John Byrd Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 I have a friend with a 38 Buick coupe, straight 8 engine and two one barrel Carter WCD carbs. We are in Hawaii and he says he cannot find any repair kits or parts for them. Any suggestions from you guys ? If you have info and want to call him directly, it is Mike at Gold Coast Exhaust here in Kailua-Kona. The number there is 808-989-7035 and you can tell him John gave you the number. Thanks bunches ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Try the Carb King, a regular on this site http://www.thecarburetorshop.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Byrd Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Thanks ! I told Mike it was something like "Carb King" but wasn't sure ! I'll let him know tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edinmass Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Carbking is your best source for parts and information. He’s a good guy, and I spoke to him last week. Be sure to call during his hours listed on his site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbking Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Ed and Rusty - thanks for the complements. John - the WCD Carter is a two-barrel carburetor, not a one-barrel. Newcomers to the hobby sometimes confuse one-barrel and two-barrel carbs as the air coming in comes in only one area, but the throttle body connected to the engine has two. I think we make kits for ALL of the WCD carbs, once they have been identified. Tell your friend to look for a roughly 1-inch triangular brass tag held on by one of the body screws holding the top casting to the center casting. IF THE TAG IS MISSING, AS THEY OFTEN ARE: Tell your friend to look for two numbers: (1) On the inside of the carburetor are two long (2 inches or so), slender (somewhat less than 1/8 inch in diameter) brass rods. Each will have a eyelet to attach the rod to a linkage. Just below the eyelet is a cast number. This number is not unique, but it is close. (2) On the underside of the cast iron lower casting (THE CARBURETOR MUST BE REMOVED) there may be a stamped number (Carter stamped one there, but a commercial carburetor rebuilder may have ground it off). Between the two numbers, we can identify the carburetor at least close enough to determine the correct rebuilding kits. NO OTHER NUMBERS ON THE CARBURETOR HAVE ANY MEANING THAT IS USEFUL IN THE IDENTIFICATION. Once your friend has either the tag number or the other two numbers he/she may contact me via telephone at 573-392-7378 (9-12, 1-4 Mon-Tues central time). Jon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broker-len Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Carbking----------------have sent PMs about the 31 Plymouth brass bowl Carb-----also several pages I have on rebuilding-----why all the suggestions about drilling out the ports -----why would some one do that ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbking Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 In general, folks drill ports and passages trying (generally unsuccessful) to improve the function of the carburetor. (1) Trying to convert the wrong carburetor into the right one (see the third line in my signature block ) (2) Major engine modifications requiring a different carburetor calibration (3) Racing As a really good rule-of-thumb for basically stock engines: the engineers that designed the carburetor knew what they were doing! The one I really like is the old wives tale about drilling jets, soldering them closed, and then redrilling to size. Actually this is an old husbands tale (old wives are not that stupid! ) To get an approximation of what gasoline will do to solder, one needs only to watch the national news each spring. Pay attention to the river levees that are eroding. Water is a liquid. Gasoline is a liquid. There are sometimes reasons to try various modifications other than the above; the forced use of ethanol is one of them. Jon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 CarbKing do you agree that a NOS 1941 Stromberg carb in the clean original box should be rebuilt before use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbking Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 15 minutes ago, Dynaflash8 said: CarbKing do you agree that a NOS 1941 Stromberg carb in the clean original box should be rebuilt before use? At least in Missouri, spiders just LOVE to crawl into new old stock carburetors and build their nests Doing a general answer, rather than specific to your question: Carter and Rochester used velumoid gasket material. Velumoid was cut wet, and over time it would shrink. Holley also use a material that shrunk, but I do not know its name. MOSTLY, Stromberg and Zenith used gasket material that did not shrink; however, both did use a fiber based gasket material in the '20's and '30's that did shrink. Leather accelerator pumps in these older carburetors dry out. If soaked overnight in a light machine oil (neetsfoot oil, 3 n 1 oil, sewing machine oil) overnight, they will then be as good as new. (For those that ignore the preceding sentence, I know an old hill-billy that makes good repair kits ). If it were mine, I would disassemble into the major casting groups, carefully blow compressed air through each passage in BOTH directions, oil the accelerator pump (if new enough to have one with leather, Zenith often used a brass plunger, as did some others), install new gaskets, test the brass float in hot water, and reassemble the carburetor. I almost didn't post this since we sell repair kits, and I didn't wish the post to seem like an ad. Just