Up & Running ... Again!

  I installed the carb and made a few adjustments to the carb today. I poured in a bit of gas and she fired right up. I shut it back off and turned it over and it fired right up again. So no more pouring gas in the carb to start it! It still needs some fine tuning, but it ran and idled on it's own. I pulled it out of the garage and shut it off.

    I spent the rest of the day cleaning the garage. Once i was done I got in the truck started it and backed it back in the garage. I wanted to take it around the block, but I need to bleed the brakes some more ... I don't trust them, even though they will stop, they are soft.

Carter WCFB: Some Final Cleaning & Assembly

  I finished up the cleaning with the secondary diaphragm. It polished up nice. I also shot the internal metal parts with etching primer and silver paint to stop any missed rust.

    That evening the mail delivered my kit, so I spent all of today putting it back together. I only ran in to a few problems but problems none-the-less.

    The helpful people on the HAMB helped me figure out how to run a newer carb on my engine, so if this one does not work I will go that route. It just requires an adapter to go from the current small intake holes to the more standard larger hole carbs. Of course I would also have to buy a carb. One fellow gave me the carbs that will work so I should be good to go if I go that route.

    The carb had a few issues to begin with and I caused a few on my own during this adventure. One problem was the pump was bad. When taking the pump out I was careful to note how it was installed. Mine was installed with the spring on the shaft above the plunger. When I installed the new one this way it did not seem to operate properly. After referencing several exploded views of WCFB carbs ... some had the spring on top, some bottom and some had both! I went with the bottom and it seems fine.

    Another problem ... on the pump shaft inside the pump cover there was a small metal part that holds the vent up until you press the pedal. This part was already bent out of shape at some time in its life. I attempted to correct it and immediately broke the tab off. Grrrr The directions for adjusting this for 55 Plymouth stated "None" so maybe it will be OK, if not I will need to locate one if I keep it.

    The worst issue I ran into ... I broke one of the little brass screws for the valves off in the shaft. I had to drill it out and use the remaining stub of a screw in its place. I plan on replacing all of these as soon as I can locate them ... I also would like to replace the valves.

    Other than issues I have mentioned before. like the choke assembly and choke are missing, a few screws here and there, there is also a strainer missing and possibly a filter. Lastly, some diaphragms show discs on the metering rods and some did not. Mine did not have them ... I do not know if it should have them or not.

    I have a few adjustments to make to linkage and mixture screws and it should be on the truck tomorrow. Crossing my fingers, but deep down I see myself getting a new set up. If I replace the choke and other parts on this one it will be rather costly. As of now I only have the cost of the kit in it .... about 55 dollars.

Carter WCFB: Cleaning Day Two

    I started out doing a final clean on the carb bodies. The air horn and throttle body are aluminum and the bowl is zinc alloy. The aluminum is cleaning up nicely. I am almost tempted to polish them. The alloy does not look too bad but is blotchy compared to the aluminum.

Carter WCFB 4 BBL

Carter WCFB 4 BBL

Carter WCFB Throttle Body

Carter WCFB - Upper Left: Throttle Body     Lower Left: Air Horn      Right: Bowl

    I also cleaned up several small parts.

Carter WCFB 4 bbl Floats

Various Carter WCFB Parts

    Last, I took the vacuum housing for the secondaries apart to see what kind of shape the diaphragm was in. If I worked the shaft I could hear air so I figured it was OK. I It would also hold the shaft in if I plugged the air hole with my finger. Once I got all the screws out I carefully worked the diaphragm cover up without tearing anything.  Out comes a crap load of dirt/mud(?) and what looked to be sand. The center of the disc the diaphragm was connected to was also badly rusted. I pulled the rubber up from the housing and more dirt fell out .. not sure how that could have gotten in there. At any rate it all cleaned up pretty good. I think I will just have to put this back together once I clean up the housing a bit to match the carb.

Carter WCFB 4 BBL Vacuum for the secondaries

Carter WCFB 4 BBL Vacuum for the secondaries

Carter WCFB 4 BBL Vacuum for the secondaries

All cleaned up

Still need some touch up

    I still have a few more small parts to clean then I should be set for the new parts once they come in. At that point I should have a good idea of what else I will need to finish it up.

Carter WCFB: Cleaning Day One

     I did not like the results of the Oxy experiment so I thought I would try something else. I picked up some acid used for cleaning grout residue off tiles and mixed up some in a bucket and let the parts sit in that for a bit. When I took it out it looked black but that washed right off with soapy water and a brush. It left it looking dull but over all very good.

The center section still looked pretty rough so I went over it with my Dremel and a fine wire brush. In the before pics, the rusty looking areas are actually polishing compound that I had applied prior to the acid soak. No worries. I will polish on it some more tomorrow.

Carter WCFB: More Tear Down

    Continued to break down the carburetor so I can clean it. It should be ready to assemble when the rebuild kit gets here. The pictures are boring but they will help me to put it back together ;o)

Home made linkage may not stay.

Pretty Dirty!

One or two of the butterfly discs are slightly damaged, I may look for replacements.

Taking note of the screw positions.

I un=pinched the vent tube ... good or bad .. we will see.

Taking note of shaft position while the butterfly assembly is in the closed position (left)

Taking note of shaft position while the butterfly assembly is in the copen position (left)

Taking note of the screw positions.

Shaft position

That's a Pile-O-Parts!

After I got it all apart I sprayed it with aluminum wheel cleaner then boiled the three casts in water with one scoop of Oxy-clean. Every thing came out clean but the cast iron top and bottom piece came out looking a brownish purple LOL The aluminum center cast had white deposits on it. I started polishing it with a clean polish compound but ran out of time. I should be able to work on it tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'm doing with the cast pieces yet. I dont really need to polish the carb, but I have time while waiting on the parts. I want it to be as nice as possible before I put it back together. I still need to inventory and see if I can get the parts that are missing.