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Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

Hilly
1 month

I got back to the carby this arvo, won't go into too much detail but a couple of little tricks if you are reusing the diaphragms.
With the accelerator pump and slide diaphragms smear a real light bead of dialectic grease around the outer sealing edges, helps them stay in the groves and as you put the covers on you can twist them real gentle like as you push down to seat the lips into the grooves, works a treat.
An extra for the slide diaphragm is hold the slide up with ya thumb so the diaphragm is cupped downwards, this helps keep the sealing edge where it's supposed to be as you push the cover down, old diaphragms tend to want to pop out of the groove if the slide is bottomed out.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Hilly
1 month

A bit more to the story, got all back together, went to take a pic of the grease and #2 JIS Screwdriver that works a bloody treat on JIS screw heads! Go figure! See anything wrong in this pic?

JIS Screwdriver, highly recommend and cat grease

Float bowl on no accelerator rod! Edited, wrong pic before

Hilly
1 month

So, having proven I shouldn't be unsupervised I rectified my negligence, first CV carby I've gone through in over 20 years I reckon, I don't have a method of laying out parts, I chuck em all in the cleaner and enjoy the challenge lol.

A very clean slide, I set the idle mixture screw to 3 turns out, will adjust that after its running again.

All back together with a new choke cable, set the idle screw to just moving the butterfly, will adjust that as well when it's going.

Checking the little washer thicknesses for if I need to shim the needle later on

Hilly
1 month

Pulled the intake manifold off as I'm going to be changing it anyway, had a look in the intake ports with an LED torch and my heart sank a little, puddles of oil.
As I sat there contemplating what my next move should be it occurred to me the "oil" I could see looked like fresh diff oil mmmmm
I dipped a scribe in liquid and it came out "clean", so I rolled up a tissue and dipped the ends in each port, it wicked up the tissue paper really quickly, a quick smell and it's fuel lol.
The valves don't look as bad in person as they do in the pics, the LED light makes it look like there is crud everywhere, there is a bit of carbon because of the internal breathers and questionable tuning but it'll run ok.

Front

Rear

speedzter
1 month

Quoting Hilly on 15 Nov 2025 10:14 AMedited: 15 Nov 2025 10:52 PM
A bit more to the story, got all back together, went to take a pic of the grease and #2 JIS Screwdriver that works a bloody treat on JIS screw heads! Go figure! See anything wrong in this pic?

JIS Screwdriver, highly recommend and cat grease

Float bowl on no accelerator rod! Edited, wrong pic before

You'll need to tell us whats wrong !!

Hilly
1 month

Quoting Hilly on 15 Nov 2025 10:14 AMedited: 15 Nov 2025 10:52 PM
A bit more to the story, got all back together, went to take a pic of the grease and #2 JIS Screwdriver that works a bloody treat on JIS screw heads! Go figure! See anything wrong in this pic?

JIS Screwdriver, highly recommend and cat grease

Float bowl on no accelerator rod! Edited, wrong pic before

Quoting speedzter on 16 Nov 2025 01:46 AM
You'll need to tell us whats wrong !!

I thought I did, I put the fuel bowl on and left the accelerator pump rod out, not major, just humbling 😁

Hilly
1 month

Today was get as much rust off the cheap Taiwanese forward controls as I could and fit them up day, they came as a jumble of rusty parts in a box, pretty rough looking.
I cleaned them up as best I could, sorted them into two piles and started putting them on, the left hand side wasn't too difficult to work out but the right was a challenge.
There were bits missing, bits that didn't belong, bits that could fit more than one way and looked fine on until they didn't, I think I pulled the drive pulley cover off 3 or 4 times trying different spacers and orientations.
There was no brake lever pad but I had an old Kuryakyn one in a box with some old brake lines, the fumes had dissolved the glue and the pads had fallen off but beggars can't be choosers.
It didn't fit the arm so I took to it with the Dremel to make it fit and glued the rubbers back on, anyway got it sorted in the end.

