charlie chitlins

Don't trust the marks on the snails. Make sure the chain is centered on the sprocket teeth.

You can use silicone, but they seem to get dampness in them no matter what. It'll get good and hot, you'll hit some water and cool it suddenly and the water sucks right in (high school physics). I had the best luck with sealing it real well with silicone, putting a hole in the rubber block where the wiring exits (hot phillips screwdriver), putting a vent hose in the hole and running it up under the tank. Some just drill a hole in the bottom of the cover so it drains.

Thanks, mate!

Anybody got these? What kind and how much? Thanks!

Heat guns...boiling water....jeeze. Some research revealed that this is a problem particularly with '03. It looks like the custom aluminum carb throat extension is the way to go. They're made beacuse of an awareness of this problem. What I did was to remove the boot from the airbox, which is held in with a flange that goes inside the box, and butted the boot to the box, moving it forward the thickness of the flange. Bolted together with a bunch of sealer, I'm as sure as I can be that it's sealed, and the extra 5/16" or so helped, but I think I'll get the trick part and do it the no-excuses way.

OK...maybe I should give GG a break. It's somewhat comforting to know that it may have fit at some point. I'll try rubbing some DOT3 on the rubber. That might soften and swell it a bit.

Thanks, Lowbrow. That might do it. And, Jordi...the rubber adaptor is there, but here is still a large space on the bottom. The boot can be pulled/stretched/deformed to fit and sometimes even held in place long enough to be clamped, but it's a crap piece of work.

OK...I'm still going to sell this piece of crap, but by the time I do, it's going to be a fully-sorted, no-excuses piece of crap. Next problem.... I did a little experiment this weekend and invited a friend over. He could actually park his 1951 Buick Dynaflow Special in the space between the airbox boot and the carb throat. I can't believe ANY factory sent a machine out with such an obvious (even fatal) flaw. Is there an update for this? Hopefully this was sorted by '04.

I've seen an auxiliary fuel tank that mounts where a front number plate would be. A "long-ride" seat that held fuel would make a trials bike the perfect trail bike!

I've got my eyes open. Trials bikes are so scarce here. I have my eye on an '03 Montesa, but it's spendy....and I worry about the price of spares. They obvoiusly bring a premium. So cool though...it seems like where other bikes have stamped steel, the Mont has cast and machined aluminum. Very classy...and I love the no-spoke-hole rear wheel. Can't find a Scorpa. I may just have to hold out for a Sherco. Still my favorite.

There are plenty of folks around here who don't ride much. I've got my eye out for an '00-'04 with low use. That was the case with the 200 Pro I have ('03)...I just consider it a crappy bike and get little joy from owning it. I've also got my eye on an '03 TXT which, I reckon, is a less picky/fragile and better-sorted machine.

I'm going to get this stinkin' GG Pro fully sorted and sell it before it can do me any further harm. There's an '02 Beta near me for a good price, but all I ever read about with these things is about them losing spark...stators, cdi..... Hmmm...maybe I just answered my own question.

You'll have fun getting your trail bike riding buddies to try to follow you up big hills!

Go for it. Many of us use our trial bikes for trail bikes.

OK...this bike tipped over to the right and the fuel wouldn't flow until I tipped it over to the left. This leads me back to the idea that there's something going on with the side-to-side movement of the float fingers on the pin. Take it apart AGAIN!

If you think it works, it does. It's funny when people say it's "only" the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a mighty thing that can heal you or make you sick...make you stronger or weaker.

If there's ever been any doubt, all I've ever done is turned the carb upside down and sucked on the fuel line to be sure the needle is sealing...turn it back upright and suck again to make sure the floats/needle drops. I'd figure that several successful rounds of this would be enough to assume the float/needle stuff is sorted. Apparently not! Just because it's worked the last 2000 times on Linkert, Schebler, Dell'Orto, Keihin, Mikuni, Amal, Bing........doesn't mean it will again...I guess....

Bench testing it a dozen times with a specially-made apparatus to check the fuel height in the bowl is simple? It's a good idea, BTW, and you clearly know what you're talking about, but I've been working on these things for over 35 years, professionally at times, and I've never had to go through al that to get a carb sorted. What a PITA

Floats checked, vents checked, petcock checked.... Here's how it goes: Bike stalls...dry bowl. Take off fuel line, drain it, put it back on, turn on petcock, filter doesn't fill. Take off bowl, make sure everything is moving freely (I even smoothed the edges of the float needle). Put it back together, put on the fuel line, turn petcock, filter fills...bowl fills...bike fires right up. Ride awhile. Repeat. When the carb is off, I can turn it upside down and back and hear the floats and fingers moving freely. The only thing I can think of is, there is a slight bit of slop whee the fingers go on the pivot pin and if the fingers move in one direction, the contact the body of the carb...but that certainly doesn't seem like something that couldn't be dislodged by a sharp rap on the carb body. WTF?

Guess what...problem NOT sorted. It ran dry today. Not the fuel tank vent, not the carb vent/overflow. Disassembly revealed everything to be moving freely, but a DRY bowl. Before I took the bowl off, no amount of tapping the body or blowing into the fuel line could force anything into the bowl. This bike is possessed. I don't need a mechanic...I need a freakin' exorcist!

It's still me...had to re-register with a slightly changed name... I just sorted a problem that caused me a bunch of headache...and probably a top end. I came across this in the early 90's when fuels were changing. I had thoroughly serviced my carb, so It was a last resort to pull it off AGAIN, but, as a last resort, I did; and I found no fuel in the bowl. The float needle was stuck in the seat...probably due to swollen rubber tip from some fuel additive or another. Watch out for it!