Flooding Carter carb on my '63

[JanZverina]

Last weekend (June 1/2) I took my '63 out for a spin after letting it sit about 4 weeks (bad me), and it had trouble keeping the choke operating in the cold position, where the front butterfly is open about 1/8th inch or so (this is San Diego). It was also hard starting after a partial refuel and running some errands. Yesterday it started on the fast idle cam fairly quickly but a n initial check under the hood showed the carb and surrounding manifold to be pretty wet with gas. I shut it down and let it sit for a few hours before mopping things up. No fuel line/hose leaks that I could see, and I'm also going to check if the plugs were fouled. The carb was completely rebuilt about two years ago by a rebuilding service recommended by BCA and has worked fine other than needing a small needle adjustment early on. Any ideas as to what I should start checking for from any experts out there?

Thanks in advance.     

Edited July 8, 2019 by JanZverina
typo (see edit history)

[KongaMan]

Floats and float valves.  Take off the air horn, and make sure neither float has sprung a leak and filled with gas.  Another option is a piece of dirt stuck in the float valve.

[Seafoam65]

Make sure you are using the very expensive rubber fuel line designed for alcohol fuel. If you don't have

this good hose on the car, the insides of the rubber fuel line between the carb and the filter can start flaking off and get under the

carb needle and seat and cause gas to geyser over the top and get all over the manifold.

[carbking]

Before doing anything else, I would suggest some testing.

 

Since the engine had sat for a number of weeks, the carburetor was probably dry. But modern fuel, when it evaporates, leaves a gooey sticky glue-like substance in its place. Quite possible that one of the floats was temporarily glued in the open position, allowing the flooding.

 

I would remove the air cleaner, fill the carburetor with FRESH fuel through the bowl vents, and with one individual operating the ignition, and another watching the carburetor, start the engine.

 

Fresh gasoline is a good solvent, and if the above scenario is right, it may just be a one-time happening.

 

Jon.

[telriv]

Couple easy things you could try.  1st. get a pair of needle nose pliers. squeeze the fuel line entering the carb. to block off flow completely while the idle is on the fast step of the choke.  When the car starts to falter & almost die from lack of fuel release the pliers.  What this does is give a blast of fuel which may clean out any debris in the needle & seats.  You MAY have to do this a couple of times.  You could also tap on the rear of the carb. on both sides with a small ball pen hammer.  Again you may have to TAP a few times.

IF this doesn't help follow the directions above posted by others.

 

Tom T.

[Hearse]

I just went through this on my 64 AFB, I had to buy a simple rebuild kit, and go through it 4 times , the final time is when I had compressed air and blew out every passage on the idle and secondary circuit, the air horns, every damn circuit on it. Re set the floats to spec and now it seems to be ok . Mine was saturating the intake manifold too at one point. 

[Hearse]

On another note, another member here told me to check the vacuum modulator on my car because it was messing up creating a vacuum leak and strange idle. He was 100 percent correct. 

[JanZverina]

Thanks all for your advice and expertise -- very much appreciated! I had some time to fiddle around with with this yesterday and it looks like it was a stuck float. I poured in some fresh gas and gently tapped the rear of the carb on both sides. Ran it on the fast cam and let it fully warm up to normal idle. I also pinched the inlet hose a couple times. It took longer than I expected for the stutter to happen but I could feel the fuel surge. I'll keep an eye on things going forward.

Thanks again!

[carbking]

Glad it worked for you!

 

Now, for preventative medicine, drive and enjoy more often

 

Jon.