Re: [Chrysler300] Carburetor rebuilder in SoCal

Very good points, John. I just sent Scott at Harms Auto a message. He isn't cheap, but since he is good with ram setups I think it is worth it. After the base price of $200-250 per carb, you are paying for the experience. Normally, I like to do everything myself and have been tempted to rebuild them, as I have rebuilt a few carburetors myself, mostly successfully. However, thinking about trying to balance them myself and futzing around with them and never having the car run perfectly seems like a distinct possibility, even though I have the 300J supplement manual. I think I will request a step by step from Scott to set up and tune them (possibly rebuild as well). If i do get that information, I can pass it along for future reference.

From: John Grady <jkg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2020 9:39 AM
To: Tom Hergert tallzag@xxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300] <Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrew W <QuietLion79@xxxxxxxxxxx>; spiers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <spiers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Chrysler 300 List <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Jim Pristelski <ajp002@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Carburetor rebuilder in SoCal

This is a really important question I think . How do we know who is good, or in my case , still good? Some of the older big names who routinely did a great job (why name anybody...) now have young kids putting carbs together , often all wrong .... that business is about gone in a commercial sense . And my former place had so many complaints —- I hear they now just sell kits. Nothing is worse than a poor rebuild, factory things messed up .. in my case , the   Fit of throttle plates. Jamie has seen same thing, even worse, parts from the two carbs all mixed up . Shows guy who did it was clueless.
I often wonder whether they they really DO need “rebuild “— except for aesthetics ?
Thoroughly cleaning , with a Carter book, new inlet valves and float settings , accell pump leather and gaskets , new idle needles done carefully — might come out better than any 100 % disassembly . After all what IS a rebuild? What you want is to fix what is wrong . J carb very special , few around . Maybe this fellow is terrific , hope so , but anecdotes sort of are not the test .

.. I found a guy does almost all the race carbs around here ( NE) ,relatively good business at his home , a garage behind just for this , and half the usual prices , but have not used — so I am reticent to put up a name .   By the way fixed price up front , for any normal 4 bbl. — Not “ we will see “ and then costs 900 for two carbs. What is normal ? Strikes me 150 -200 area seems right for time it takes .

But that “check local race guy “ way seems a logical place to go .. ask local successful engine builders — who does their carbs ? Start some kind of club data base ? Real results . A club survey?
Bob Merritt ( once again!) working on a better rebuilding instruction set , on 300 site, to do it yourself. ( thank you Bob)
Except for repairing badly worn throttle shafts , fairly rare on our carbs, you can do a good job if careful .
Some people within our club are in fact way better at carbs than “ carb guy” . ; — the way their cars run show it ...
Just an observation on this issue—- no aspersions cast.
My success with external “rebuilds” hovers   around 50% . Cost me a lot of time later in some cases .. Generally able to fix it eventually, but that goes full circle to do it right yourself ...     then you know issues about your own carbs too .
Good question ...

Sent from my iPhone not by choice

> On 9 Feb 2020, at 11:55 am, Tom Hergert tallzag@xxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300] <Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Best afb rebuilder is Scott Smith at Harms Auto in Spokane, Washington..
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Feb 9, 2020, at 8:39 AM, Andrew W QuietLion79@xxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300=
> ] <Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> =20
>> =EF=BB=BF
>> Hello, I was looking to have both my 3505s carbs for my 300J rebuilt and =
> was wondering if there were any good rebuilders that someone wou