1937 Buick Roadmaster Series 80 Carburetor

Looking for a specific part for the Stromberg AA-2 carburetor on our 1937 Buick Roadmaster Series 80. The car has the 320ci "Fireball" I-8. We are interested in finding the specific part we need or an entire carburetor that we can use for parts. We have a rebuild kit already and the choke cable missing from the photos. What we need is the shaft that connects to the butterflyfly valve that the choke cable connects to. Ours was cut off and had a welded bend put on when the previous owner added a manual choke. We want to go back to the original auto-choke. If you cannot order the part for us, do you have any information as to where we may be able to get this part. We are willing to buy an upper carb to get it. See the photos attached for a better idea of what we need.

I recently bought a similar spare carburetor for my 1937 Century. I hoped to rebuild it so I could still drive my Century with the existing carburetor while the carburetor shop was working on the carburetor. The AAVB267 that I bought has some damage another area of the upper body so I will not be able to have it rebuilt. It is an AAVB267 not an AA-2. If that linkage is the same as what you need, I can offer you a deal.

The choke shafts used on the 1937 and 1938 Buicks were not used on any other year or any other vehicle. I don't remember if the AA-1, AAV-1, AA-2, and AAV-2 all used the same shaft on not.

If you wish, give me a call at 573-392-7378 (9-4 Mon-Tues) and I can pull the prints to see about interchange.

Any good machine shop could make the butterfly shaft. The choke cable simply pushes into the end of the shaft as is does the vertical shaft in the choke housing. Vertical rotation on the vertical shaft from the choke housing is transformed into horizontal rotation of the choke butterfly shaft via the flex cable.

But good luck on making the choke work once you have it back to original.

EDIT - Monday morning: pulled the prints, all 4 of the carbs listed above have the same choke butterfly shaft. These were never used on other Strombergs, as no other manufacturer attempted to use the Delco choke. Buick finally gave up on the Delco choke after the 1938 model, as it was impossible to make them function correctly (other than maybe Miami, San Diego, or Honolulu if you only attempted to drive in the heat of the day!). There were none of these choke shafts left in the original remaining Stromberg inventory when we acquired the inventory.

Jon.

Thanks Jon for the info, it is greatly appreciated. Hopefully this will make finding the part a little easier. My Grandfather is a master mechanic and has been wrenching on cars for over 60 years. There is a guy in San Diego who offered to make us the part, but mechanics hate to pay another person any money to fix something for them. If we have further questions I will let you know. Thanks Again, Brandon

Matthew we may be interested. I do not know what a AAVB267 carb is. Is is a Stromberg carb? Can you email me a couple photos and a price, in case it will work.

mustangfreak_b@yahoo.com

The AAVB267 is a Stromberg carb of later design. It may/may NOT function on your Buick (if it has not been modified, it will not). Below is a blog I did in a different thread on this forum years ago about the 1937 and 1938 Buick experimental (but production) carburetors:

EDIT: I thought this was in the blog, but it is not. There is a Buick bulletin available which advocates absolute butchery to the Delco choke trying to make it function. And no, it still didn't work, which is why most 1937 and 1938 Buicks have the wrong carb. Most owners really wanted to drive their Buick!

Jon.

1937~1938 Buick carburetors.

Buick used two different vendors in these years: (A) Marvel (at this stage a.k.a. Marvel/Schebler) and ( Stromberg.

The Marvel downdraft was the last gasp for a company trying to hold on to its customer base. Marvel kept Buick through 1938, and Graham through 1939.

The Marvel downdraft carburetors still retained the cork float; although every other automobile carburetor manufacturer had discontinued the use of cork floats several years earlier. To my knowledge, no one has ever produce a brass float for the downdraft Marvel (although Standard Hygrade did produce brass floats to replace the cork in some of the earlier Buick updraft Marvels). We cut the modern closed cellular poly-nitraphyll material to replace the cork in the kits we make.

