Scooterist bodges and tips #2 carb fixes | FEATURE

Makeshift reed petals

A great emergency bodge when your reed valve petals break and you have no spare is to take out a plastic card from your wallet (not your credit card or bank card) cut it to the same size as the broken petal, make a couple of holes in it  and screw it back into place using thread lock.

It will get you home, or at least to somewhere you can get some more petals. Take it nice and steady though…

Shortened allen key

Always make sure if you’re running a TS1 that you have an allen key slightly cropped off to undo the reed manifold bolt nearest the carb, this one fits from the underside of the manifold and not the top like the other three, there isn’t enough clearance for a normal length allen key, it’s a proper ballache and you’re best off pulling through the engine bolt to lower the engine to remove the manifold/reed cage to get to it.

Needle circlip

On the way to Ypres rally recently one of our lads broke down on the M25, not great. It turned out that he had lost the circlip on his carb needle. The scooter revved like a bitch and he had to stall it to stop it. He didn’t have a spare and we’d already gone ahead so he got a piece of a gasket, tore it into a small square, used the needle to poke a hole through it and this got him to the Euro tunnel where he swapped it for a proper circlip, good bodge. Well done Clint from the MK Mercenaries scooter club.

Russ Breen