i m thinking of buying a 28mm wassel concentric carb so i can squeeze in a pancake air filter there.
are they any good?
My opinion yes ,all my bike I have them fitted , all I would say is take them apart firs and check jets are fitted tightly, had couple that played up while riding and found either needle jet or main jet loose and partially undone it's self , tight up and absolutely spot on since been on few years now , good response through rev range and nice stable tick over
Roy
thanks roy
'take them apart first and check jets are fitted tightly', and 'found either needle jet or main jet loose and partially undone itself'
This advice says it all. Wassells are still dining out on the lenience of us 'more mature' old bike riders and restorers who were used to buying their lousy quality, pattern parts for our old bikes back in the seventies. For goodness sake it's the 20th century now and selling stuff that clearly is not fit for purpose from the get go isn't acceptable and they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves!! Also, the seller who sold that carb should be ashamed too!
How much are they compared to genuine Amal's? Are they really worth it if you have to 'finish the job for them?' i know we'r
Rant over!
Chris
Hi,
I agree re cheaper and possibly substandard parts. I would say that as most components that come as an assembly of parts such as a carb or oil pump, it is likely that they have been assembled either over seas or by people who have no knowledge of the end use.
I bought two Amal Premiers and, as I am prone to do, I opened them up and gave them a clean. One did have some very small a mounts of debris present. There was post about a Hepolite (Wassell) oil pump that was found to be contaminated upon inspection and another recently that had parts missing is always worth having a quick look as it will save issues later on.
It is probably a good idea to ask suppliers if the items have been checked/assembled in house or even tested. Considering the cost of carb. or an oil pump it is not unreasonable to expect that a pre-delivery check has been made.
I believe that SRM check all of their pumps before delivery and assemble clutch kits from a stock of parts. Also, it was recently mentioned that Draganfly test the Hepolite pumps that they sell - no missing gears there then.
We are not demanding enough and seem happy to accept substandard parts and service.
Dave.
:) :) :) :)
One of the problems as I see it is that we dont appear to be able to contact Wassell direct. The only recourse is to go through the daelers and that is a bit hit and miss. I bought a concentric which was simply junk and the dealer has never really accepted responsibility. So I went to Amal. At the time about £50 more expensive. Tenner a year over 5 years etc. So to me its defo become the way to go. Of course it helps that I can just pop in to Amal and speak over the counter. Enjoy.
I am now down to one unfinished A65(I'm not going to get it finished) then thats me. But I shall continue to read here and enjoy your journeys with you.
Mike 8) 8) 8) 8)
Hi,
It is worth reminding yourself of your consumer rights occasionally and reminding a retail supplier of their responsibilities. I have used this a few times to good affect. Trading standards are always worth using and in extreme high value cases, the small claims court.
Dave.
Opened a can of worms there Eddie,😆😆😆😆.Dave.
Within consumer law, you have a contract with the vendor or dealer , not the person from whom they bought the bits.
The part , within law, has to be fit for purpose.
Also, as we do online purchases never actually seeing the item , have an additional set of rights within Distance selling law.
This gives us 14 days to return for refund the item
I have had brand new amals with block drillings and swarf. I even had a tickover screw fall out of a brand new monoblock. It was like a sausage up an alley. When i asked if the supplier checked them on a carb body before a run amal just said we only supply a drawing not a body to check it in!!!
The more we apply current law and send stuff that is unfit for purpose back , eventually they producers/vendors may get the message.
I hope
it really annoys me when I read bad reports from suppliers on classic forum like this.
I have been dealing with Wassells for years , and yes there are a few problems but whats libelous is a question for solicitors...
Even in the railway business Im in , the odd part gets through. But like the repro business , who else is going to make the parts we need.
Our small part of the business puts out £8 million a year, The Chinese cant make them as good or as cheap as we can which is why we supply to them.
If you think the parts are not good enough, find someone else who wants to tool up and make the small batches required.
My local nut and bolt manufacturer only dealt in Stainless steel, not liked by those wanting chrome parts . They are now closed.
BTW, both Wassell concentrics I had on my Triumph caused no problems at all, the originals suffered bad from corrosion from ethanol, the Amal supplied by the factory had to be remade , in India, as it was machined wrong.
