carburetors rebuilding

[Mike_Bouse]

GT 6 engine. previous owner parked the car in a pole barn on cement floor with gas in the tank. drove the car into the barn, so the float bowls were full, so was the line and the pump.

that was 10 years ago.

i've followed the proper procedures to insure the pistons were not seized, that i was getting spark, compression, etc before i attempted to start the bugger.

i've purged the system, flushed the tank, flushed the pump, replaced the filter and all of the rubber lines. Metal lines have all been blown clean with compressed air.

i've dismantled and cleaned with alcohol the stromberg carbs, reassembled and have managed to get the engine to reliably start. a complete new exhaust (after the manifold) has been installed.

the carbs need major work. the engine runs rough as a cob. i gotta confess that i am basically clueless when it comes to carburetors. i have rebuilt ONE weber carb in my life. these strombergs look like they are from another planet to me.

is this a project i should consider for myself, or should i farm it out? does anyone have faith that they could talk me through this via email? is there an able bodied expert just ready to burst for a road trip to Coldwater to assist in a carburation project (after the holidays, of course)?

the car is not drivable for a host of other issues, so is it feasible to ship the carbs off for rebuild and expect to bolt them back on the intakes and have the engine run like a champ when they get back?

suggestions?

 

[BJones]

Mike,

Hi and welcome. There are a couple of people here on the forum that are well known for their work on carbs. One that I know of and will use in the future is Jeff Palys at https://paltech1.com/index.html . Check him out if you decide to send them out. From the feedback I have read about his work you will be completely satisfied.

 

[kc_doyle]

I think that the project is a loss and that you should just give it all to me and I'll take it home and sort it out. No?

 

[70herald]

Mike the Stromberg carbs are fairly simple, and overall reliable.
They work on what is called the "constant velocity" principle, basically, the vacuum level of the engine raises or lowers the piston which controls both the air flow and the gas flow. The idea is that the air will always go through at a constant velocity, so as more are is needed, the piston goes up, increasing the area of the carb which is open, and keeping the air speed basically the same.
In order to give the engine a slightly richer mixture when accelerating there is an oil damper. That is what is under the big black knob on top.
What you need to take a look at in order to decide if you can rebuild them or not is the condition of the aluminium body where the throtle shafts go in. Over time, these holes wear out of shape and then you get air leaks. If there is any freedom there basically you need to have someone with experience drill them out on a lathe and put in bushings. If the holes are really round, there are slightly oversized shafts, but I really doubt that they will wear in a round patern.
Also the throttle plates wear. if you see light around the edges when you look through the carb, they are worn.

Note that when you take it apart those screws on top are NOT philips! they are "posidrive" bits. Of course the ones you have are probably already mushed up on top because of prior owners!

Other than that anything else is a matter of getting a rebuild kit and swaping parts.

BTW, I grew up in you general neighborhood (Kalamazoo)

Yisrael

 

[TR4]

When I rebuilt my Stromberg carbs, I was an extreme novice. The carbs were leaking so I bought a workshop manual and followed the instructions. After the rebuild, the car ran great but only for 50 miles so I ended up taking the carbs apart about 5 times to see if there was something I did wrong but it ended up being a bad coil which gave poor carb performance symtoms. I would say these carbs are rather easy to rebuild and the only item needing a careful look would be the throttle shaft wear. If the shafts are worn, replace them, if the carb body is worn then they need to be bored and resleeved. That can be done by a novice but that is one job I would leave to the professional. In my case, the carb body was only slightly worn so I only replaced the throttle shafts along with everything else I could get new from the suppliers. I am very happy with the results. I would recommend you try the rebuild yourself and if you get stuck, ask this forum. If you hit a roadblock, you can box up all your parts and ship them to the pro. You are certainly welcome to email me throughout the process for any advice.

