friend. a 4 gauge vacuum set. Years later the friend went the single cylinder route - he is a good mechanic btw - and had no need for it anymore. I now share the set with another friend, a mechanic in the yachting world. If I had known in the 80s what I know now, I would have been less impressed by the gauges and would have built the tool myself.
Like Morgan carbtune.
Looking at the design, I find the Morgan heavily overpriced and I suspect a patent that blocks competition. For a professional workshop the expense matters less than for a single individual that doesn't own a fleet of bikes. The more so if your bike doesn't need synchronisation in tens of thousands of miles as is my experience. Except for the 4 cable operated carbs that were on the first CB750s,
all SOHC
Fours have the carb lay out designed thus, that carbs rarely need syncing if at all. The mere fact that
checking synchronisation is in the maintenance interval scheme,
does not mean that resyncing will routinely be required! Far from it. In my experience I would immediately suspect another item like the ignition that needs to be adressed. But... how was Honda to know on forehand that the carbs would behave so well in real life?! If you can't foresee this, ofcourse you advise
checking in the maintenance interval scheme. I have the feeling that owners of a vacuum set are a bit biased after they've spent money on it. What syncing does, is giving the bike a nice idle and that's it. Back then, nobody that I knew, would mess with the carbs and so you could achieve/restore that nice idle simply by doing the other servicing items. Then people began buying manuals where practically all 'repairs' imaginable are described
unfiltered. Haynes in this respect has the better manual, stating that a single sync in the bike's lifetime (not abnormal!) does not outweigh the expense. From my experience, I can agree full heartedly.
Personally I like to see people creating stuff themself.* I admire ingenuity and simplicity and would like to see more of that. The main thing with building your own sync set ofcourse is, how you can prevent fluid being sucked in the cylinders and the dampening. We could make it a contest. If you think you've built a good one, show us! Description and an accompanying video ofcourse. We'll comment until we have the perfect design. BTW, I seem to remember having heard of an even simpler device that consists of transparent tube that has four exits to the carb ports and has 3 steelballs exactly fit in it at the same distance of eachother. Purpose is to keep the three balls between marked lines. Has any of you ever seen it? Did it work?
*
At the moment I am trying to revive an old exhaust gas analyzer. I do not know much about electronics but I don't mind to learn. I understand its working principle now and am trying to find out if it has a defect or was a (very) bad design. If any of you has experience with this, I'm all ears.
