Unless your carburetor has some damage to it, a rebuild is pretty straight forward. Being a newbie, it will help if you get a book on your carburetor family to learn about it and see the exploded views of it. Like anything, it requires patience and COMMON SENSE. Our website has some good information about carburetors, and other details related to the fuel system.
I once had a carburetor that I acquired at a junk yard. It had a stuck throttle from sitting in the elements for who knows how long. So I figured it would be a good idea to have a rebuild shop overhaul it for me. It turns out that they like to spray a clear conformal coating on the castings after they are cleaned up, for better cosmetics. Well, that stuff conformed alright. It got into the vents, and clogged other important areas where the fuel is metered, including the action of
the choke! (ughhhh!). In essence, I had a beautiful looking carburetor that was just that - a pretty paper weight. Being pressed for time before a car show, I took it upon myself to rebuild the ratty carburetor that was in my car. After I did the job, the car ran fine, the carb looked great and the pretty one that is not working still sits in my garage in a plastic bag. One of these days I'll get around to dipping it to remove that coating in hope it works again.
In case you are wondering, it's a Carter AFB, and they are like gold. So I don't mind having a couple of extra ones just in case...
Chris Middlebrook
1962 Custom Southampton
--- On Wed 12/06, Frederick Joslin < fljoslin@xxxxxxxx > wrote:
From: Frederick Joslin [mailto: fljoslin@xxxxxxxx]
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:16:03
-0500
Subject: Re: IML: I'll do it myself
Go to it Matt. You will be amazed how much your time is worth when you do stuff yourself. And how much satisfaction you can get.
I figure that when I do NON routine maintenance work on my car, which I include trans fluid changes, but not oil changes, I pay myself about $100/hr.
I onec replaced the power window mechanism in a 1990 Mazda Protege. It took me 20 min from start to finish. The dealer quoted me $200 to do the job! That was $600/hr.
I had a 1992 Grand Carvan which had a bad habit of going through axles after 150000 miles. I could do an axle change in 1 hour from jacking it up to jacking it down. There is also a way of doing this so you do not need a front end alignment.
When you own older cars, of which all Imperials are now, the more you do youself, the better off you will be financially but also "spritually".
Good luck
----- Original
Message -----
From: "Matthew Gill"
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: IML: I'll do it myself
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:34:38 -0800
Ok, so i've decided to just do it all myself. I
obviously can't flush it without a machine but
i'm told by many people that having a little
old fluid left really won't make a big
difference. A buddy at work tells me that if
i'm replacing the filter and gasket, and clean
out the oil pan, there's no reason to have it
flushed if i'm already cleaning out the pan
anyways. I'll just take care of it on my own,
and may end up doing another fluid change
shortly after just to clear out even more of
that older fluid. Wish me luck! I'll be in the
garage most of the day tomorrow to get it taken
care of, hopefully she's in good running shape
afterward, minus the carbeurator that i need
replaced.
Which brings me to another question, should a
newbie like myself (never worked on a car in my
life) even bother to attempt a carb
replacement? I think it looks to complex for me
with the hoses and other things running to
it... kinda scary. I think my best bet is to
have my good mechanic buddy do it for me, while
i watch and learn... and try to lend a helping
hand if i can.
By the way, i ordered one of those cool
Imperial club shirts, all black with the big
logo on the front, it'll be my car show shirt i
suppose. Also ordered a real nice license plate
frame with "IMPERIAL" engraved on the bottom of
it... pretty neat. Let me know if any of you
are interested in the company that can make
them, they're chrome with the professional
laser etching, totally custom for whatever you
want. I didn't really like the imperialclub.com
plate frame, looked a bit tacky with the white
stick-on appearence.
Matt
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