TR4 Phil

 

[martx-5]

I just got done with the SU's for the TR3. I had a lot of throttle shaft play also, but when I took everything apart, 90% of the wear was on the shafts. There was very little wear in the bores. New shafts alone fixed the problem. It's worth taking them apart to see how bad things are. I lucked out with the shafts, and you may too. The rest of the rebuild is straight forward. And as mentioned above, you can always ship the box of parts off to be redone if you feel you are in over your head.

 

[Don Elliott]

My 1958 TR3A with SU carbs sat for 14 years before I decided to do a full body-off restoration. I tried to get it running before I started to dismantle it all and it would only run after I found that old gas had gummed up the vent hole in both my SU carbs. On the SU carbs, this is a diagonal hole in the top chamber (inverted pot) and after I got the gum out, I tested it by blowing in one end and feeling the air come out the other end of this passage. Check this on your Strombergs.

 

[Mike_Bouse]

wow, thanks guys. thanks for the welcome, and the words of encouragement.

your concensious agrees with my budget. giver a go myself, then worry about getting outside help later.

and, yeah, kazoo is only an hours drive away; my daughter lives there.

i'll be bellering for help next month (after the holidays). stay tuned, bat-fans.

 

[guzzul]

Mike - as noted in other posts, the most difficult challenge you will face is if the carb body is badly worn, particularly at the throttle shaft. That probably needs a pro or a very good machine shop. The other stuff is straightforward.

Getting the carbs balanced and tuned when they go back on is the other big challenge.

I was going to give you a link to Buckeye Triumph (the Ohio Triumph club). Nelson Riedel posted some excellent articles on carb overhaul there. He also explains how they work. I found it the most useful source of info for my rebuild. He also discusses how to tune and balance them. He is talking specifically about carbs on TRs, but the info is applicable to any Stromberg.

For some reason, I can't get to the www.buckeyetriumphs.org site any more. So I will send you a copy of Nelson's info to your email address. There are three pdf files coming. You'll find it really helpful.

I would also mention Haynes has a carb service book out (I got one through TRF). It is somewhat helpful too, but it dwells mostly on Weber and SU. The Stromberg section is ok, though, if you need another source.

I'll also send you a VTR article about typical ZS problems, including loss of damper oil, which is a common wear problem that you might not notice (except you'll notice you're filling those dampers up every week).

Good luck - lots of really good advice available from the good folks in this forum.

 

[Don Elliott]

Nelson's stuff has been taken off because of the possible risk of someone following his advice and if that person ends up in an accident or worse, he or his survivors may come back and take legal action against Nelson and/or the Buckeye Club. Would you believe ?

 

[guzzul]

Bizarrre. Unfortunately, it is believable. I wonder if others have done the same thing. Some pages you think should still be around aren't there anymore.

I can't get at the buckeye site at all. The club itself should still have a site. They may have changed server, etc.

 

[Mike_Bouse]

Yisrael,
as you suspected. too late. those screws actually had bits and pieces of screw driver tips broken off in them. luckily i was able to remove them, and replace with slotted screws (for the time being).

kc doyle,
if you can find it, it is yours. NOT!

everyone...my thought tonight was to attempt to set the timing, insert new plugs and wires before i mucked with the carbs. one look at the dizzy and i see a vacuum advance hose that is plugged off. where does this bugger belong? where should i set the timing at idle speed? do i put my timing light on #1 plug? remember this is a spit 6.

 

[tdskip]

Try the following link;

https://carburetor411.com/ZS_Main.html

I tried to refer some friends to the Bucket site and had to really work Google to get them. I ended up setting up this site to make it easier to for people to find them.

 

[Guest]

Tom, thanks for gaining access to Nelson's good works. The first section comes up with an error but the other two show up fine. I would suggest that most of you should print all 44 pages and staple them together as I did. Makes a good reference manual, at about the cost of 1/2 an inkjet cartridge.
I spoke to Nelson at length some years ago. An old retired Bell engineer. He will talk your ears off but great fun to listen to. Knows a lot of stuff. I will hate it when the oldtimers are no longer around because of the wealth of knowledge we will loose. I am an oldtimer, but most of those guys have forgotten more than I will ever know.