Floyd Brothers 70 Challenger

[Pete]

I would strip out as much as possible to ensure that all the internal transfer ports get cleaned - that is the value of the ultrasonic bath.

[Blue]

Strip everything apart from taking out the throttle blades.

[Stu]

Fair comment! Currently having a pain in the arsenal time trying to get the old gaskets off, they are absolutely welded on!

Having quite a good day, though. The girls are both out, so sat stinking the kitchen out with James Gang playing away, happily making a mess of the kitchen table.

[Pete]

Did you ever ID the "other" Carb?

[Stu]

Nope, not yet. Will set about that once I’ve got this one sorted. Want to get the car back on the road tomorrow if possible, but a couple of other problems manifested themselves now.

Will figure out what the other one is and use it for practice once this one is done.

[Pete]

A slight word of caution.

We put a carb through the cleaner at work and once clean of all the guk we found excessive wear in the bottom plate where the butterfly shafts run through, so that went in the bin.

It was not the fault of the cleaner, it just exposes all of the issues with old worn carbs that were not apparent when the carb was on the car - or even on the bench!

[Stu]

Yes, fully prepared for the fact I may need a new carb anyway, but decided it was time to learn what’s what anyway, so if nothing else I’m getting cheap lessons in what I should have known for years.

Nearly ready to put it through the bath, just the bowls to strip, but not sure what’s what here…

[Stu]

I think I’m just discovering I shouldn’t have taken the diaphragm apart…

[Blue]

They often tear stripping them down and go hard anyway. Careful reassembling though, Vaseline on the screws and hold the halves of the pot together tight to clamp the diaphragm. The diaphragm will try to wrap around the screws as you tighten them and you don’t want that.

[Stu]

Cheers Blue, good advice thanks.

It looks like that’s what has happened previously, judging by the state of it when I took it apart. Hadn’t realised there wasn’t a replacement in the kit, so I’ve ordered one but can’t get it until Wednesday.

It looks to me like this carb has had a dodgy rebuild in the past, like most of the rest of the car. There is evidence of multiple bits of old gaskets topped with other bits of old gaskets, none of which match the gaskets that were on it!

On the bright side, the cleaner is brilliant and I’m looking forward to starting reassembly in the morning with a cup of coffee.

Any assembly tips greatfully received, I’ve learned a lot in the last 24 hours, but pretty sure that was the easy bit.

[Stu]

Full pot of coffee, check
Full table (of parts and tools), check
1 complete tool trying to remember where everything goes, check

Brace yourself for a morning of stupid questions, chaps…

First one… did the throttle body screws just have split washers and nowt else? I can’t anything else on any of the diagrams or photos I took, but just looks like they should have, somehow.

And exactly how much muscle should I give for 30” lbs, as I don’t have a small torque wrench with a screwdriver attachment.

Bananarama! me, this could all go ‘orribly wrong in my hands!

Love the fact there are people on this part of the forum resurrecting proper dead stuff from scratch with their bare hands and building race cars in the shed and here’s me scratching my head over a few screws and some ‘oles… how embarrassing…

[Blue]

Yes just spring washers and you will appear to be a couple of screws short, this is normal. You won't be able to over tighten those screws with a normal screwdriver, so tight but not crazy!
Float bowls etc just need nipping up, don't get medieval with them.

[Stu]

Ta!

Yes, noted I was short on screws, but had photographed it before I took it to bits, thankfully.

Just looking through the washers etc in the pack though and doesn’t look like I have enough fibre washers for the job to me.

Took me a while to figure out that the washers supplied for the discharge nozzle aren’t like the cork one that was in there.

[Blue]

No they are just flat paper. Kit may have nylon washers for the float bowls and possibly the float level adjusters, I prefer those.

[Stu]

Hope I’ve used the right ones! Still trying to work out what the square cork ones are for.

And also what this is that fell out in the early stages of the year down…