[TR] Measuring piston position

[jimmuller at rcn.com]

Randall wrote:
> But, throttle position doesn't directly translate to piston position.

Interesting subject, of course.  I hadn't considered whether the lift button was attached to the piston or separate.  In any case, my curiosity was prompted by the spring question.

I would think you'd want the piston to operate through its own full range through most throttle and airflow range.  If I drove a route I know and recorded the audio as part of a wmv file I should be able to correlate the piston movement reasonably well to the throttle position under different load conditions, or at least see where on the needle it spent much of its time.

Whether it is running lean or rich or in debt or purple is a whole 'nother question.  If I felt, for whatever reason, that it was too lean at some time in that drive, I might be able to judge where on the needle it was running and thus consider a needle thinner at that point.

Of course, it would still be guesswork and lots of data would be just plain missing.  Mostly it would be interesting to know the actual piston (and needle) behavior under real conditions.
--
Jim Muller, too busy to do such an experiment now