B&B carb help

[rolliejoe]

Rebuilt my '51 Carter B&B carb and it ran great when I fired the car up for the first time. Now the car is blowing black smoke and fouling out the plugs. This

is with the choke wide open and no air cleaner. when I set the air/fuel mixture all the way in the car still runs, is this normal? What others things should I look for?

Thanks plenty.

[Normspeed]

Recheck that the base to center piece gasket and the base to intake gasket are for sure the right ones. Most of the kits can have 2 or 3 very similar gaskets in the set. Also did you remove 2 ball bearings and replace the two in their correct barrels? The balls, sadly, are two different sizes. If you only removed the one under the brass plug, you may have switched that one with the wrong size from the kit. Only other thing that rings a bell is an inlet needle and seat/float problem, either due to sticking, wrong float level, or hole in the float. You're running way too rich from the sound of it.

[greg g]

also double check your float level and the the needle and seat id closing. Are you getting raw fuel at the base of the carb or out the ends of the throttle plate pivot pin??

[rolliejoe]

Seems both gaskets are correct, base to manifold has four corner slots, one lines up with the hole in the carb base. Center piece gasket lines up with all holes. I only replaced the ball under the brass plug. The other ball had the retaining ring and it looked correct so I left it in. Instructions gave no indication on which ball goes where.

As removed, looking at the carb from the front (inlet being front):

Big ball on the left, the one under the brass plug.

Small ball on the right, the one under the retaining ring.

Is this the correct configuration for the balls??

Float is at correct level. Accelerator linkage at center setting. Accelerator

height measures correct. No raw fuel leaking at the base or at the throttle pivot.

Looks like there is no way to check inlet needle seat (A/F) as it's seats blind

in the base?

[Young Ed]

You are correct on the position of the two BB's (sounds better then balls : ) Don't be afraid of the retaining ring its not that difficult to get out and back in. Either way as long as the old BB is free to move clean etc it should be ok. I think I'd be checking some of the carb parts for cracks. I had an RC car carb that I couldnt get to idle for nothing and it turned out the seat for the needle had a crack in it.

[Niel Hoback]

Check for free movement of the power piston. Vaccuum has to be able to pull it down easily. Its gotta be able to move easily and yet be tight enough so that the vaccuum will not leak by it.

[Dodgeb4ya]

There is also a round gasket under power piston -make sure it is there and that the metering rod is down correctly in the jet. The power jet piston should spring right back up when pushed down and released. If the carb is flooding out (running way too rich) you will not be able to adjust idle mixture until the flooding problem is fixed.

Bob

[rolliejoe]

Power piston move up and down freely and seems to be tight. There is no round gasket under the power piston, where would the gasket go?

[Niel Hoback]

I think its a tiny little ring of hard fiber, maybe red colored. Should be in the rebuild kit. It goes at the bottom of the hole, put the piston down on top of it.

[rolliejoe]

So it just sits at the bottom of the cylinder? Didn't originally have one and my instructions showed a gasket but were unclear. Back outside to look for the hard fiber gasket. Thanks.

[Dodgeb4ya]

The round gasket that goes down in the bottom of the piston bore usually as I have always seen is black and more of a semi-soft gasket. The main jet and step up jet gaskets are hard and red as I recall. Use the piston to push it evenly into the bottom of the bore. The power piston at high vacuum conditions-idle ect. is sucked down and seals at the gasket for good idle-no vacuum loss. Tha carter carb book shows this gasket as should the service/parts manuals.

Bob

[James_Douglas]

what is the carb number ?

James

[rolliejoe]

It's a D6H2. The hard red gasket didn't want to go in the hole so I went with the rubber one that did fit. Went at it again using the piston to get the red hard gasket down and it went (before the replies). So now I have red over the black rubber one. If that doesn't work out I'll pull the red out.

After hooking it back up and the car not starting I find out I have no fuel going to the carb. Did have a clog, but after pressurizing the tank tonight I'm getting fuel to the pump so i guess the

somewhat new fuel pump is out?

One step foward, two steps back.

[Normspeed]

If you have a fairly new pump and it's not pulling fuel from the tank well, look for a tiny leak in the fuel line between tank and pump. Most common is a perforated flex hose just before the fuel pump. Could also be a pinhole in the steel line or a leaky fitting on the suction side.

[Dodgeb4ya]

It's a D6H2. The hard red gasket didn't want to go in the hole so I went with the rubber one that did fit. Went at it again using the piston to get the red hard gasket down and it went (before the replies). So now I have red over the black rubber one. If that doesn't work out I'll pull the red out.

After hooking it back up and the car not starting I find out I have no fuel going to the carb. Did have a clog, but after pressurizing the tank tonight I'm getting fuel to the pump so i guess the

somewhat new fuel pump is out?

One step foward, two steps back.

The reason the carb kits have the small and large hard red gaskets is for the reason that they will not tear apart when they are installed in place and be under both twisting and compression forces as the jets are properly tightened. They are used under the brass main jet (large red gasket)and the (smaller red) under the Power piston(Step-Up piston) jet.

Battery acid can also pinhole the gas line under the battery tray.