Carter Carb, Fuel Filter & Fuel Line

[meadowbrook]

I have been convinced by this forum that the root cause of my D34's stalling when idling for an extended period in hot weather or after a fast highway run and then idling is from the carb percolating and flooding the engine.

 

I would like to ask the group how to fix this percolation issue.

 

I plan to see if I can install a thicker non metallic carb to manifold gasket/spacer and/or perhaps fashion a metal heat shield to be clamped between 2 carb gaskets between the carb and manifold.

 

Any comments?

[HanksB3B]

I have been convinced by this forum that the root cause of my D34's stalling when idling for an extended period in hot weather or after a fast highway run and then idling is from the carb percolating and flooding the engine.

 

I would like to ask the group how to fix this percolation issue.

 

I plan to see if I can install a thicker non metallic carb to manifold gasket/spacer and/or perhaps fashion a metal heat shield to be clamped between 2 carb gaskets between the carb and manifold.

 

Any comments?

 

Try lowering your float bowl a bit that worked for me when I had the same problem. I think the float should be 5/64" below the body of the carb.  If it's that, it's an easy fix just remove the oil bath and the top of the carb exposing the float and gve the float tab a slight bend forward.

 

Hank 

[Dave72dt]

Where I work stocks the alloy line in 4 sizes. Don't ask for Fedhill by name. All you'll get is a blank look unless they carry that brand. Ask for that copper colored brake line. Another blank look , ask if someone else can help or move on to another store. Someone will have it.

[HanksB3B]

Dave,

 

How much is the 25' roll of 5/16 where you work. Trust me, no one except perhaps specialtiy shops and hot rod fabricators have it around here and also trust me that the Auto Parts Retail has changed for the worse. The guys that know anything are gone and the people that run chain auto parts don't know an oil filter from a gas filter. It's probably worse in Orange County where Jeff lives because it's a much newer community and younger than LA. and it's surrounding communities.

 

Spent the day getting the truck positioned on jack stands, filled my BMW 325e with the regular gas drained from my gas tank and my truck is not empty yet. Mocked up the gas line with a piece of red wire looking for the correct path and attachment points. Think that's it till Monday, but will work a little more on this thread as there are still some unanswered questions.

 

Hank 

[Scruffy49]

You need brake routing pics? If I'm up at a civilized hour and get my deer early (muzzle loader opener), I'll try and get a few. The entire dog house is still off the 49 B1B.

[HanksB3B]

Hey Scruffy a few deer or a few pics ?  I think I routed my right front brake totally wrong (almost goes the route the gas tank to the fuel pump should have taken) It's the one thing I goofed up on.  Most likely it was one of those thing I thought I'd remember but then 6 months later my mind must have drawn a total blank.  Yes it would help to have pictures of the brake line routing.  I'd appreciate it. In the meantime I'll do an Indian Tribal Deer Hunt Dance over here in California and keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

Good Hunting,

 

Hank  

[Jeff Balazs]

Dave,

 

How much is the 25' roll of 5/16 where you work. Trust me, no one except perhaps specialtiy shops and hot rod fabricators have it around here and also trust me that the Auto Parts Retail has changed for the worse. The guys that know anything are gone and the people that run chain auto parts don't know an oil filter from a gas filter. It's probably worse in Orange County where Jeff lives because it's a much newer community and younger than LA. and it's surrounding communities.

 

Spent the day getting the truck positioned on jack stands, filled my BMW 325e with the regular gas drained from my gas tank and my truck is not empty yet. Mocked up the gas line with a piece of red wire looking for the correct path and attachment points. Think that's it till Monday, but will work a little more on this thread as there are still some unanswered questions.

 

Hank 

Absolutely spot on. Trying to do business with these shops is an exercise in frustration. We got literally tens of thousands of retailers here of every description ........ mostly BS foo foo stuff ......and not one decent auto parts store. I just got through getting a Optima battery from the only independant around. According to my friends who own repair shops they are hands down the best in south county. It took several calls and almost 10 days to get it. When it finally came one of the owners delivered it and acted like he had parted the red sea. I just laughed and took him in to my warehouse to show him the truck. He was totally blown away. When we were done looking it over I told him " I am going to get this truck done in spite of all you clowns". I think he finally understood where I was coming from.

