Carb Overhaul

If you think that the title of this post has anything to do with eating a soy burger with lettuce around it instead of a bun or turning down a pizza, intense plate of spaghetti, or a rockin' IPA then get the hell off my website.

If you are still here, then know that we are rebuilding the double-barrel venturi-type carburetor found on a 1978 AMC 304 V8. First thing before I rebuild a carburetor, I like to make sure that I am well read on the metering circuits of the particular model. This particular carb is rocking out 5 circuits, from low speed idle to quick-response full-on blazing wide-open, super-swamper smokin', mud flingin', beer drinkin', nitro funny car action. Four wheel burnout, followed by a monster wheelie:

I put the carb in a tub and took 360 degree photos of it for assembly reference and before and after kinda pictures. Next I began disassembling and placing the pieces into and organizer. I have found those tackle-box type organizers to be the best when working with carburetors or for anything with a lot of little pieces. I took pictures as new pieces were revealed, both for your entertainment and for my reference. Don't worry, I am sparing you of the over 50 pictures of the carburetor assembly.

So I took it apart and made some reference measurements as I went along. Fortunately, I have two manuals on how to set it up from scratch, but just for a sanity check.

I was removing the powervalve and snapped off the top threads and lit up a storm of displeasure. Fortunately, later in the day I discovered that in the carburetor rebuild kit that the previous owner included with the jeep contained a new power valve! I got so lucky! I then finished the complete disassembly and then sprayed a gratuitous amount of carburetor cleaner over the carburetor bodies and air horn. During all of that, I must have overlooked taking out the accelerator pump check ball because I later found the weight for the ball, but no ball. Once again, I lucked out super hard because the overhaul kit comes with two balls...har har.

Currently the carburetor main body, air horn, and other miscellaneous covers are in my dishwasher.

I put the ual in manual.

See what they are talking about above?

Air screw adjustments:

Auto-choke linkages

Fuel inlet, accelerator pump exterior, and powervalve housing:

Throttle linkages

Choke adjustment

Main body of carburetor:

Parts Tray #2

Air horn and main body:

Parts tray #1

This is the spacer between the intake manifold and the carburetor. It gives spatial clearance for the powervalve and also serves as a heat insulator between the intake manifold and carburetor body. For some reason it was cracked or whatever. I tried to find a new one, but couldn't. Don't trash it, JB weld it!

It is amazing what you can get done with $5.00 of beer.

So I have come to a roadblock and conquered it. The power steering pump, brackets, and starter were dirty and since I have cleaned and dolled up everything else on the engine, I cannot just give up in the middle and bolt a freaky-nasty power steering pump and starter onto the engine. So I had to pound a huge Stone IPA and get in the mood to do some heavy duty parts washing. I then spent a little bit of time then installing the components, therefore finishing up the engine short of the fuel system.

Here are some pictures of the process and the results:

Oh by the way, when you are tightening down one of these slip-type fittings over a flared pipe, how are you supposed to satisfy a given torque value? You cannot use a ratcheting-style torque wrench, since you have to use a spanner to accomplish this task. I mean you are supposed to be able to "feel" when it is good enough, but on things like a space shuttle how do they torque flared tubing? Or rather, do they use banjo type fittings instead of flared ones. I suppose one could "torque it down" if you had a burly pull-type spring scale. You could use the open end of the spanner, hook it in the closed side of the spanner and then pull normal to the moment arm. You would then have to know the length to the applied force, suppose you have an 8" wrench with 20lbs on your spring scale. Then you'd have (8/12)*20=15ft-lbs of torque. Something to keep in mind. So you would have to pull 40 lbs on a spring scale to accomplish the 30 ft lbs of torque on an 8" spanner. Maybe I'll buy one of those luggage scales to accomplish this meticulous task.

Haha, that's what this stupid hippy gets for wearing sandals in the garage! It was due time I throw those and the image that comes with them away.

Look at how much fluid it takes to get the machine in the garage working:

Oil Pan Installation

I installed the oil pan, I think a corner of the gasket squished out of the side? That oil pan gasket is screwy as hell anyways, it is two cork strips and then two kinda molded semi-circular tabs, and then you have to glue it all together and everything. I used the correct torque specs and the evil bastard still spat out the side!

Oh there are some torque wrench usage action shots also.

Free04 V8

Ok I'll make it brief, here are some shots of the free 304 V8 from craigslist: