How often you rebuild your carb? When do you know?

I last rebuilt my carb about 5 years/12,000 miles ago.. is it time to do it again? How do you judge when it's time for a carb rebuild?

Got the car out of winter storage last week, hard to start, but it fired with start gas and ran well. Had Stabil in it. Took it for an hour drive, stopped to admire the view.. Got back to the car 30 minutes later.. it didn't sink in that I was smelling a strong gas odor.. I cranked it over, didn't fire up, until the battery went dead. Had to get a jump to start, but it did fire in about 10 seconds.

Drove it back to storage.

I'll have a closer look at it tomorrow, but I wonder if some of the jets, the tip of the float meter, accelerator pump seals, etc are just old and flowing way more fuel than it should... flooding the engine?

Thanks,
- Art

Probably needs it. I don't know if it's the modern gas or the quality of the materials in the rebuild kits nowadays, but mine needs it about every 4 years to really run well.

Seems like the accelerator pump diaphragm is the first thing to harden up and not give a good squirt like it should, that's when I know it's time.

Generally a rebuild in the past was for leaking gaskets, and often for the accelerator pump losing it shot ability about 10 yrs max for a daily driver...but with today's gas being highly evaporate, less use of our vehicles, it seems 5 yrs is the max you might want to let a carb go before it needs just a general overhaul and cleansing to freshen gaskets and hardened/worn rubber components along with deposits

When was the last time you changed the fuel filter?

A little Marvel Mystery Oil...

A little 110 Leaded...

A little Sta-Bil...


Drained for the winter...



Haven't been in the carb in well over 5 years...

About 1990. :-)

Rebuild? About 4 or 5 years ago. Didn't fix the problem, and yes it looked great inside. One of the muffler had rusted enough inside to have a flap of metal close off the pipe when I accelerated, causing a serious lack of power. New muffs under life time warranty fixed the problem.

The last carbed vehicle I had here was wrecked in 2011. It was driven year around. I had to do something with the carb on it every year.
Good riddance, I don't miss them a bit! Gene

See if the air bleeds are dirty, clean with lacquer thinner & swab, or shoot a little carb cleaner in them.
Look at the bottom of the bowls on AFB/AVS to see if there's any debris or corrosion, and inside the venturis to see if it's sooty.
Left the AFBs on my Street Hemi untouched for 10 years once they were sorted out; it sat during winter in a heated shop with Sta-Bil added to the bowls. Lit off every Spring/Summer without a problem. Same with the racecar's Holley DP.

Usually they work good for more than 10 years.
But I know that in the US you got war more ethanol in the gas than we have (max5%)

Carsten

Edelbrock recommends every two years, because of todays gas.

The time to have looked at your carb was right then and there to determine if it was leaking fuel out some where it should not. I go in the carb on my 64 when ever it needs as it will not run right if I don't. new fuel filter EVERY year is a must. So far the Plymouths carb is working well...but i've only taken the car out once. Is'nt that part of the experience of owning/driving a "classic" car? I don't realy think theres any hard and fast rule when to rebuild a carb. When it needs it that's when you do it.

every 4 years I get rough acceleration and choppy idle; rebuild fixes it- basically the plunger disintegrates sitting in that gas.

Of course it's a carter 2barrel, so I can do it in about 20 minutes.

Any time leaks or problems pop up that it can't be easily adjusted to run right.

What gets me is the amount of people on forums or just in general who complain constantly about running problems and go thru everything but for whatever reason always rule out their carb that hasen't been touched in 30+ years without even looking at it. Even non car people used to know that carburetors needed to be rebuilt every once in a while.

IMO it's not just the crappy gas we get at the pump it's also the dirt from crappy, aftermarket air filters. The race car carb gets cleaned before every race and runs with a K&N filter. (BTW, never run these air filters on your turbocharged vehicle.) Fuel filter is cheap enough to change with the oil so why not? If you aren't running the stock air cleaner with a stock type filter, I would at least check the carb and clean it with say every oil change. Maybe every time you change the air filter on the stock stuff. All carbs have tiny passages that get crud in them. Clean that crap out! Invest in the good reusable gaskets.

Thanks guys,

I store my cars with a good shot of fresh engine oil in the accelerator pump cylinder to keep it soft.. but nothing lasts forever..

Funny how I recall rebuilding it, twice already, feels like yesterday, but I checked my receipts and 7 years ago was the last time! Whoa..



Yeah, I totally agree.... it wasn't until after I had secured a jump and was on my way (had an important meeting that had me focussed on that) .. and I slowed my brain down enough to ponder what might have happened... that's when I recalled the smell of gas was stronger than usual.. and I'm like "OK, it's probably the carb."

I haven't had a chance to pull it back out of storage to check it all, but yeah - it'll give it a full regular tune up with all filters, gap the plugs, chassis lube... I'm even running points in it still.. I flushed the fluids already.

Cheers,
- Art

I would do it every two to three years.
I just did one a month ago. Was rebuilt 5 years ago.
Just recently, engine was hard starting, rough idle, etc.
After I did the rebuild, engine starts right up, idle mixtures perfect.
When you shut down and let car sit for a few hours, go back and bump the starter, engine starts right up without even pumping the gas.
Very happy now. I think I'll do more frequent rebuilds now.

The update on the carb situation;

I yanked the whole 4bbl AVS and intake off the '67 Sat and replaced it with the original Carter 2bbl and intake... freshly rebuilt and it runs better than ever... fires right up and holds a smooth idle, even cold after sitting a coupe days.

I rebuilt the AVS, it didn't *look* bad.. but it's ready to go on the '65 Satellite in the next week or so...

Cheers,
- Art

Good original question BTW