I've been selling Amal's to order since 2012. I have checked every single one which has come through my hands and only in the early days with the premiers have I found any swarf. On one I bought for my own bike in the last 3 years where they now supply premiers with aluminium bodies float bowls etc, I found the needle seat in the bowl was slightly damaged and not sealing properly. Luckily I have a reasonable inventory of Amal concentric spares and fitted another (Mazak) bowl. The bike has been running sweet ever since.
Hi,
I think, overall, we must accept that there will be the odd component that does not come up to scratch. As with all things we buy, one or two will slip through the 'quality control' net.
What is not acceptable is when a retailer/supplier does not live up to the standards of service expected by consumers and determined under consumer law, when those few items fail to satisfy.
If we want standards to be maintained in both the quality of the parts we buy and the quality of the service that we get we must send things back and highlight poor service when ever things are not right.
Dave.
Agreed Dave.
well.i m still sitting on the fence but the price of the wassels is good and may persuade me,
thanks for interesting comments
Well, you pays your money and takes your choice. It would be interesting to hear how you get on mate!
well i finally bought a wassel concentric from kidderminster m/cycles and it works fine with a standard air cleaner fitted
[ low speeds only tested so far].
kidderminster supplied the correct jets and slide as per parts book so was a little more expensive.
however after swopping all the jets , fitting air cleaner and cables i hit a brick wall. the carb would not go on due to the manifold stud spacing being incorrect.
being the patient type , i drilled ,filled and hammered it into place hoping to never remove it again.
one fifty well spent as the bsa is running well but their chinese tool maker couldn t see his a*** from his elbow.
Well, that just proves the point that Wassel are doing what they've always done. Because we were used to tweeking and modifying their cheap pattern parts, back in the sixties and seventies they are obviously think we enjoy it and don't want to disappoint us with parts that actually fit.
Correct parts are available from other manufacturers, for instance I always specify Doherty cables as they fit first time every time.
When I was restoring my Royal Star, I bought a pair of front fork stanchions from Feked (I used them for many items previously). They were Wassel. They looked good in that they were hard chrome plated. They cost about £100.
However, they were missing a vital feature. Correct stanchions have a section where the bottom yoke fits that is slightly bigger in diameter. These Wassel ones didn't. I got them to clamp up using some 0.0015" shim steel but was not happy with this. Then Covid hit and we were locked down.
I got a new pair from C&D Autos that were supplied by a manufacturer they have used for years cost around £80. They had all the correct features and fitted perfectly!
When lockdown had cleared I took the previous ones back to Feked for a refund and they refused because they said it had been too long since I bough them.
Needless to say, I have never darkened their door since!
So, there are other alternatives to poor quality, not so cheap any more manufacturers. We just need to seek them out.
hi chris,
i totally agree with everything you say.
bsa parts i remember have always been more difficult to source, unlike triumph that sometimes have the same contracting companies that meriden used. and i m used to making things fit like yourself.
incorrect carb spacing is very shoddy but the rest of the wassel carb seems ok. and amal parts will interchange.
maybe the bsa owners club should fund limited production of quality parts for club members. fork stantions are one item that springs to mind.
Hi,
Product liability springs to mind.
Dave.
Re wassell carbs ,fitted to my A10 ,i must say it carburates extreamly well , I have though on a couple of times throttle stick ,it happened the other day whilst out ,luckly i was in the lanes and no traffic , it did free off quite quickly ,but upset my confidence ,couple of things when twisting throttle with choke on it felt nice a free ,but when choke was lifted it dint feel so good , stripped carb ,the spring was quite tight in it hole ,with small sander band i linished the hole ,was quite a lot of the anodiseing removed , smoothed of top edge ,now spring moves more freely and feels much better , the machining in the throttle bore wasnt to bright so had no option with some very very fine tape I smoothed it out ,again feels a whole lot better ,
While carb was in bits i noticed a bit of a notch cut out on the float ,it was caused by the tickler ,pin was very sharp on end ,also found the tickler pin was to long it was still pushing float when float was bottom out ,I removed approx 1/16 from scroll pin and smoothed the part that touches float , had i left this much longer
The float would then have been holed ,a replacement now fitted ,and back running ,