Removing Stromberg Carbs

[Urchin]

Hi Everyone,

Even though it's 30 degrees and windy outdoors, I decided that Thanksgiving Day was a perfect time to remove the Strombergs from my '80 Spider for a rebuild.

I could see the top nuts and studs easily enough, but there's very little room to loosen them without rounding the nut. Worse yet, there appears to be nuts hidden from view behind the carb. With the engine tilted to the left [from the front of the car], they're completely invisible.

I have standard length 1/2 wrenches and set of stubby wrenches, so I was able to loosen the two nuts at the top of the carb-to-base studs, but I cannot see the bottom ones. I can feel one nut on both the left and right sides but neither wrench will actually work to turn the nut; either the angle of the open end is wrong or there's yet another bracket or hose in the way.

The online manual from BL just references "remove the carburetors" and makes mention - but no diagrams - of the nuts. Is there a magic bullet here? How many nuts are there and where are they located? And if you can find them, how do you remove them?

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to US members!

Jeff

Jeffrey Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com
www.dirigocorvairs.org

[FI Spyder]

Wish I could help but when I removed mine from Yellow TCT I didn't have any problem such that I can't even remember doing them (still in dismantled state). Mind you the air box, alternator etc. is also off so can't remember if they were removed first or not. I may have just started removing what was easiest first.

Getting old is a terrible thing.[:p][:(]


- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Workshop Help]

WHOA!!!! Before doing ANYTHING else, please favor us with WHY? OH! WHY? do you want to pull them off in the first place?

This is an important question.

Please understand in the past 165,000+ miles and 37 years I have yet to have any need to completely remove my Z-S carburetors. Yes, the bowls have been pulled. Yes, the top vacuum chambers have been pulled. Yes, the needles replaced, the float needles replaced, the floats adjusted for correct height, the bowl plug O-rings replaced and the bowl flange ground flat for proper sealing. Yet still, the carburetor bodies have remained bolted to the manifold.

Do you think your rubber carburetor mounts are weak? If so, reinforce them with two large hose clamps strapped around the manifold cross pipe. Articles and photos of this are here in the forums. Is this why you are ambitious this afternoon?

Please, Urchin, why does thou seek to trod down this path?

Mildred Hargis

[Urchin]

Mildred,

Your admonitions are duly noted. I understand that I can do much of the refurbishment of the carbs with them still attached to the car, but it's 30 degrees and dropping here - and windy. The weather forecasts call for a steady run of cold weather. I would much rather do this work indoors than outdoors and I have no garage.

Someone suggested I just remove the entire intake manifold assembly and then I could work on it all indoors. What do you think of that advice?

Happy Thanksgiving,

Jeff

Jeffrey Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com
www.dirigocorvairs.org

[Workshop Help]

My friend, I appreciate your weather problem. At anyone's age, when the temperature gets cold, it is painful on the joints, skin, and cartilage to work on a car outside. And the older one gets, the deeper inside a warm room one wants to burrow.

As for the advice to remove the entire intake manifold with carburetors, I opine that is a bad idea. Please, may I humbly suggest your wish to dismember the carburetors can be done in under 30 minutes for each unit. I am still unsure why you want to dig into them. Are they flooding? Are the diaphragms torn? Are the bowl plugs leaking? Are the air valve needles crusted over from evaporated fuel? If yes to any of these queries, they can all be remedied in situ.

The hardest chore is removing the float bowls. You will need a small ratchet, an impact driver screwdriver bit, and a socket to fit the bit. From there on it's an exercise in Braille mechanics as you can only feel for the float bowl screws to fit the screwdriver bit into the slots. The rear center bowl screw is the worst. I anticipate the first time you do this, it will take about 35 minutes of profanity laced struggle. The second carburetor will take about 25 minutes with a lesser degree of vocal expression.

For your information, I have written articles on this topic and invite your attention to them by using the SEARCH function at the top right of your screen. And, the photos are provided at no additional charge, along with free shipping and handling.

Once the bowls are off, access to the important vitals of the instrument are at hand. So, what are you after? A clean bowl? Adjusting the float level? A new inlet needle? New bowl plug O-rings?

All these things have been done by yours truly many times over the past three decades in hot weather and cold. If I may also suggest, if you wish to cheat Ol' Man Winter for a little bit, run the engine to warm it up and then take off the float bowls. This way the engine warmth will loosen up the joints of your fingers.

Mildred Hargis

[Urchin]

Mildred, your conviction is compelling. I don't believe I will enjoy leaning over the car for at least an hour removing the float bowl - if necessary - but I'm willing to be convinced.

I did try a search before posting my topic and it came up with no match. How about telling me the title of your post so I can find it?

As for the reason for the carb work, it's because the car won't run right now except on starting ether. I know that the fuel pump in working and have gotten gas at the fuel lines to the carb, but it won't stay running. It dies out once the short burst of ether is burned off. So it seemed like something in the carb wasn't filling, or there was a blockage of fuel somewhere. Disassembling and cleaning the carbs seemed the best step, confirmed by a Land Rover expert who has worked on the Rover 3.5 V8 with the same Stromberg carbs.

