Yeah, see, “muh-muh-muh my Corolla” doesn’t have fuel injection you know. It’s pretty old. Does ok on the fuel economy but runs rich, rich, rich no matter what I fiddl with on the carb. Choke might be broke too. Ana-hoo, if for no other reason than to say I done it, I wanna get me a carb rebuild kit and burn off a little testosterone doing something manly. Thing is, I never done a carbureator rebuild before. I’ve done timing belts & tune ups, exhaust rebuilds & CV axles, and a few other things, so I’m not afraid.
Should I be? I mean, how hard can it be? Replace a few floats & needle valves? Maybe a big honkin’ gasket on top of the intake manifold? Can anyone save me some time and illuminate some potential pitfalls for me? What does an overly zealous but mechanically competent guy screw up on this operation?
I thought carbs were supposed to be bad for you nowadays.
Cleanliness is an absolute requirement—all the crud and varnish MUST be removed. Jets gotta be cleaned out, too. Float level and float drop require careful adjustment. Be very careful with the choke setting and make certain the spring that controls the choke works properly. Rebuilding a carburettor(?) isn’t a snap, but it isn’t impossible either. Just follow the directions very carefully.
As a veteran of many carburetor rebuilds (including the ultimate carburetor from hell-the Carter Thermo-Quad with more friggin parts than the space shuttle), lemme try to give you some tips. Start with a full day in which you have nothing else to do. Identify a place which will not be intruded upon by spouses, kids, pets, neighbors, or anyone else who might need killin’. Avoid places where tiny parts, Jesus clips, springs and such can rocket off or be dropped without chance of retrieval. Shag carpet is an unsuitable surface. Do not imbibe alcohol. Have a digital camera for ‘before’ pictures, as well as ‘while it’s coming apart’ pictures.
Good tools include: old toothbrushes, dental picks, a feeler gauge set, magnetic pick up tools, fine pliers, and those hang over your head magnifiers if your eyes are like mine. A source of compressed air is great, along with a blowgun.
Doing a good carb rebuild involves getting built up crud off of and out of passages. I use a product called Hydro-Seal. Don’t know if it’s made any more. It comes in a 5 gallon bucket and has a tray which you put the main body, upper air horn and such into, then drop into the tank for de-crudding.
Buy a good kit. Good kits have detailed exploded diagrams, set up charts for automatic choke, float drop, and really good ones have little cardboard gauges for some settings. If no cardboard gauges, then you need a set of machinist scales to do an accurate setting of float. Good kits also have replacement floats.
Beyond this, it’s a case of removal, (tagging vacuum lines with pieces of masking tape can be handy if there’s a bunch), methodical disassembly-I use brown butcher’s paper and lay out the removed parts in an orderly left-to-right fashion so I can jot notes next to parts as I go if needed, then de-crud the main body parts in appropriate solvent, water wash and detail scrub, blow dry with compressed air, reassemble with setup adjustments, reinstall and finally perform curb idle, fast idle, and fast idle kickdown adjustments.
Now clean up and have a beer. Or three. You’ve earned it. 
…So.
:eek:
So I’m planning on buying a new carb for an '83 Corolla. Any suggestions?
C’mon. Where’s the challenge in that, Inigo? 
Nothing to add at all except the tale of a friend in the Navy who thought he’d rebuild the carburetor from his Datsun pickup.
I remember seeing him with it at the kitchen table with about a zillion pieces spread all over. I think I said something like “Wow, that’s complicated. Better you than me.” and he nodded, saying “Nothing to it.”
There were parts left over.
When he started the truck, blue flame shot out of the barrel at random intervals.
He bought a junkyard carburetor the next day.
The digital camera idea sounds good.
Yeah, that one and the Rochester Quadrajet were both nasty pieces of work. I liked the earlier Carter 4bbl, the AFB, which was simpler and sweeter.
Inigo Montoya:
Rebuilding a damn carburetor can cure you of that in a hurry. It’s amazing how many surfaces you can have gasoline leaking from at the same time!
I used to love rebuilding my Carbs. I had a 77 Camaro and a 78 Camaro and I rebuilt my friends 68 Mustang and helped a friend with a 70 Chevelle 4 banger. Follow all the directions, let the parts soak for the recommended time and carefully put all back together. Works great 4 out 5 times.
I did not like the crappy piece of garbage that was my crappy 81 Citation Carb. I hated it. I had to give up and find a used one at the junk yard and rebuild that instead. I never did figure out what was wrong with the original.