Most off the right side bits

Left side as good as I can get it

Right side cleaned up

Right on

Left on

The pad doesn't look too bad.....kinda

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Hilly
1 month

Is 80 grit a rough enough finish on a carby bike intake manifold?

speedzter
1 month

Is that what the hillbillies call hand ported ??
Are you using a Tootsie roll ? (cartridge)

Hilly
1 month

Haha, threw it down on the table and had at it.
I used the die grinder with a stone to start with, didn't trust myself with a burr, then a flapper wheel, then 120 grit paper to get a feel of the shape, then little files and 80 grit paper to get the bits that needed getting.
I'll post a pic later, dunno if I'm 100% finished yet, OCD has kicked in, I wouldn't have bothered with it at all if it had looked as good as the one I took off but it was ugly in there man, it needed lovin' 😁

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Hilly
1 month

Old one and new one, don't have any pics of the new one before clean up, haven't hogged it out, just cleaned it up, if you look real close you can still see the remnants of the internal cast seams, they were bloody horrible I kid you not, if you look at the carby spigot on the new one it is wider at the seam points than than the old one, that is how it was when I got it, I didn't make it any worse in that regard, as I said earlier if the new one had looked like old I wouldn't have touched it.

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speedzter
1 month

That'll do the job just fine, If nothing it looks better than casting flash .
One thing I also like to do is match port to the heads, but I'm sure you are all over that too !

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Hilly
1 month

Quoting speedzter on 22 Nov 2025 12:49 AM
That'll do the job just fine, If nothing it looks better than casting flash .
One thing I also like to do is match port to the heads, but I'm sure you are all over that too !

I have glanced at the fit, this one is much tighter than the old, still clearance, the old one flops around, so much so that the seals had curled around the spigots and were in the flow, I will match the new as best I can but this manifold is already a better mouse trap I'm thinking, just technically, I'm not expecting great gains but every little thing adds up to a crisper, smoother runner.

Hilly
1 month

Did a mock just of the manifold to see if there was going to be much of a mismatch to the heads, looks to be enough out of whack to justify a tidy up there, I will do a proper mock with carby and backing plate to get the true mating situation later, this was only see if it was worth the effort.
I'll measure the mouths on the old one later but I'm pretty sure they are bigger than the new one so they may well of been worse than this.
Also took a couple pics of the manifold seals that came out of mine compared to the used ones that came with new one.
World of difference there, most likely because the old one had heaps more clearance.

Front

Rear

Top is my seals, seal face down

New to me used

My used

Mine at top seal face up

Hilly
1 month

Couple more, the mirror isn't a great pic but you can see the lip, the seals you can really see how much the old ones were in the flow as they has squeezed out and around the manifold spigots.

speedzter
1 month

I guarantee she'll be the quickest sporty on the island when you're done 👍.
Are you enjoying the challenge so far ?

Stuart likes this post

Hilly
1 month

Quoting speedzter on 24 Nov 2025 07:37 AM
I guarantee she'll be the quickest sporty on the island when you're done 👍.
Are you enjoying the challenge so far ?

Haha, probably, although I have heard there are 2 other Sporty's here, dunno who owns them and haven't seen either of them.
I'm enjoying tinkering, gives me something to think about other than my health, I'm pretty slow though, even sitting on my arse is exhausting at times.
I matched the intake ports today, haven't got any pics for show n tell yet but my method would freak the HTT crew out lol.
The roof and sides front and rear needed blending, Aaron from hammer has said to leave the bottoms no matter how ugly as a step won't hurt but mocked up properly they were pretty much level so moot point there.
I'll take a couple of pics before the carby goes on if I can get the right angle to see anything.
Edit, the flash makes em look a bit funky but the finger test says they are ok, they match the manifold so good enough for the bush.

Rear

Front

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speedzter
1 month

OK, I didn't expect you to "hog out" the heads 😮👍
I normally tweak the manifold (when used with ported heads) , but I guess it depends where the mismatch is, and
in this case. it was the stock heads.

Hilly likes this post

Hilly
1 month

Quoting speedzter on 25 Nov 2025 04:55 AM
OK, I didn't expect you to "hog out" the heads 😮👍
I normally tweak the manifold (when used with ported heads) , but I guess it depends where the mismatch is, and
in this case. it was the stock heads.

Wasn't a lot and it lines up now, I will never know if I made it better or worse I guess but it's done and I'm moving on 😁

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Hilly
1 month

Speedzter this is how it looks torqued up and carby removed again so manifold is in its running position, it's gotta be better than it was surely 😁

Rear

Front

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