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeffrey Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com
www.dirigocorvairs.org

[Workshop Help]

Okay, now we're getting someplace. Perhaps if you pried off the float bowl drain plugs to see if any fuel drains out. This would answer the $64.00 question of, 'Where is the gas?'. This is a quick little diagnostic test that can be done during the TV commercials. Or, one can remove the four screws holding the dash pot off the top of the carburetor, and stick a thin rod down the metering hole. If it comes out wet on the bottom one to two inches of the rod, you know gas is in the float bowl.

Next, remove the inlet fuel hose and blow compressed into the float bowl. This can dislodge an obstruction in the float needle to allow fuel into the bowl.

Here's another grim thought. In your neck of the woods, do they put ethanol in your gasoline like they do in mine? This time of year with cold weather on it's way, the refineries revert to a less ethanolish type fuel recipe. It seems cold weather is not a good thing for the summer blend of motor fuels as it can cause severe starting problems with water contamination. This is particularly true on engines that are not operated on a near daily basis. My car hasn't been started in about a week and it was not an easy start up this afternoon.

Here are photos of the on-car float bowl removal. I can't, at this time of night, remember the actual article it came from. Maybe tomorrow when my mind is rebooted.

In any event, this is how it's done.









Mildred Hargis

[Urchin]

Mildred,

In the second photo is the wrench used to unscrew a fitting? Otherwise it looks like it's just gripping a hose.

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeff Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com
www.roversmagazine.com
www.dirigocorvairs.com

[Cobber]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Mildred</i>





<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

My what hairy hands you have Grandma! [:D]




"Keep calm, relax, focus on the problem & PULL THE BLOODY TRIGGER"

80'Triumph TR7, 73'Land Rover (Ford 351. V8),
'89 Ford Fairlane
'98 MG-F, 69'Ford F250.
76' Ford F100

[Workshop Help]

Cobber, sweetie! Don't you by now recognize the paws of my local hand models. In this case, I can't recall if it was Caleb or Abner. My delicate digits were the ones holding the camera behind the scenes to get the clear shot.

Mildred Hargis

[Workshop Help]

Good Morning, Jeff! Yes, in Photo 2 a wrench is being used to twist the screwdriver bit as shown in Photo 3. Either a wrench or a 1/4" ratchet with socket will work. I have used both depending on the color socks being worn on a given day.

It being about 10:55 AM your time, I see the temperature in your back yard is 23 degrees F. I do sincerely hope you have hooked a heater to warm the carburetor area of the engine. Pulling a float bowl in this temperature takes more gumption than I can muster.

Mildred Hargis

[Hasbeen]

Long time no see Jeff. Good to see you back, if only because you have trouble.

As Mildred suggests, your first requirement is to find why no fuel. To do that you would be better off perhaps, starting at the other end of the chain.

First do you have any fuel?

Then, is any getting from the tank to the pump?

Is the pump working?

After answering these questions you will have a better idea if removal of the carbs, or their float bowls is necessary at all.

Please look to my recent post on fuel pump problems. My quite newish pump stopped working suddenly. for no reason I could find.

I ran the car on a gravity feed system, [a one liter oil bottle on the roof of the car, gravity feeding the carbs perfectly happily, which confirmed my problem was with fuel supply, not metering by the carbs.

My first action in your situation would to take the supply hose off one carb, stick it into a bottle, run the engine on starter fluid, & see if the pump is supplying petrol.

Have fun,

Hasbeen

[Urchin]

Hasbeen,

I thought of your very idea because of a similar issue I had with my Land Rover this past summer. In the case of the TR-7, there was fuel in the tank and the pump was pushing fuel when the engine was cranked - I checked this before going to the next step.

I can hook up a fuel can and try feeding the carbs that way. I'll check your post on the fuel pump issue, too.

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeff Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com
www.roversmagazine.com
www.dirigocorvairs.com

[Hasbeen]

Jeff when my mechanical pump stopped working, it had done quite a few miles, supplying the engine at 1.7 PSI. It had been up around 3, & causing intermittent minor carb flooding. I added 77 thou of spacers between the block & the pump, a little too much, to bring it down to the 1.7 PSI.

When it stopped pumping, I removed the 77 thou, & it pumped again, but only at the reduced pressure. I then lost interest in it. As I could not find why it stopped, I could no longer trust it, & went electric.

Have you replaced, or repaired the fuel tank? Most rusted internally a few years ago, causing much blocking of inline fuel filters, pressure regulators, & some float bowl needle & seats with the residue. Do you have an inline fuel filter?

I did once have a 7 with Stromberg carbs. I replaced the needle & seats in them on the car, & don't recall it being all that hard, but it was about 15 years ago. I was still a young & silly enthusiast back then, & actually enjoyed leaning over a fender, sweeting, as one does in my climate.

Hasbeen