A carby kit had been fitted before Marko purchased the bike and the needle was sitting at an angle.
I had only had this conversation with Rod the week before about the needles and tubes.
I remember when I placed a kit into Marko's blue TRX the needle sat oddly with the kit washers on the needle so I replaced them with the original washers and all sat well once located properly because there is a slight raised section effectively making a D shape on the base where the needle sits.
Because I didn't have the original washers as the kit was fitted before he purchased, I improvised things by filing a flat edge on the nylon and metal washers.
I tested the slide with a needle and the washers that where fitted and placed the spring on top of the needle to hold a little tension and it constantly sat at an angle.
Then I put in a needle with the modified D shaped washers and all sat nice and parallel to the slide and performed even better under pressure from the spring.
Once fitted back in the carby the needle will sit central to the tube not against the emulsion tube wall causing wear plus the needle will sit deeper into the tube just like if I had moved the clip from the 3rd to the 1st position.
So this throws into question why so many trx’s chew through needles and tubes every 20,000-30,000km. I rebuilt my FCR’s after 50,000km and had no real sign of wear. Still a down draught carby just like the std so the arguement about being D/D causing the wear of needles is thrown into the doubtful bin.
