1941 carb adjustment or rebuild? Easy or not to rebuild.

[lt morty]

Hi.

My 1941 series 61 is running rich... There's a lot of petrol fumes in the exhaust, and it makes a black spot on the garageflor / ground at start up and idling.

Carburetor looks to be a Carter 506S. It has 277 stamped on the flange.

Is this simply a matter of adjustment?

Or does this indicate clogged passages, worn out jets/ metering rods etc?

And: if i need / want to rebuild the carburetor - how difficult is it?

I dont have any special tools for rebuilding carburetors.

Has someone done the job themselves, and want to share some experiences?

What suplier of kit did you use?

The funny bit at the end: i emailed The carburetor shop and asked if they had aa rebuild Carter 506s and what they wanted for it - guess: USD 1595... So if all goes f@&!!!! With my rebuild I'll send my carb somewhere else than those guys.

M Bjerkhaug

[joeceretti]

Not sure about yours. I rebuilt a ball&ball carb myself but the Carter WD-O I have I took to the best rebuild shop I could find. Too many little parts. If you do rebuild, please post pics. I see from my chart that yours is also a WD-O.

[joeceretti]

This may help you out... The Carter WD-O Manual for 39 and later models.

[Steve Passmore]

Fuel level at idle can be adjusted with the two idle jets before you go for the re build. Turn the screws clockwise slowly each one until the engine starts to labour then  back of slightly.

[hudson29]

This might be banging on the obvious, but how fresh is your ignition? Personally, I mess with the carb only as a last resort. Pop often used to say that 95% of carb problems were electrical . . .

Vintage Paul

[joeceretti]

I suspect Pop was right.

[lt morty]

Hi.

Several good ideas here that I'll look into.

What a great forum this is! 

I haven't had this car for long. I am still on "writing the list of what to fix - and how to".

As ignition is the easiest thing to check i'll start looking into this. I have some new ignition parts, so I' ll change them and check toleranses and setting accourding to the manual next weekend.

Keep bringing on more good ideas and experiences:-)

Thanks

Morten B

[James Gray]

Hey Morty,

I am in the process of the same at the moment. My Carter is a 486S WCD model for a 1942 Series 6269. I had been collecting information in an attempt to determine if this is within my mechanical ability.

Watch the video to get an sense of what is involved. It does not appear to be excessively complicated but there are a number of tiny parts. Some of which I understand are no longer available.

I order my kit from Daytona Parts in Florida. They were careful to ensure I ordered the correct kit. Furthermore, they offered to do a full restoration for $295.00 less the $49.00 I paid for the kit. ($246.00). They do return the carb to factory spec and color.

Here is there web address.
http://daytonaparts.com/

Video of Carb Rebuild.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTaT0O8sUD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tVrUC0NKcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QlxU0eAbRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW7uPlT4YT4

If rebuilding yourself:
Rule Number One!!!
Set up a table to work on. Clear anything from under the table so when parts drop, you can find them. Unlike myself, who thought he was smart and made a nice cardboard sheet with pretty little marks so as to know which part was which, only to move it, trip over a tire and send all the little tiny parts in every direction. I had to remove an entire built in shelving system to get them all. Ugh!!!

PS. Do yourself a favor, and locate your Authenticity Manual (you can get it through this site), Service Manual and Parts Book for your car. You will be glad you did.

[Glen]

When I started work at the shipyard we had workbenches with an odd feature.  They had a shelf in the knee well.  But this shelf was strange because it was made with a 1X2 frame of wood around all sides and the side nearest the worker was curved to go around the waist.  It slid in and out like a drawer.  The center was filled in with a piece of canvas.  I kept asking the guys I worked with what it was for but kept getting answers like “I don’t know, I use it for my newspaper.”  I finally found the right guy.  These benches were built for the guys working on gun sights.  To them a 4-40 screw was large.  This shelf was to catch small parts (like 0-80 screws) and prevent them from bouncing on the floor. 

I mention this because I think it would be great for working on carbs with all their small parts.  Maybe someone can figure out a simple way to implement this idea in their shop. 

[James Gray]

You know what else would be great?

If someone could invent parts that when dropped bounce right back where they came from without breaking or incurrung damage. Instad of running to the most difficult location in which to be found well after you've bought a replacement part.

Just saying... Ok it wasn't that funny but I'm laughing.

[hudson29]

I would highly recommend pulling your dizzy & checking it for wear and operation. There should be no wobble in the shaft. Make sure the little weights are OK and that the springs are as they should be. See that the vacuum advance advances when you suck on the vacuum port. Years ago shops used to have synchrograph machines to check the advance curves but I haven't seen one of these in years. I just checked that the springs still were springy.

Get NEW parts like cap, rotor, points, (or Pertronix ignition) wires and plugs. Restoration Supply in Escondido have the correct spark plug wire, terminals and rubber boots to make your new ignition harness period correct. Timing these old Caddies is easy-peasy. You can use a regular 12v timing light by hooking the power to a 12v battery outside of the car.

Once everything is perfect, then start messing with the carb. Any adjustments you make to it with a weak ignition will probably only confuse you.

One more thing, it is probably a good idea to check the mechanical condition of your engine. If you have bad compression that will need to be addressed or your motor will never run properly.

I just did the electrical bit on my 1939 6127 Coupé a couple of months ago and will have a post about the process up on my resto blog in a week or so.

Vintage Paul

[Michel Ouellette]

Hi M.Bjerkhaug, look like you must have an electric pump install in your fuel system, from experience I you'd say that the float in carb is way to high and over choking the engine, when you run high speed it does not show any more because gas is burning!?!, the way to check is..have the car on level floor, have it running idle, then on the side of the carburetor there is a cap screw, on this particular carb it should be on driver side (unless I am wrong, I don't remember) you go slowly unscrew that cap, have some cloth and somebody with fire extinguisher if possible, go slowly, if it does overflow you have your answer, the float is to high and over choking the engine so you have to readjust the float lower. And I can say this is very common with an electric pump as they put to much pressure in the system.
Michel