Thread: Cable splitter.

Some of these bikes came with non linked carbs, instead using a twin cable throttle, one cable for each carb. Adjustments were made via the inline cable adjusters. A very fiddly process. To simplify the system, I bought a single cable throttle then looked around for a cable splitter but all I could find was a plastic thingy with no means of securing it, so it would just flop around inside the tank tunnel.

Didn’t like that idea, so I made one up from a small slab of ally. I bored a 14mm hole through the slab and ran a 5/8” UNF thread through each end on the lathe to a depth of 11mm. Next I milled a step and drilled two 6mm holes in the step for mounting it to the upper engine mounts. The two end caps are also aluminium turned up from some round stock. One has a one cable inlet, the other takes two cables. I ran a 5/8” UNF thread on them and then ran my scissor knurler over them. Both caps are fitted with O rings as the body will be filled with grease for lubrication.

The slide I made from brass, 14mm round, for a snug, sliding fit inside the main body, and 25mm long. Through this I drilled three 1.5mm holes, then countersunk them with a 3mm bit for the cable nipples. I then cut three slots with a slit saw in the slide, so the cables can be fitted.

Since it's under the tank, a polished finish was out, so I bought some acid and put together an anodising tank, using an old power supply, a 10 litre bucket and some aluminium cathodes. I put the splitter together and bunged the holes with rubber stoppers and dunked the thing in the bath. It came up very nice. I then mounted it to the top right engine mount.

To make syncing easier I turned up some long, stainless adjusters for the cables, knurled them and made a couple of aluminium brackets to secure the adjusters to the top of the carbs. Then it was just a matter of making up three cables. Once done, I fitted it all together, started the bike and synced the carbs. Easy as.

Unfortunately, shortly after the diaphragms developed multiple holes, so the carbs were binned and replaced with VM34s. The VMs came with cables and a small inline splitter. Sadly my splitter won't work with the VMs as the the cable pull is too long. My splitter was made to suit the shorter pull of the BS38s. So now my splitter languishes in the useless parts drawer. I may make another down the track so I haven't got a splitter flopping around under the tank. Plenty of other stuff to play with first though.

Nice work. Pity it's now redundant. What year is your XS?