The Stromberg carburetor used was what today would be called a "beta test". The Stromberg was the first "production" versions of the AA series, which eventually became excellent carburetors. Unfortunately, the 1937 and 1938 versions weren't that good; and Buick's insistance that Stromberg use the Delco automatic choke just made them that much worse. The Delco choke (also used by the 1937 and 1938 Marvel) NEVER worked well.

Since the Strombergs were really experimental (I couldn't even give that much credence to the Marvel), the throttle linkage was assembled on the opposite side of the shaft from other carburetors, to prevent owners from easily switching out either the Marvel or the Stromberg.

Most of the circuitry in the Stromberg was completely redesigned from 1937 to 1938. The carb WOULD have been MUCH improved, but Buick still insisted on using the Delco choke.

By 1939 Buick finally gave up on Marvel AND the aforementioned Delco choke. Carter was added as the second carburetor vendor. Both the 1939 Carter and 1939 Stromberg utilized the hot air choke (the design Stromberg wanted to use in 1937).

At Buick's request, both Carter and Stromberg offered service replacement units to replace the troublesome 1937 and 1938 Marvels and Strombergs. These service replacements (offered through the Buick dealerships) were nothing more than the 1939 production carburetors with a special arm grafted onto the throttle to change the direction of throttle travel. Think of a child's seesaw in action. When one kid goes up, the other goes down. If one uses this principal, and uses the throttle shaft as the fulcrum, machining an arm extension to attach to the throttle arm will allow these (and other) carburetors to replace the experimental 1937 and 1938. Both the Carter and Stromberg replacement also included a heat stove to supply heat to the hot air choke.

(Opinion) on a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (wonderful)

1937~1938 Marvel - 2

1937 Stromberg - 5

1938 Stromberg - 6 (would be an 8 with a decent choke)

1939 Carter WD-0 - 8

1939 Stromberg - 9

1941 Carter WCD - 9

Others will have differing opinions.

Thanks again Jon. The above information is very helpful. I have read in some places that the carb was a huge problem on the 37 & 38s. It was a flawed design because of the over-complexity of it. You have confirmed this with your in-depth information. We hope to keep the car all original. I know it is rare to find one of these cars that still has the Inline 8 in them. A lot of people put a more modern and reliable drivetrain in them, although it kills the value of the car. Most of the people who kept the Inline 8's have gone to a carb conversion to a Holley or Carter. We were hoping we could have an all original cruiser and enjoy it.

mustangfreak_b,

I will send you some photos so you can see if it has the linkage you need. I think that your comment about a lot of people replacing the Straight 8 must be a regional thing. We have four 1937 Buicks in my local AACA Chapter and all four of them are fairly original. Those Straight 8 engines all run fine and we all drive the cars quite a bit.

carbking,

The more I try to study the issue of carburetors on 1937 Buicks, the more confused I get. Obviously a lot of cars got retrofitted with different carburetors.

My 1937 Century has a Stromberg AAVB-267 with code 7-91 on the top. The carburetor that I bought recently is an AAVB-267 with code 7-96 on the top. When searching online it appears that the AA-2 and both of these AAVB-267s all use the same rebuild kit, so that leads me to believe they are somewhat similar. My local carb shop guy says the AAVB-267 says his books show it as being appropriate for 1937-51 Buicks. Mine runs good but it is running a little rich so I figure it needs to be rebuilt. I would be very interested in learning more about the issue.

Since you live in San Diego, you might get away with it, since you do have the Stromberg and not the Marvel. Once you find (fabricate) the parts for the choke, adjust the choke so THE BUTTERFLY IS ALWAYS VERTICAL (WIDE OPEN). Don't even attempt to make it work. Like trying to teach a pig to sing. It cannot be done, and it annoys the pig! When you go for a cruise, start the engine, and hold at a medium fast idle until the engine warms. Expect idle issues if the ambient is above 85 degrees F.

Good luck.

Jon.

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it! We have been waiting 15 long years to get this beautiful classic back on the road. If you want to see pictures of the car, check out my album.