Carb rebuild today!

[clodhopper]

Took the carb off of betty lou last night, took it apart, and dropped it in the cleaning can to soak. Got up this morning, rinsed it, soda blasted, washed in hot soapy water, and then commenced to installing the complete carb rebuild kit from Steiner. Made a trip up to TSC to purchase a 4' piece of 3/16" steel rod (smooth) That allowed me to make a new throttle rod (mine was almost worn in two at the throttle shaft connection) I also made a new choke rod (didn't have one, PO used a choke cable and a stay bolted to the carb. Worked good, but not original). I also used a piece of sheet metal to make a choke lever as I installed a new choke shaft, but did not have the lever. I basically folded it over, cut a slot in it, drilled a hole at the bottom of the slit that would fit over the choke shaft, and installed a bolt/nut at the top where I had folded it ove, to tighten up the slot I cut. Worked like a champ! After all this, I have the $54 in the rebuild kit, and 2.99 in the smooth steel rod plus my time, and basically its all like new now!

[Rudi]

Sounds like you had fun and am curious to see what you came up with for the choke lever.

[clodhopper]

Sounds like you had fun and am curious to see what you came up with for the choke lever.

Here you go Rudi. I couldnt get one of the choke clamp installed. It wouldnt take in the dark. Here is a pic of the sheetmetal I used to make the clamp.

Here is a first attempt at a clamp. The hole for the shaft needs to be one drill size smaller than the shaft.

Heres a picture of the original throttle shaft. Its hard to see, but it was worn pretty bad.

Here is the new rod I made from scratch.

Here is the new choke rod I made from scratch. Used a picture from TMs website as a guide.

And finally, here is a pic of the carb reattached. Looks great and runs like champ!

[Rudi]

The rods look great -- nicely done. The clamp is a neat piece of using what you gots handy. Necessity if the mother of invention after all. Neat solution.

[clodhopper]

Also, i forgot to note that the side of the carb where the main jet screws in was slightly goofed up, enough that the brass washer would not seal it from leaking, so to correct it I used my gasket punches to cut a washer out of an old tractor tire inner tube, and placed it between the washer and the carb body. Works great, no leaks. If you look close at the last picture you can see it.

[CapeCodCubs]

Nice looking carb. Good work

[Bob McCarty]

Clodhopper, The main jet should have a fiber washer, not a brass one. It looks like you found a fix though.

Bob

[Bob Perry]

If I were the teacher, you'd get an "A".

[CubitisNH]

Nice job on the carb and neat solution to the common"missing choke lever"problem!
Mike

[Hengy]

One note on the rubber inner tube washer... With the ethanol in today's gas, that rubber will wear out and fail if it get in contact with any gas. When we rebuilt Merlin's carb at the cubfest where I got him, we used a nitrile rubber o-ring in place of gasket on the carb. Worked great for about 3 years and then the rubber failed.

[clodhopper]

One note on the rubber inner tube washer... With the ethanol in today's gas, that rubber will wear out and fail if it get in contact with any gas. When we rebuilt Merlin's carb at the cubfest where I got him, we used a nitrile rubber o-ring in place of gasket on the carb. Worked great for about 3 years and then the rubber failed.

I know what you mean, but with a whole rear innertube to cut washers from, I doubt it will be much of a problem!

[bob in CT]

One note on the rubber inner tube washer... With the ethanol in today's gas, that rubber will wear out and fail if it get in contact with any gas. When we rebuilt Merlin's carb at the cubfest where I got him, we used a nitrile rubber o-ring in place of gasket on the carb. Worked great for about 3 years and then the rubber failed.

According to an industry O-ring compatibility guide nitrile is compatible with both ethanol and gasoline.