Cleaning out a Edelbrock 1406 carb...

[53ryder]

Rusty tank and sending unit. Replaced tank, sending unit and fuel lines. Car still running very rough. I figured maybe rust/dirt got past fuel filter and into carb, an Edelbrock 1406. Bought a rebuild kit. Took carb apart today. Wondering what would be good to clean parts with? Paint thinner? Mineral Spirits? Lacquer thinner?
Any ideas!


Glenn

 

[68Nwprt]

Carb cleaner will work best. When I was a kid, an older gentleman told me to boil my carb parts in Cream of Tarter
(found in grocery store). Sounds a little crazy, but it worked.

 

[1978 NYB]

I use lacquer thinner. I usually soak the parts for 24 hours and they look brand new. I use a blow gun on them and let them sit for 24 hours and hit it again with the gun. I always check the base plate for straightness.

 

[53ryder]

Bought a couple of aerosol cans of 'carb and choke' cleaner from O'Reilly's. Used one can and cleaned off all the parts. Stuff seemed to do a nice job. I then shot all the parts dry with compressed air. Will reassembly later today or tomorrow.

Glenn

 

[53ryder]

Got the carb disassembled, cleaned out with 'carb' cleaner and reassembled (not extra parts, yea!). Reattached carb, fuel line and linkage. Engine runs, with some hesitation. But it dies when trying to accelerate. I'm not sure what to do next. Assuming I reassembled the carb correctly then the only thing left untouched is the fuel pump. The fuel filter is about 1/2 full of gas. Is that enough? Or should filter be full of gas? Any ideas?

Glenn

 

[Wollfen]

Sounds like the accelerator pump to me or a vacuum leak somewhere, do you have a vacuum gauge you can put on the engine? To check the accelerator pump look down the venturi's and actuate the accelerator arm on the side, you should see two squirts of gas shooting in, if it only dribbles, its the pump diaphragm and u will need to open the carb again to check it. With a vacuum leak the most likely place to look would be between the carb base plate and the inlet manifold face the carb bolts down on to. if you have a friend, have him spray WD40 around the base while the engine is running and see if the revs pick up or if when hitting the accelerator it runs smooth. If so, then there is a leak somewhere around the base gasket.

 

[65sporty]

your rebuild kit should have had a accelerator pump but on some of them you have to use the spring from the old one

 

[53ryder]

So what will happen to the WD-40 around the base if there is a vaccum leak? Will it be sucked in or bubble outwards?

Glenn

 

[53ryder]

I did some looking and found I had forgotten to put the gasket on that lies between the intake manifold and the carb. Oops!
When I put the gasket in and tightened everything down the car ran even worse, would barely start and wouldn't run more that a few seconds Interesting!

Glenn

 

[Wollfen]

The WD 40 would be sucked in a little, but it will temporarily seal any leak spots if there are any and if there are any leaks the car will run better for a few seconds giving you an idea of where a vacuum leak can be. If it is running worse now with a gasket i still believe you need to look at the accelerator pump by actuating the accelerator lever on the side of the carb with the motor not running, look for the squirts of fuel to see if the pump is working properly.

 

[Knebel]

You probably have to readjust the idle mixture after you had the carb apart. Barely starting and only running a short time sounds very lean to me...

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I think he sold this car about a year ago.

 

[Knebel]

Oh my, I didn't even see how old this was... My apologies!

 

[cantflip]

It's funny when these float back to the surface...

Oh my, I didn't even see how old this was... My apologies!

Don't feel bad, easy mistake to make...

 

[Knebel]

It popped up on the bottom where it's suggesting similar topics. Just didn't see the date lol