Ok I have a 1953 pu w/216 engine. Stock rochester B carb is causing me nothing but problems. Runs fine for a while then gas starts coming out of all gasket and seams.. I have had it rebuilt, still same thing.. reading the internet this carb apears to have body warping issues.. and is a typical problem. This style card does not apear to be readily available as I have looked High and low for a inkind replacement. I am fed up and willing to swap it for a non-stock carb.. so i can reliably drive my rig. Does anyone know what replacement carbs might be available for this 216 engine? would like somthing than is a simple bolt up replacement if possible
After reading some posts about carbs on this site, I searched for a Carter YF carb for my 235 and found one in NOS condition on eBay for $90.00 shipped. It has an automatic choke on it and it works flawlessly. It was a common swap back in the day. Be careful as I believe there are two different flange sizes. I believe the truck flange size is 1 1/2" according to the original paperwork that came with my carb. I lucked out as it was the correct carb for the manifold. My carb is a Carter YF 789S-SA listed on the paperwork for a 1950-1951 truck. It fits my '58 235 just fine and runs great. Much better design according to our official master mechanic, Nate. Andy
Y'alls Beat Me To It ! Yes , the most worn out Carte r YF carby will handily outperform a NOS Rochester series 'B' one . Be aware the Rochester 'B' will seep fuel even when it was new so unless the truck runs poorly and it's dripping fuel , don't sweat it . YOU can ever so carefully remove the top and invert it , spread the tiny brass tang that touches the float a tiny bit , this will lower the float and reduce (but never eliminate) the wetness at the gasket's joint . The Karb King sells rebuilt Ca rter YF's , $pendy but most excellent and you'll never _EVER_ need to buy another carby again . Remembering too that you cannot properly adjust the carby until the valves have been adjusted and the points set to either 33° dwell (best) or .016" gap , then adjust the timing wo ballon pointer and ascertain there's no vacuum signal to the carby @ idle . Now and ONLY now , ou can adjust the carby and your truck will start easily hot or cold and run well and idle smoothly . Lastly , you look at the " THRIFTMASTER " badge on the hood and wonder why the hell it only gets 12 MPGs , well when this truck was made and good gasolene was only .12 CENTS the gallon , 12 PMG's was considered excellent fuel economy for a pickup truck .
vwnate1, do you have a link to karb king.. not showing up on my search engine. also not sure what "adjust the timing wo ballon pointer " please explain. yep I am definatly going to get away from this rochestor B... Leaning toward the single bl carter... I have a vintage dual carb intake and couple strombergs in my shop. considering rebuilding them and switching to a dual carb set up. but thinking its not worth the hassle.
Nate has fat fingers from smashing them so many times working on old trucks. They get in the way when he types on the computer. Should read, "Adjust timing TO ball pointer", meaning the ball pressed into the flywheel and the pointer that points to it on the bell housing. Those are the marks for timing these engines. Andy
I have 5 Carter W-1 carbs as I was trying to find a matched pair for a dual carb setup on my 235. They were suggested by by Carbking with new fuel. I have decided to go a different direction now as there would have been some intake mod or carb base mods to fit 235 I wasn't comfortable with. I would like to find a home for them and try and recover some of what I paid. I don't want to turn this into an ad so e-mail or PM if interested.
Greg_H, what condition? do they have 2-11/16" bolt spacings? manual chokes? 965s? I would be interested.. depending on condition & $. I don't think I need 5, if your willing to break them up. you can email me direct bds.office@verizon .net
Clumsy Fingers Just so ; Anyway , I hope you know your timing marks are on the flywheel and there's a little window above the starter that has a pointer that you're supposed to align with the ball bearing pressed into the flywheel , at 60-0 RPM's or less and with the vacuum line connected but there should be NO vacuum signal with the carby @ idle , every so often I see a later carby with the vacuum line connected to the intake vacuum port rather than the ported vacuum port... I like to remove the clutch scatter pan and wire brush the timing mark area of the flywheel shiny clean then I use white paint or lumber crayon to draw a circle 'round the ball bearing (making it MUCH easier to see when setting the timing) and I also like to drift a little bit of paint into the faint triangle or chevron stamped into the flywheel close to the ball bearing as that is the TDC mark and is used to check and adjust the full advance timing to 32° amongst other things.. Dual carbys are nice , Carters are easy to set up in pairs , just lay out some towels and disassemble each carby seperately and read the part #'s stamped into each and every part , match up one pair of carbys with all the same P/N's and adjust the metering rods the same (light finger pressure then snug the lock) and they'll be fine . adjust them on the engine with the cross linkage _loose_ , only tighten it after they're both drawing the exact same amount of air and the engine is idling smoothly . As you work on your box of junk Carters you'll soon see why GM decided to $ave a few $ and go with the Rocheters .
Seeping Carbs Everytime I hear about these carbs leaking or seeping, reminds me when I was 16 (must have been 1958-59). I was driving my Dad's 1952 Powerglide. Just dropped off my girl friend and at my first stop sign, the car died. Started up ok but wouldn't idle. Looked under the hood and carb was really leaking gas...flooding the engine. Next day, an Uncle (a Ford man) made me take off the carb, take out the float and shake it. Sure enuf, the float had gas in it. I said, 'should I go buy another float?', ... he said no, we will fix that one. He made the hole a little bigger, shook out the gas, swabbed some flux around the hole and soldered it. I reinstalled the float and the carb....the old chevy ran for another 50,000 miles. Well, history repeats....about 3-4 months ago, my 51 pickup would run awhile and stop. Gas was seeping (and later dripping) out of the carb. I bought a rebuild kit from CP....seemed to run ok after I rebuilt it but about 2 weeks later or so, it was leaking and dripping again. The rebuild kit did not come with a new float and I wondered if it might be the same problem as in 1958-59. Sure enuf, took off carb and the float had gas in it. So I repeated the fix as I did in 1958-59 and carb has been dry ever since (and runs the best since I have had it). Good Luck. Penniwinkle
Be aware that adding solder will increase it's weight and unless the float level is altered to compensate , will cause richer running and usually more seepage as well... Soldering pin holes in brass floats is good . A couple years ago a NAPA store surprised me by getting brandy new brass Rochester floats for $10.00 , I wish I still had the part number . As these carbys seeped when they were new , I never worry about it being damp around the float bowl / air horn joint .
Brass floats This them? http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPages/NOLMaster.aspx?PageId=430&CatId=4&SubCatId=4 Bob Oops guess that link didn't work...just put in the year, make, model and follow it to two brass floats available for these, part #s CRB2415 and CRB2420.
I would like to know where to find the Karb King. Nate, do you have any contact info? I have a dual carb setup and am looking for 2 Carters to put on it.
The Karb King Uh oh ~ I cannot find it , maybe he's gone away Dangit . I know they used to hasve his contact info over on The Stovebolt Page... I do all my own carby work so I never used him but I know many did and were always satisfied... A few years back I borrowed the master Carter book, a truly wonderful book full of information , parts numbers , interchanges , how to rebuild , set up and adjust and on and on... I had thought of copying the extensive Chevrolet inline 6 section but didn't It had everything anyone ever knew about the Carter YF and was liberally illustrated with crystal clear photographs .
