It seems that I have inadvertently made a statement which was untrue and may
lead people into thinking that SKYDRIVE (the UK Rotax agent) does not sell
the carb balancing kit which I had previously mentioned.
What I said originally was:
I had a long chat with Conrad Beale (AKA Skydrive) and he showed me the
Rotax setup (or rather the one that he uses) . It is not a Skydrive approved
accessory but it is the one he uses to set up the 912 engines. It consists
of two dial type vacuum guages and a valve (fish tank tap !!!) to damp out
the oscillations. Rotax will sell you this setup if you need one - cost
about 50.
My information was incorrect. The misunderstanding stems from the fact that
Conrad Beale actually is part of Con Air (dealing mainly with the servicing
of Rotax engines) and Nigel Beale (Conrads father) owns Skydrive who do sell
the Carb balancers. SKYDRIVE amongst other things is the Rotax engines and
sells the engines and spares (they also service and repair engines).
In other words Conrad (Con Air) dosent sell the balancing units, but his dad
(Skydrive) does (hope that makes sense).
I also gave the impression that at 50 (approx) it was a tad expensive (but
then what isnt). In fact when you add up the cost of the vacuum guages (20
each) and the plumbing (pipes/taps/ restrictors) and the specially engineerd
connectors, 50 is not such a bad deal. Obviously if you already have a
vacuum guage and can source another exactly the same then you could save
money.
The only other guage on the market consists of stainless steel rods floating
inside a tube and the price of this is also about 50, though I cant vouch
for the performance of this.
Using the Skydrive setup works very well and the dial guages are easy to
use. There is a marked improvement in smoothness since I set up the carbs
with my device and I would reccommend balancing your carbs if you havent
already done so.
If anyone is interested in the Skydrive balancing kit and wants to contact
Nigel or Conrad in the UK their phone numbers are 01926 612188 (Skydrive)
and 07788 922966 (conrads mobile)/ 01295 771088 (Con Air).
Happy Flying
Carl Pattinson
G-LABS
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