Bit of Set-Back…
During the test firings of my car we were using an extra carburetor that Joe had that he will be using on another project. We weren’t using mine because we were waiting on a rebuild kit. Rather than me try to explain the carb issues Greg found, I’ll just use his own words…
“The carb kit arrived today. I started cleaning the main body of the carb. There was a bunch of carbon on the bottom side. By the time I got all that old black carbon dug out this is what was left! Good golly! As you can see it’s just a bit thin around the one bore indicated by screwdriver point. I’m pretty sure that it’s not supposed to be black around the rear bores.
I pulled Joe’s AFB off your engine for comparison. Also, I noticed when I had it running the other day that the choke stat was not pulling heat. I figured the passage was just gunked up. Turns out that the expansion plug under the choke piston is gone!
Below are some comparison shots of my carb (left) versus the temporary one we were using. As we can see, Joe’s carb is just about perfect, and mine’s a mess! The sidewall is eroded out of the one primary bore. The soft plug for the vacuum advance passage is pinholed. Plus just the general erosion in the heat passage.
Greg tells me however that all this is not the end of the world! The stainless steel plate goes right up against the bottom of the carb base. Shouldn’t be a major problem to fill it and smooth it out but the the primary bore sidewall will be a bit tricky.
In the below pic you can see that Greg made some “forms” using aluminum tape on the carburetor. Smeared some steel epoxy on it and let it cure. He’ll then knock it down using the same technique he would use to straighten a quarter panel, back and forth with the long board. When it gets close he’ll switch over the “figure 8” method. Then he’ll attach sticky one side sandpaper to a piece of glass and do “figure 8s” on it with the carb base until it’s nice and flat!
A shot of the base after the steel epoxy was sanded down…the small cavity that was filled in has no effect on carb performance
Now for some black paint to be used as a “guide coat” to make sure it is sanded down perfectly flat,,,
…and here’s the finished carb base ready for installation…not too shabby for something that looked like it was ready for the trash heap…
Since refurbishing the carb base was a success…it’s safe to move forward with the disassembly and rebuild…here’s the “exploded” view…
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~ Tom Sidoti
1959 Buick Electra 225 Convertible
Hmm If it was me I would have got a new one made.