Home › Forum › Ask A Member › 1951 Gale 12 hp mag and throttle › Re: 1951 Gale 12 hp mag and throttle
Ok, first things first. The theory behind the setup is that you are cruising along at wide open throttle and want to slow down for something (like cross a wake for instance). So you rotate the twist grip. That closes the carburetor butterfly, leaving spark at full advance. Result is a significant reduction of speed. However, in this condition it runs rather rough due to being at full spark advance. So if you want to continue running at slow speed you reach up and reduce the spark advance, which gives you a nice slow idle.
Actually the system has a second purpose: Racing. On a hydro, you would have a dead-man’s throttle that closes the carb if you turn loose.
Having said that, and looking at your picture, I think you have it assembled wrong. Study it and see if it operates as I just described.
I think the cable-operated lever is supposed to be above the spark-operated lever, not below. Check it out and see. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at one.