TOPIC:

Hand crafted replacement spacer arrived today.

The fabrications is superb.

Thanks Kawboy

I too lost 2 of mine. I used gasket material and punched them out with some leather/rubber punches that I use to make my own gaskets.
The punch sets are on ebay, 9 in total for £15.00.

sixpipes:

re: your homemade spacers. Simply trying to save you more frustration and anguish..........

It's often the smallest parts that are of the most critical nature. When choosing to fabricate these parts you must always ask at least 2 questions:

1) Why is it there (What is it's intended purpose)?, and in this specific case the MOST IMPORTANT:

2) Why was the original material chosen in the first place.

<".....I too lost 2 of mine. I used gasket material....">

If you've made your spacers from anything other then a fuel-proof/temperature stable and rigid material they are likely going to swell, shrink and warp with varying temperature and humidity. That'll put your needle heights "all over the map" and that's not going to help your existing unqualified issues. Additionally I would have serious concerns about the material used potentially adhering itself to the two contact surfaces if the bike is parked off season for example or any extended period of time.

The next question has to be: Did you replace only the missing 2 or did you replace all 3 ?

The reason for this question should now be painfully obvious. Your well intended self-help approach warrants re-thinking.

Would copper be a suitable material for fabricating these washers?

McZed wrote: Would copper be a suitable material for fabricating these washers?

I would hesitate before selecting copper. The tube the spacer fits over is anodized and is also a tight tolerance to the bore in the carb because throttle venturi vacuum is applied to the center of the tube, lifting the throttle slides via the diaphragm. If the tube gets carved up from the harder material (copper) the tube could end up sticking or leaking vacuum causing the throttle slides to not rise as much as they should and inevitably leading to a lean mixture.

I chose the reed valves for the material because it's designed to be saturated in fuel all the time. It's also similar to the original material of the duracon washer and just happens to be within .002" in thickness to the original material. Reed valves come in a number of different thicknesses depending on the rpm range they are asked to fluctuate at Some reeds will flutter at certain frequencies and a loss of power will result. It's a whole different science. Hence different thicknesses depending on reed dimensions and required frequencies.
I was unable to find the spec of the Duracon nor a source for it. It may have been an older material no longer produced, anyway, that's what I chose and why. Scotch is with me on this one.

A good point regarding a metal substitute !