I know, half of you are saying, “carbu-what?”, and my other reader already did it. Having grown up with fuel-injected cars since about 1989, I myself was not sure what to do with the carburetor, although I knew rebuilding it could help my rough-running situation. My Lancia Beta had sat in a barn or outside for several years, and from working on an old Packard roadster at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum I knew that fuel could turn into a nasty shellack-y mess in cars that are stored long-term without proper prep. To get some basic understanding of how a carb works, I found a page at howstuffworks.com for basics. While they talk about a chainsaw carb, the basic concepts still apply.
Archive for May, 2009
Rebuild your carburetor
May 20, 2009
Smokey Says, Only You Can Stop Fluid Leaks!
May 16, 2009While this is not a terribly sexy thing to fix, it’s definitely one of the things people like me tend to put off while focusing on cooler things like rebuilding an engine, or redoing the suspension. However, this is something pretty inexpensive you can do in the space of an afternoon. Does your old car still have those fuel hoses with the cloth on the outside? And the cloth is faded to a greyish-brown shade? You might want to think about taking on this easy and cheap repair. Likewise, have you had a chance to take a look at the flexible brake and clutch lines on your rusty-but-trusty car? I’m ashamed to admit mine were pretty cracked up, and I only did something about it after years of owning both my Alfas.
One tip to avoid spillage – use a clamp wrench when disconnecting your fuel lines. Once you’ve disconnected, poke them into a small container, like a quart oil bottle, then remove the clamp and let the excess fuel drain out. As far as the brake lines are concerned, that’s a little harder… I put down a pan underneath, and really, not that much fluid comes out. At any rate, this is a good time to flush your brake fluid, which in all likelihood needs to be replaced anyway. I’d like to say I have some pics I can share of this, but I’m not finding any pictures I took of the embarrassing shape my brake lines were in. I guess I was wise enough to erase the evidence!
The Gateway Drug – Alfa Romeo Spiders
May 16, 2009My entry to cheap, fun sportscars was with my ’77 rubber-bumper spider. Granted, it’s not the prettiest of Alfa’s creations, but at a low cost-of-entry, you get a convertible with that magical twin-cam and 5-speed, plus respectable, safe handling, even in higher-mile cars. I’ll admit I went over the top with my spider, so it no longer fits with our theme, but a lot of that was cosmetic, and drivetrain condition is our first concern here (being California-based, dangerous rust is usually less of an issue). Although I wouldn’t want to encourage it, the great thing for us with spiders is their fallback strategy – unless they’re completely thrashed, parting out is feasible (something I’d like to do to learn more about my car).
First up is a 1978 spider on Craigslist. Laid up for 20 years (1989 is 20 years ago?!), that means this car was only on the road for 11 years of its life, so it’s not an outrageous assumption that the rust is fairly minimal, miles would be around 100K, and if you’re lucky, the cosmetics won’t be half-bad. My guess on reasons for the lay-up would be something like a blown head gasket or failed SPICA fuel injection. Check for chocolate milkshake-like emulsion on the radiator cap or oil in the coolant overflow tank for the former, and fuelish-smelling oil for the latter. Fixing either of these would be $200 – $400 in parts (if you go used with the SPICA), and I believe having someone install the SPICA (used) is $750ish including parts. At $950 asking, this puts you at $1700 on the outside, probably a bit more when you figure in registration and resurrection costs. Of course, if you’re lucky the cause was nothing more than someone losing interest in a sports car.
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Rusty But Trusty 