in the for what its worth category, ANYONE can make a carburetor gasket. The FLAPS sell gasket material. If the casting is flat, the casting may be be placed on a scanner, and the result printed for a gasket pattern. If the gasket is not flat, the "hammer method" using a ball peen hammer may be used. While I don't generally suggest off-shore tools, cheap punch kits may be acquired to punch round holes. And a pair of fingernail scissors borrowed from your wife or girlfriend is very useful in cutting round areas of a gasket. Jon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaflash8 Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 10 minutes ago, carbking said: At least in Missouri, spiders just LOVE to crawl into new old stock carburetors and build their nests Doing a general answer, rather than specific to your question: Carter and Rochester used velumoid gasket material. Velumoid was cut wet, and over time it would shrink. Holley also use a material that shrunk, but I do not know its name. MOSTLY, Stromberg and Zenith used gasket material that did not shrink; however, both did use a fiber based gasket material in the '20's and '30's that did shrink. Leather accelerator pumps in these older carburetors dry out. If soaked overnight in a light machine oil (neetsfoot oil, 3 n 1 oil, sewing machine oil) overnight, they will then be as good as new. (For those that ignore the preceding sentence, I know an old hill-billy that makes good repair kits ). If it were mine, I would disassemble into the major casting groups, carefully blow compressed air through each passage in BOTH directions, oil the accelerator pump (if new enough to have one with leather, Zenith often used a brass plunger, as did some others), install new gaskets, test the brass float in hot water, and reassemble the carburetor. I almost didn't post this since we sell repair kits, and I didn't wish the post to seem like an ad. Just in the for what its worth category, ANYONE can make a carburetor gasket. The FLAPS sell gasket material. If the casting is flat, the casting may be be placed on a scanner, and the result printed for a gasket pattern. If the gasket is not flat, the "hammer method" using a ball peen hammer may be used. While I don't generally suggest off-shore tools, cheap punch kits may be acquired to punch round holes. And a pair of fingernail scissors borrowed from your wife or girlfriend is very useful in cutting round areas of a gasket. Jon. Jon, I have two genuine rebuild Stromberg kits, new in the box. The front carburetor is genuine NOS also; however the rear carburetor is used and must be rebuilt. Send price and address to me at suzybelle39baby@aol.com and I will consider mailing you all of it for a rebuild. After those, I have the ones on the car to do as well. The car is a 1941 Buick 70 series. It runs very well, except it occastionally stops and restarts going down the road, as if there is water in the gas tank. Usually the electric fuel pump has to be turned on to keep it going again. Fuel pump is new rebuild, but I have another one here. Mechanic took front carburetor apart and cleaned the jets, but yesterday on my test drive after I bout a load of non-ethanol gas, on the way home it did that stop start thing on me again. It ran well driving 100 miles to a tour, on the tour, and then I had to find non-ethanol gas for the trip home. Gas pump was at a Sunoco station, but not Sunoco gas, and the pump looked 50 years old. On the way home it did that number on me but worse, and I barely made it home. They said they drained the gas and didn't find any water, but I wonder, or at least I wonder if water was still in the line somewhere. I want to test it some more. It's hard to go anywhere or do anything now with this virus situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbking Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Dynaflash - thanks for the vote of confidence, but no longer have time to do rebuilds. AND, even if still doing rebuilds, would probably refuse to do so with your symptoms. Check the ignition system Check the fuel filter Check the ignition system Check the fuel pickup in the tank Check the ignition system Check the ignition key Check the ignition system And if all of the above fails, check the ignition system You didn't mention if you have a pertronix, but if you do, put in a set of new old stock points, and a new old stock condenser. Jon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Byrd Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Thanks so much Jon ! I called Mike just now and also pasted your response to his mail. Hope that boy gets it solved, it's a really nice old car. Thanks again sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 I keep a dime store hole punch in the garage for making gaskets. The kind school kids use to put paper in binders. It's handy for carburetors and other small gaskets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 I bought one of these leather punches fifty years ago for less than a dollar. I think I have punched leather with it twice but hundreds of gasket holes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Byrd Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Rusty_OTool and Tinindian, Mike can make gaskets with no problem, he has a pretty good sized shop, but I think it is actual parts of the carb he is needing. Thanks for your replies ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Ya well Tinindian and I won't shoot you for stealing our idea even if your name isn't Mike (jk) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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