Of course just owning a used Citation was dreadful. 
NAPA has a 3 gal container of Carb Cleaner too. Never used it to rebuild a Carb, but it works GREAT as a general degreaser…I’ve used it on throttle bodies too.
If’n i were you, I’d make sure you can get your hands on another one…THEN rebuild the first one. It has the possibility of being a HUGE learning and confidence building experience…and if it’s not, it won’t hurt too awul bad if another one is sittin’ in a box on the workbench with the receipt taped to it. 
Early 70’s carbs weren’t too bad-it was when the engineers started doing all sorts of ugly things to carbs to meet emission requirements that they became nightmares.
Then again, I’m one of those loony motorheads who used to mess with six-packs. Progressive linked duals are great when set up properly, but can make you mumble to yourself when they aren’t. A big old Edelbrock double-pumper was so much easier.
I hope we haven’t scared Inigo. Carb rebuilding is one of those things people should do.
I rebuilt the carb on my 1980 Jeep Cherokee about 10 years ago, and it really wasn’t too difficult, but I wish I’d had the factory service manual when I did it. When I was putting the carb back together I did something wrong and the car idled at something like 2000 RPM, and nothing in the repair kit told me how to correct it, and the Chilton’s manual I had was tit’s on a boar.
I ended up taking the Jeep to a mechanic to get it corrected, which cost me about $30. Still, modern rebuilt kits often don’t include some of the parts which commonly need to be replaced (and don’t ask me which ones they are, as I don’t remember).
Pay carefull attention to the shape the carb’s in, as you’re tearing it down. If the areas where the gaskets and other components sit are in rough shape, you might be better off swapping it out for another one, since you’ll wind up with a rebuilt carb that’s only slightly improved over it’s previous incarnation.
I used to love rebuilding my Weber carburettors. They were so simple that you almost talk someone through it over the phone, primary and secondary jets you could swap out while the engine was idling. A simple, elegant design. Plus they looked really cool, unlike the hulking monstrosities known as Carter/Holley/whatever that went on American cars.
I have installed many rebuild kits in old cabs. It was always very simple task… just yank the carb off the intake, rip it apart, install the gaskets, needle valve, float, etc., and slap it back on the engine.
But here’s what’s curious… I always rebuilt the carb as a desperate attempt to fix a rough-running engine. And it never made a bit of difference. The problem always lied elsewhere.
From the very first book I ever read on auto repair
I did like messing with Webers and SUs, I never cared much for qudara-junks
Cause remember people, Carburetors = Peace! :smack:
Most times rebuilding carburetors cures the problem. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. I had a 1985 Chrysler 5th Ave. with a 318 CID V-8. It had 90,000+ miles on it. It ran like a top, except that it hesitated when starting from a stop. Nevertheless, the car got 18 MPG hiway and 14 -15 MPG city. Not bad for a land version of the Queen Mary. Anyway, bad accelerator pump, I was told. To fix it required a carb kit, I was told. I got a carb kit. I had a friend who’s job happened to be rebuilding carbs. He rebuilt it, and the car never ran good again, although the hesitation disappeared. It ran rough, died going around corners (float level was right on), stalled at stops once in awhile. He tried to figure out what was wrong, but died before he could figure it out. :smack: Stress must have been too much. Anyway, I had 3 or 4 other mechanics look at it, even had it totally rebuilt 2 other times with different brands of carb kits. NO ONE ever figured it out. I drove it for another year that way. I got used to all of its little “quirks”. Except one. Hiway mileage dropped to about 16 MPG. But city mileage dropped from approx 14 MPG to 5 MPG. :eek: I only hope you have a lot better luck that I did.
Anyway, I finally sold it to someone that just loved the car. Got $200 for it. :rolleyes:
Bought myself a Geo Metro.
That would have been a Holley 2215/2245 2 bbl, IIRC which was a simple carb to set up and/or rebuild. Some power valves were defective and would cause excess fuel feed, even though the float was satisfied. The other problem which can happen with high mileage carburetors is that the shaft/body clearance has worn big or eccentric which upsets the fuel air ratio. That’s why carb rebuilders will bore out the shaft openings and put bushings in to restore original clearance. I had one of those carbs laying around the shop from an old Plymouth and sold it on eBay this summer.
I think you’ll find the Capybara is a most elusive prey. It may be difficult to stalk and kill one. Not to mention the further problem of dismantling its corpse, putting it back together, then using some kind of experimental electricity technology to re-animate the body.
I don’t envy your task one bit, Inigo Montoya.