I found a carb that would fit on the pontiac, it's some old q-jet, from the 70's I guess, I cleaned it up and popped it on the car, and the thing will sit there and idle fine and all, but if I put it in gear it'll choke down, and it's so damn rich it runs us out of the shop. Nothing we seems to do helps anything, we've adjusted everything several times trying to get it to stay running when put into gear, and to at least get it running lean enough to stand. No dice though. I've got it bolted onto the old carb's base, I'm gonna try this carbs original base tomorrow whenI can fab up the linkage. I didn't see too much difference in the bases, but ya never know. Other than changing out the bases, what else do I need to try?? I wish I could afford to just send it to the mechanic's shop, I'm about fed up.
Quadrejet, heavy float. it's a curse they've had forever. Change out the float and be on your way. Oh, by the way change out the needle and seat also.
I lucked out and got a few year old edelbrock (AFB) for $75 once... I liked it so much I didn't hesitate an instant to throw down for a new one (~$225) when it came time to upgrade my truck. Now, it'll have a different base than your quadreject manifold, but you can throw an adapter on there... It aint exactly "trad," but how trad can you be when the***** doesn't even run? properly working Carbs rock- old thrashed carbs are about as fun as going down on Rosie Odonnell. Sorry for the imagery, but its an experience I'd rather not repeat. (The carb troubleshooting, that is, god forbid the other...) It seems to me that the number of barrells MORE THAN ONE a carb has, is what you multiply by ten to get the difficulty of troubleshooting it.
are you sure there are no vacuum leaks?. cup your hand over the carb while it's running and see if the idle increases. if it does look for a leak (use some carb cleaner or brake cleaner) and spray all over the intake/carb base (be careful it might ingnite).
[ QUOTE ] I lucked out and got a few year old edelbrock (AFB) for $75 once... I liked it so much I didn't hesitate an instant to throw down for a new one (~$225) when it came time to upgrade my truck. Now, it'll have a different base than your quadreject manifold, but you can throw an adapter on there... It aint exactly "trad," but how trad can you be when the***** doesn't even run? properly working Carbs rock- old thrashed carbs are about as fun as going down on Rosie Odonnell. Sorry for the imagery, but its an experience I'd rather not repeat. (The carb troubleshooting, that is, god forbid the other...) It seems to me that the number of barrells MORE THAN ONE a carb has, is what you multiply by ten to get the difficulty of troubleshooting it. [/ QUOTE ] it's really fun to run a tri-carb set-up from $5 swap meet carbs, that's why you get a bunch and piece some good ones together. if you get the rochester carb book it's not that bad to revive them (or even hop-up the carb). all my cars have a quad (if they have a 4bbl).
could I yank the float of the old carb and stick it in the q-jet? They're in the same damn spot and are shaped the same, they're made out of different materials though. I plugged up all the vacuum lines I won't be using, so I don't think that was it. Every time I think this is licked, it just comes right back. gonna try changing the base first, then I'll play with the float and stuff.
If you're running an electric fuel pump... Do you have a pressure regulator? To much pressure will push fuel past the needle and cause rich running... or no running at all. It will even dump into the secondaries, sometimes. JOE
They call it a heavy float cause it is bakelight and soaks up the fuel over the years. if ya can get a brass float that's the best but another old bakslite won't help a bit. But a new bakelite will last a few years.
no the one in it doesn't look like bake light, but the old carb had a brass float in it, so I'll yank it out and stick it in the q-jet and see what happens.
Q-Jets will perform well when they are set up right, but they do have a history of running rich. It's already been said at least twice, the float is usually the problem, they become fuel soaked and want to sink in the float bowl, leaving the needle open and gas pouring through the carb. If you have a brass float that will fit, your lucky, because they are hard as hell to find. I would think that changing the float will fix the running rich issue. The other problem****ociated with the Q-Jet is the small primary float bowl, they are economical, but you can, under hard acceleration, run the damn things out of gas. If your going to run the car hard, an electric fuel pump is essential! Shoe
yeah so heres how much of a idiot I am, it isn't a q-jet, it was so dirty wher the name was it just looked like that's what I thought it said. it's just a normal ol' 2barrel rochester. I got it where it would idle ok today, and it'll stay running when I put it in gear, but when I let the car start moving it wants to shut down on me, I had to keep one foot on the brake and one barely on the gas to keep it going long enough to get up the street to put a little gas in it. Guys at the shop said I just need to find a better carb, but I have no money so I'm trying to work with what I got. WE tried adjusting everything, but the jet adjusting screws don't do anything, I can turn them all the way in, or all the way out and nothing seems to change.
You should be able to find another one in working order for about $20, I'd bet. Post something in the classifieds. I've known people that have thrown perfectly good ones away. Or if it is a 2BBL, snag a rebuild kit at you local parts store. It is probably fairly simple. Alot of times, people get rebuild kits and use the wrong pieces and never figure out what is wrong and end up just getting a different carb. So, someone may have rebuilt it wrong in the past. It might just be some***** in the needle and seat, too.
that actually wouldn't suprise me, I tor it down and gave the inside a once over, could've been cleaner, but I ran out of carb cleaner so I figured I'd try it out like it was. Where the hell is the idle circuit so I can check it out?
also make sure the base gasket is covering all of intake port and carb is totally coving gasket. my friend tuned his carb to work on his A (drilled passages...) and it still smelled bad. turned out the base of carb was leaking because the new base gasket was slightly different and it made a small vacuum leak that was hard to hear. also inside the carb make sure the venturi cluster is ok (rods on the bottom are still there and not falling off).
I highly recommend the Brakleen in the black and green container, the non-chlorinated stuff. It just EATS away crud.
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