ww3 carbs

[Lou]

Thanks to those who posted welcome msgs. when I registered a few days ago. I couldn't respond at the time, the approval hadn't come back. Now I don't see the welcome wagon page to find those msgs. again.

My 65 Fury wagon needs a carb fixed, I have the orig. & a 30 yr. old replacement. Neither will idle. The replacement is a rebuilt that I put on when the original started acting up. I posted about this on A bodies a year or 2 ago and tried the carb spray fixes suggested, no results. I want to try vat soaking them for a fix, before tearing them down (again). A friend soaked my 1 bbl Dart 6 carb many years ago. His fleet service shop kept a vat of carb cleaner in the shop. Soaking over a weekend solved the plugged idle passage problem back then, at no charge.

Is soaking carbs still legal & still done? My friend died years ago & I haven't checked the local scene for this kind of service recently.

The original factory carb. is a Stromberg WW 3-251A, 2bbl, meant for the 318 engine w/auto. trans., according to the manual. The other is a 249A which is for the 273 engine, according to the book.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Lou

 

[commando1]

His fleet service shop kept a vat of carb cleaner in the shop. Soaking over a weekend solved the plugged idle passage problem back then, at no charge.

Was it an ultrasonic cleaner?

 

[mrfury68]

I'm thinking it was a really strong carb cleaner in a barrel that you loaded your carb into & soaked it. I used to work for Safety Kleen over 20 years ago & we had those available to our customers, we called it an immersion cleaner. I can't remember the chemical name but it stunk like rotten eggs. It was very strong & if a Holley carb was left in too long it would actually warp it. They switched to a different chemical that didn't smell as bad but as carb work steadily declined fewer shops used it. Your best bet for the long run is to get a rebuild kit & can of good carb cleaner. Don't forget the choke thermostat & choke pull off diaphragm. Good luck & keep us posted.

 

[Lou]

Fury, you're on target, that stuff didn't smell like chemicals or petroleum. It smelled like rotten something, and I only handled it briefly while it was wet. It was dry when I re-installed it, but I couldn't get the smell off my hands for several days. It was worth it though. I expect that I will have to open this one up to fix it. Thanks for your comments.

 

[Lou]

Was it an ultrasonic cleaner?

No, the carb just sat in a wire basket as best I remember. mrfury seems to remember the same thing.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I remember soaking carbs to clean them. My dad used it. We had a 1 gallon or so bucket of the stuff with a dip basket. What we used smelled evil, but NOT of sulfides. It smelled like strong non-polar, petroleum based solvents. It wasn't B-12, though they made a dip bucket in the '70s too. I suspect industrial supplies still have some dipping rigs, as there still are plenty carbureted motors in industry.