So I bought a 1960 falcon, it has an inline 6, 144cu i. anyway, whoever I got it from had replaced the carb at some point, looks like its now an autolite 1100 without the spark control valve. So two questions, what is this giant vacuum for? I need to close it obviously but what was hooked up to it originally? Also, it looks to have the original distributor still, is that ok to use with this carb or will I have idle problems? One more amazing thing, the throttle spring is attached to the negative ground cable, I highly doubt that it came from the factory that way, I was going to make a little bracket for it and use the same bolt to hold them both down. What was the spring hooked up to originally?
That's the choke stove. There would be a metal tube from the exhaust manifold heat chamber to supply hot air to the choke element. The original was probably a manual choke, so there may be no heat chamber on the manifold for it.
The problem you'll run into is that the distributor, if it is the original, runs through it's advance entirely run by vacuum controlled by the original carbs spark control valve. Not running with one might not effect idle, but you have no spark advance and basically these things run like tractors without. (Ask the man who has done it!) I would normally advise that you take the original distributor out and throw it as far as you possibly can, and replace it with durasparkII stuff, but then I remembered that you have a 144, and it will be saddled by the 1/4 oil pump drive and possibly a smaller distributor hole in the block. Other than hunting up a cool old Mallory unit or spending the bucks on a custom DUI type unit, I'm really at sort of a loss as to tell you what to do other than go back to the stock carb. Let me read up on it a bit tonight and see what's out there.
I'm not real familiar with this engine and carb combo but it might have originally had an automatic choke. On some older engines the heat tube that went to the fitting on the choke housing went into, and thru, the exhaust manifold. Vacuum from the carb pulled outside air thru the tube where it was heated by the exhaust and then warmed the choke thermostat to open the choke. Yeah, it was kind of a flakey setup and the tube would rust off where it entered the manifold. But you might look and see if there is still a hole at the top and bottom of the manifold with a metal tube passing thru it. Though I'm sure you'd have to fab up a pipe to connect it to the choke housing. Might be easier to find a later model electric choke thermostat to fit the carb if you want to run an automatic choke. Or a manual choke if you can figure a way to connect it to this model carb.
Vacuum was probably for the wipers. Though originally it would have had a booster pump combined with fuel pump. The throttle return spring was attached to the linkage on the left side of engine on the firewall. Its shown fair well in the Ford manual, which you should buy now. Cosmo
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