 

If someone was really sharp and wanted to make a genuine fortune they would open a real auto parts store here. It is wall to wall people and cars and not one decent parts source to be found. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

Jeff

[Young Ed]

Trust me, no one except perhaps specialtiy shops and hot rod fabricators have it around here and also trust me that the Auto Parts Retail has changed for the worse.

 

What's even worse is I'd bet they have it or at least have access to it and just don't know how to find it or bother to figure out what the H you are talking about.

 

Napa has it see if that helps you any.

 

Part Number: BK 6413351

Product Line: Balkamp

 

Attributes:

Brake Line Diameter : 5/16"

Brake Line Length : 25' Sold By The Foot

Fittings Included : No

Material Type : Copper-Nickel Alloy

Tubing End Type : Open

Bendable : Yes

Contents : Fluid Line

Manufacturer : American Grease Stick Company

Manufacturer Part Number : CNC-525

[DJ194950]

Interesting that Napa carries it in bulk rolls. My local Napa said they no longer carried fuel/brake line in bulk, only premade line with fittings, bur all were the copper coated easy to bend stuff!

 

Too lazy to look in their computer even, would not be the first time. I liked their old online catalog were I looked up the #'s and went to the Napa and told Them what I wanted! Always avail. at some location, for shipping cost now, used to be free!

Even with experienced people I get the feeling the owner of the store donesn't really want his employes ordering for me, the small fish!

 

Doug

[HanksB3B]

Seems it won't be long before NAPA goes the way of the other Chain Auto Parts Stores.  It's kind of sad really.  It makes our importance of Pilothouse owner to Pilothouse owner even more important.  I followed Marks lead and ordered 25' (if all goes well 16' too much) of Copper Nickel Line.  Online for a little under half of what NAPA wanted for it from Amazon today.

 

 

hank    

[DJ194950]

Pretty sad that you have to shop Amazon for auto parts!

 

Have bought many car parts for the 50 4dr. that way, usually at least half price vs/ Napa.

 

Too bad. I like to support our local stores, but what can you do these days.

 

Doug

[Dave72dt]

The average "Joe" could have walked out our store with the roll of 5/16 for  $ 77, commercial accounts somewhat less.   Every time it passes through someone's business it gets a markup so the fewer stops it makes on the journey from manufacturer to end use the less expensive it is.  That's one of the reasons  Rock Auto and possibly Amazon can offer better pricing on so many items.  They've removed  some of the middle men.  I think they're both drop shipping from their suppliers and don't have warehouses of their own.

[HanksB3B]

I also like to support my local stores but NAPA is becoming more and more useless  There is one pretty good Auto Parts Store around here. The owner is always so helpful and goes out of his way to find vintage parts.  Recently when I needed a certain brass fitting, his employee, Tony said "You're not going to like the price"   I said "What like six bucks (knowing they usually have hard to find parts but are usually overpriced) Tony said "Like double that twelve bucks".  I put the part down, said no thanks and walked out of their shop. I do not like being taken for a fool and being taken advantage of. The way over-the-top pricing seems to happen when the boss is in the machine shop. It made me wonder if Tony is ringing the part up at the correct price, (paying the cash register and then putting the extra money in his own pocket and giving me a bogus receipt.  I don't like thinking things like this. It just didn't feel right and almost made me want to talk to the owner about him. I don't think I'll be going back there ever.

 

Hank (I guess I am still angry about this)  

 

P.S. Oh, and I did find the part at Pep Boys for $2.99

Edited November 13, 2013 by HanksB3B

[Jeff Balazs]

I also like to support my local stores but NAPA is becoming more and more useless  There is one pretty good Auto Parts Store around here. The owner is always so helpful and goes out of his way to find vintage parts.  Recently when I needed a certain brass fitting, his employee, Tony said "You're not going to like the price"   I said "What like six bucks (knowing they usually have hard to find parts but are usually overpriced) Tony said "Like double that twelve bucks".  I put the part down, said no thanks and walked out of their shop. I do not like being taken for a fool and being taken advantage of. The way over-the-top pricing seems to happen when the boss is in the machine shop. It made me wonder if Tony is ringing the part up at the correct price, (paying the cash register and then putting the extra money in his own pocket and giving me a bogus receipt.  I don't like thinking things like this. It just didn't feel right and almost made me want to talk to the owner about him. I don't think I'll be going back there ever.

