Colortune - where the heck do you get it????

Yep, the subject pretty much says it. I've found a couple of places online to buy it, but I was wondering if anyone has had any luck finding one at any local parts stores.

Better yet, anyone in the Dallas area willing to let me borrow theirs for about a week? ;-)

 

The online sites are all I know of for purchasing one.

 

Ebay sometimes has them come up but sometimes more than the stores online sell them for.

 

check out this link
http://cgi.ebay.com/GUNSONS-COLORTUNE-N ... dZViewItem

Sure it's over the pond, but the price looks right

 

1st check to see if it's 14MM

looks the same as mine for about 1/2 the $$$

 

here's another
http://cgi.ebay.com/Colortune-500-Engin ... dZViewItem

 

Eastwood has them
Eastwood Color tune

 

Colourtune!?? Only one I know of was the Glass Sparkplug type sold inna late 60's early 70's to "sportscar (read English Junk car) owners"
Worked 'sort of' in that you dicked with the jet elevation on SU's until one got the 'correct' colour happening in the glass bit. Truth is a semi skilled Mech could do better, quicker and more reliably simply 'by ear'
Thought those mercifully died out.a couple of decades ago.. Is this sumthing 'new' ?

 

Nope , nothing new. It works very well on bikes with multicarb banks. i have tuned many bikes who's owners tuned them by ear. When I get through they grin wide enough to close up their ears!

 

Well I forgot there is something new. The older Colortune 500's had no inner porcelain insulator. The new colortune's do. I highly recommend the newer ones since the insulator keeps bike coils from arcing across to the metal base. I have this problem with mine. There is also some discussion about the older ones increasing cylinder volume, which they do. They will still tune the bike well. However the motorcycle version with an insulator is engineered to handle the higher compression ratios of bikes.

 

Necessety IS the mother if invention!

That being said, who cares what the need to make a tool such as this.
When you have a carb per cylinder arrangement, there is no better way to be sure each carb and cylinder matches equaly and burns the fuel completely.

So if crummy sportscars caused these to be invented......so be it.

They work!!

 

What size does a xj 650 take?
Thanks

 

14 MM

They sell some with adapters but I recomend just getting a 14 MM

 

Ohhh ...so it is a variant of the old glass sparkplug.
I can see how it could prove usefull on seting idle mixture on a multi carb engine.
But how does it help with midrange and full throttle (under load) mixture setup? Does one have to run down some deserted road at WOT, with one's head under the gastank trying to see the colour in the glass sparkplug's chamber?? for Each cyinder/carb in turn??
Only scenario that I can reasonably envision.
It ain't a wideband o2 sensor is it
In my experiences Idle mixturte or cracked throttles under no load is of llimited real life use.
Ergo..the reason Why.. the semi skilled mech with a trained ear did better than the glass gizmo.
Some things seemingly never change

 

When it comes right down to it the tool is only a stationary tool.

You can crack throttle and open it up to a certain degree while the bike is still, and get results that help

Really, the biggest thing youre trying to adjust with the idle mixture screw is the flow of fuel thru the idle circuit.

you can however check it at different throttle positions, you really can't judge this thing until you put one on and try it. then when you see what a difference it makes........ well you'll believe then.

 

OK i just picked up a colortune on EBay so we will see if dumba$$ can figure out how to use it (that is me).

I sold the sled so I need something to do when the renovations are done.

 

Good question. The Colortune only adjusts the idle band of power. Yet the idle band affects throttle response and performance up to about 4500 rpm. When carbs get dirty over time the idle circuit needs to be ajusted and much more so after the carbs have been cleaned since the mixture settings have been affected. The mid range is set by the main jet, jet needle and emulsion tube. The jet needle not being adjustable on the Hitachi HSC 32 or 33 carb models makes the colortune unnecessary for that range. Therefore we only tune the adjustable area to work with the fixed area.

 

I just want to hear you say it was all that!

Let us know