Whilst trying to remove my carburetor from the attic, I successfully managed to drop it on the bedroom floor from about 7ft. It narrowly missed my face fortunately, but now I'm a little worried I might have damaged it. Externally, there doesn't appear to be any damage, but carburetors contain some sensitive stuff and I am wondering if I might have disturbed something. It certainly left a nice dent in the floorboards!

My questions are,

1. What could I have possibly damaged?

2. What should I do now, with regards to checking the carb, and how exactly should I do it? Please note that the car is not in a running state so I cannot fit it to the car to test it. Also bear in mind that I don't know too much about the inner workings of the carburetor, so saying "take the top off and have a look inside" won't really help me.

Many thanks,

Si

 

What kind of carb is it? What part of the carb hit the ground? I think you'll be fine as long as the throttle still opens and closes nicely.

 

any carb tahts been sitting it would be smart to install a carb rebuld kit. My holley rebuild was simple n you can do it yourself following directions they provide. (or least all i've seen)

 

They're pretty durable.... I doubt you damaged it, as long as whatever hit the floor first isn't bent.

The "rebuild it first" suggestion is good advice, especially if it's already been run. The gaskets will dry up and shrink over time after they've been used and you'll have leaks everywhere - mostly internal leaks, of both vaccum and fuel, that will make it run terrible.

 

Whoa! So THAT'S why Holleys run poorly.

And all these years, I thought it was due to the oversimplified, poorly conceived design. Damn, and all I had to do was rebuild every one after they sat for a while. Wait a minute - I did that and it still didn't seem to help. Where'd I go wrong?

And to think that I believed that electronic fuel injection was the justice to Holley doled out by the fuel system góds.

I guess I can learn something every day...

BTW - Good thing you didn't try to stop it with your face, and I hope it didn't injure the floor. It would be sad to think that something of value might have been damaged.

 

It's never a good thing to be dropping a carb. I would almost bet that the floats are no longer set properly. Sounds like your going to have to take it apart, and while your doing that you might as well put in a carb kit.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

It's the standard Rochester 4 barrel from the LG4 engine. I'm not really sure what part of the carb hit the floor, but nothing appears to be bent.

The rebuild kit sounds like a good idea. How hard is it to set up the floats?

P.S. Vader...anyone would think you didn't like the carburetor!

 

What? Me, worry?


A Rochester is probably worth rebuilding. I've had some bad experiences with Holley carbs not maintaing tune when the temperature changes two whole degrees. (I've got a 600 CFM paperweight - need one?).

A Rochester Quad is also a simple design, but in my opinion a better design than a square bore. It's a great street carb due to it's small primaries that can meter fuel much more accurately, provide decent economy, and respectable emissions. The big weakness seems to be the transfer, but there are means to tune that to an almost optimal condition.

Since you don't know what the carb experienced when "The Body Hit the Floor", it probably would be best to open it and inspect, adjust, and replace any suspect parts.

 

as far as i know, it would be pretty straightforward to rebuild it. then again, the only carbs ive rebuilt were on a completely original 1928 ford model A (my daily driver all summer long, 40hp engine and all...) and my jag. (64 e-type series I w/ overhead cam I-6) the ford carb took me 15min, and most of that was getting it off the car. the jag has 3 carbs and i finished all of them in about an evening or so. never looked in a 4bbl though, good luck.

 

Vader -


Hey now, I run holley 650 cfm and i've had absolutely NO problems with it what so ever. Long live Holley! I dislike edelbrock, I have had problems with them as well as a few of my buddies. Your better off with a quadra jet then a edelbrock =]

 

After rebuilding and synchronizing three carbs, a rebuild and adjustment of even a Carter Thermoquad AFB, complete with metering rod tweaking and all seven jet changes, would seem like a breeze.

Not many of us can call a '28 'A' our "daily driver"....

 

If I were you, I'd take the sir horn off and look for pieces that could have fallen out, like the little air tubes in the air horn, or maybe the needle popped off the hanger. I have taken my quadrajet apart at least a million times in the past month. It's always better to be sure than to drop an important piece of yoour carb into your nice engine, and have to get a new one of each.

 

Well guys, I took the carb apart at work today (ah, the perks of being the manager) and good news : so far everything looks ok. I've made a new gasket for the top half, but I think I might as well do a proper job while it's in pieces and clean it all out.

Thanks to everyone who replied...it's nice to know there are people out there who don't mind taking a moment of their time to share their knowledge and experience. Watch this space, the car will be running in a matter of weeks!

Cheers,

Si