Carbs II

I'm back from a break, and I've got carburetors!

In our last episode, I had stripped and cleaned all the parts, and ordered rebuild kits.  Along the way, I also ordered a replacement exhaust (Bell stainless steel) and all the fixings.

So, it was time to reassemble!  It's not difficult.  SU carbs are simple machines.  It was more work to get everything very clean than to actually put it together.  A little precision is needed, especially when fitting the throttle disc (butterfly), but it's kinda hard to get wrong.

The result:

Once built, it was simply a matter of installation.  (Snort.)  I had a good amount of work to do to find all the right matching parts, but I did have them... mostly.  It turns out the 18V engine changed the thread pitch of the manifold studs into the head (why? WHY?) and I had to wait on those.  But my donated manifolds fit perfectly, and the exhaust did too (after a seemingly ridiculous amount of time bolting up the header pipe - so frustrating to be able to touch things, but not get a socket on them).

I have to rebuild the rear (muffler) mounting bracket, as it is a) rusted out and b) was smashed out of the way by whoever installed the decidedly non-stock, not great exhaust that was there.

My only difficulty is one that people with this model year car that do what I am doing face: Note in the last photo, there is not enough clearance to install an air filter on the rear carburetor.  There is a solution (well, two): either install K&N "cone" manifolds which people complain about, or install a cold air intake sold by Moss, which is actually supposed to be pretty good.  But it's $250.  Yeesh.  This car's getting away from me budget-wise.  I'll end up going that route, I suppose, when I place a large order and can get some significant savings.

Regardless, I'm a step closer to mechanical completeness once again, and can't wait to fire Alice back up.  After paint, that is.  (But that's for a future episode.)