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Media
Coverage -
"Thunder Products' Dial-A-Jet"
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Dirt Bike Magazine
It
makes jetting so easy you'll do it.
Dirt bikers are more mechanically
inclined than normal people. Most of us know what carburetor
jetting is and what it can do for performance. While most dirt
bikers are performance-hungry, the possibility of better performance
isn't enough to motivate a surprising number of riders to jet their
bikes properly. Maybe it's the time-consuming nature of jetting
tests. An afternoon of trail riding beats an afternoon of jetting
any day. Some riders won't rejet unless their bikes foul two plugs
per ride. Some have to seize an engine before they will tear into
the carb to set things right.
What if you could change your overall fuel/air mixture
as easily as you adjust your idle? No tearing the carb off.
No box full of four-dollar jets. No lost circlips or float bowl
screws (did it land in the sand or-gasp-the intake?). Just turn a
screw for a richer or leaner mixture. Sounds heavenly, doesn't it?
It is. That's why Dial-A-Jets are so common on racing snowmobiles.
When the snowmobile guys rejet it's often so cold that fingers barely
move. Then there's the joy of removing bodywork just to get to the
carbs. That's right, carbs. As many as four on some
machines. No wonder they found an easy way to rejet.
Convenience has a price. In the case of the
Dial-A-Jet, the price is $74.95 and a little more than an hour of
installation time. First, you have to do a little old-fashioned
jet changing. If your bike is running acceptably well, the
Dial-A-Jet people suggest you install a main jet one or two sizes
smaller and move the needle one position leaner before installing the
Dial-A-Jet. The extra-lean jetting lets you use part of the
Dial-A-Jet's adjustment range to provide leaner-than-stock jetting and
part for richer jetting. On most dirt bike carburetors you have to
drill and tap the float bowl or float bowl drain plug for the
Dial-A-Jet's fuel supply line fitting.
No matter where the Dial-A-Jet draws fuel from, it is
mixed with air at the chamber near the carburetor mouth and delivered in
atomized form into the intake airstream. Dial-A-Jet claims the
atomized fuel mist fills in lean areas in the poorly atomized fuel
charge from the carburetor for improved throttle response and less
detonation, even with crisp, lean jetting. There was some evidence
of this on our KDX. The bike detonated lightly even with the fat
stock jetting in high-load, part-throttle situations. With the
Dial-A-Jet we used leaner jetting and could roll the throttle on in deep
sand and get strong acceleration with no pinging.
Improved response is just a side benefit of the
Dial-A-Jet. The real beauty of the device is the ease it brings to
the traditionally unpleasant task of rejetting. Once the
Dial-A-Jet is installed, all you do to change jetting is turn the
adjustment screw on the Dial-A-Jet mixing chamber. What you are
actually doing is altering the amount of air mixed with the fuel
delivered by the Dial-A-Jet. since air is being fed through the
Dial-A-Jet mixing chamber, a filter is available to keep dirt out of the
Dial-A-Jet ports and the engine.
Finally, there's a practical way to jet a bit richer
run for strong performance in the cold morning air without dooming your
bike to being a plug-fouling, blubbering beast in the afternoon.
Leaner jetting that makes sense in high temperatures or in tight,
technical conditions where crisp throttle response is important and
periods of sustained full-throttle running are rare is easily available.
You can also set your carburetor jetting so that the Dial-A-Jet provides
five leaner jetting steps for rides into extremely high elevations.
No matter where you ride, it's likely that the Dial-A-Jet would come in
handy. If your riding takes you to a variety of temperatures and
elevations, it almost seems foolish not to have it. The Dial-A-Jet
is available from Thunder Products, Inc. 320-597-2700. |