Su Super dry kits

[jddevel]

With summer tours on the horizon and my TF1500 carbs "weeping" after only just over 5000 miles since they were rebuilt am looking to rebuild with the new supposed "super dry" kits. Anyone any experience with them please? Are you pleased and do they actually work? Thanks in anticipation.

[John Brownhill]

Hi,
I have tried rebuilding a couple of SU carburetters with these kits I found them very tight around the jet and difficult to assemble.
I was not happy with the tightness, the jet did not want to return easily using the choke. I removed them and fitted viton 'O' ring kits from Danbury Hydraulics (on ebay) much cheaper and work fine.
John

[jddevel]

Thank you John. An interesting insight into your experience. It`s a problem with the carbs leaking over the exhaust making fire an ever present possibility. Obviously I need to sort it before a catastrophic failure. Perhaps I`ll try fitting one carb with vitron and one with super dry as an experiment hoping it doesn`t cause a problem with balancing. Having just built those on my TC with only about 30 minutes running time I`m regretting not researching earlier plus I may hear from others as to their views.

[jddevel]

Thank you John. An interesting insight into your experience. It`s a problem with the carbs leaking over the exhaust making fire an ever present possibility. Obviously I need to sort it before a catastrophic failure. Perhaps I`ll try fitting one carb with vitron and one with super dry as an experiment hoping it doesn`t cause a problem with balancing. Having just built those on my TC with only about 30 minutes running time I`m regretting not researching earlier plus I may hear from others as to their views.

[Steve Simmons]

I've heard both good and bad about them. I'm not sure why they work well for some and not for others. Maybe it's the type of lube used?

[JonnyP]

I too rebuilt mine with the Viton kits from Danbury Hydraulics which seem to work perfectly and cured the constant weep from the jet, that luckily fell on to the steering column rather than the exhaust….

[Duncan M]

I followed the advice popular 10 years ago about using teflon 0-rings for the jet. 2 teflon o-rings for each of the cork that they replace. Important to polish the jet where the teflon will be sliding against. For the cork on the locking nut I soaked in regular engine oil first for 24 hours, just like you are supposed to do. In 10 years never so much as a single drip or weep.

[jddevel]

To John and JonnyP. Looking at the EBay listing etc for the Danbury Hydraulics it shows no listing for the TF1500 -1 1/2 SUs Vitron Kits so have contacted them direct. However had a long conversation with Burlin. They made the following comments which have been very helpful.
1) Cars with traditional cork type gaskets suffer when the car is infrequently used. The cork gaskets dry out and therefore weep.
2) The real problem with the super dry kit is that the seals being vitron/rubber type it is more difficult to centralize the jet due to friction caused by the seal. They therefore need to be well lubricated on installation to ensure the jet moves freely to allow the important centralizing process.
So in summary I`ve ordered traditional cork kits and a super dry kit. Will set up both and await the result.