 

Hank (I guess I am still angry about this)  

 

P.S. Oh, and I did find the part at Pep Boys for $2.99

Oh ya.......junk made in some third world country and it will probably start leaking soon. Pep Boys is at the bottom of bad heap these days. Used to be ok 20 years ago......now they sell a little bit of cheap generic auto parts as a side line to the aisles of useless electric scooters and car "decorating" junk that they really make their living at. They are so off the mark that I have no problem telling right now that they won't be around in another couple of years. I am absolutely certain 'cause they are absolutely useless.

I will agree with you that Napa is on a slide in our local.......but they are many light years closer to being a true auto parts store than Pep Boys is. I am not sure that is even proper or appropriate to compare them in the same conversation ?

 

Jeff

[HanksB3B]

Well the Pep Boys and other "Blister Pack Mentality" Auto Parts Store happened to have a Dorman (a name I trust) Blister Pack Rack of made in the USA brass fittings.  Remember the days when a good parts store had those Orange Metal Drawers full of anything you needed and you could buy just 6 when you needed 6 not two packs of 4 to get the 6 you needed without having two left over.  I guess store theft cured that one for the rest of the honest people. Pep Boys is still a good soiurce for auto air fresheners though.

 

grr,

 

Hank 

Edited November 13, 2013 by HanksB3B

[ggdad1951]

my NAPA store ended up getting a full bin of Weatherhead fittings I was in so much looking for the odd stuff!  

[Jeff Balazs]

I remember. It has been replaced by aisles of cell phone chargers and a lot of nonsense...

Absolutely pitiful.

 

Jeff

[HanksB3B]

Does anyone happen to know:

 

There is no vacuum fitting shown in this diagram of the carburetor.  

 

 

I’m not sure if the carburetor body is designed to receive straight thread or a tapered plumbing thread and for that matter I'm also not sure if the body of the fuel filter is also designed to receive straight or tapered thread. How can you tell ?

 

I think this picture from Scruffy is the correct set-up.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Hank 

[Jeff Balazs]

Hank;

The vacuum port is just to the left of the idle mixture screw. You will want to be very careful that these threads do not get damaged.

I would guess that a lot of these have been subjected to over tightening and could have distorted or even modified threads. I know mine had been clearly overtightened. I was able to clean my existing fittings up and get the threads to seal.

I reused the old fittings after a careful clean up / inspection and a tiny dab of Permatex thread sealant. This stuff works really well on fuel, vacuum or oil tubing fittings if used sparingly. It should not be used on brake lines.

 

Hope this helps,

Jeff

[Don Coatney]

Thread sealant should be used on tapered pipe thread only and not on flare type fittings.

[Dodgeb4ya]

That distributor vacuum supply port on the carb base is 1/8" pipe thread for those who do not know..

[HanksB3B]

That distributor vacuum supply port on the carb base is 1/8" pipe thread for those who do not know..

 

and Pipe thread is tapered.  This is the reason I asked. I believe the set-up of Scruffy's farm field Pilothouse is factory. The Throttle Body of my carburetor had a non-tapered flare fitting from a P.O. and I noticed that I could move the vacuum line in and out about 1/8" and there was no way it was air tight. I'm pretty certain this caused some performance issues and with 87 hp every bit counts.  I re-did the line and used a flange fitting and although I now know the ftting is supposed to be 1/8" pipe thread I'm not sure what this means in that the vacuum line is 3/16" dia.     The flare offers a good work-around that seats and the vacuum line does not move. :

 

As with the Throttle Body, is the body of the A/C fuel filter and the Fuel Pump designed to recieve tapered pipe thread fittings ?

 

Thanks,

 

Hank, still a bit

[Jeff Balazs]

Hank;

I think what you are describing is the type of common PO mismatch I was alluding to. I suppose if it holds and does not leak it could work OK. If not perhaps you could find a replacement throttle body with the threads intact. Test it with the engine running and some starting fluid or WD40. If it doesn't leak you should be good to go.

Jeff

[HanksB3B]

Jeff,

 

I'd like to get it either "Marky Perfect" or "Scruffy Roughy" but In the words of architect Louis Sullivan  "Form follows function" 

 

 

This desk model is shown with the longer flare fitting, but the short one works just fine and look better.  The tube flare seats flush in the throttle body without overtightening with that thingamajig, whatchamacallit wrench. I don't think I'll need to use any Permatex sealant and will try to find a brass fitting rather than the cad plated steel. 

 

Thanks, 

 

Hank 

Edited November 18, 2013 by HanksB3B

[Merle Coggins]

Why do you have a compression fitting ferrel on a flared tube fitting?