Hey guys just bought a tripower with Strombergs on a sbc manifold. My question is two of the carbs are missing the throttle plates the one in the middle has it. I’m wondering if I’m going to need the throttle plates ? Thanks Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Pics?? Usually the center carb is the primary carb, and the front and rear are progressively added with correct linkage. The center carb only with have idle adjustments, the front and back do not. Show us a pic of what your calling the throttle plate. Possibly the center carb is the only one which a choke.
Your running these straight by the photo. From my experience they will need to idle off all three using idle and mixture. If you go progressive the outers can be set closed and meters screws turned in and the center carb will handle most of the driving. Good luck..
Thanks . Yea I’m going to get the progressive linkage . I was just wondering if I had to replace back those missing plates . Thanks [emoji1360] Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
I would probably get them and put them in. The reason is below. That’s correct that they are choke plates and that you only need to use one on the center carb for cold starts. However I have 3 brand new Stromberg 97 carbs on my RPU from Clive (Stromberg) in England. Clive told me not to remove the end choke plates but to use a thin stainless washer on the pivot to lock them in the open position. He said that the carbs would be easier to tune (balance) and that the engine would run better with them in place because of airflow being the same on each of the 3 carbs. Who better to get the real information from than the manufacturer.
In a racing only situation remove all three choke plates and the flow is way better. Trouble getting it to fire off? Give center carb a squirt of fuel from a squeeze bottle.. Holley made carbs with three attachment holes. The jury is still out on which are best. At one time replacement Frog Mouth tops were available for 97's, with no choke plate provisions at all. And, alas, none of the air cleaners available do a very good job when you consider how much money it takes to buy internals and the machine work that goes into creating a hot Flathead. If by chance someone wanted to design and market something that would use a filter like those sold by K&N, that does not look like a pile of dead buzzards, could make a lot of people happy and a tidy sum to boot. Just saying.
Found it. This is a neat little trick to fix the choke plates in position and be invisible at the same time so you keep the style of the 97 without a performance issue. So OP, if you replace your choke plates on carbs 1 & 3 you can make them non operable so they don't effect idle speed. I ran into a little issue with my trio of 97's on the '34 that I thought might fit well in this thread. With all three carbs open (progressive linkage) the choke plates would suck closed a bit (471 blower) on carbs 1 & 3 and as a result the fast idle cams would create a 1300 PRM idle at the next stop light until I got out and pulled it back manually. I asked Clive @ Stromberg how to remedy and he sent me these Simply remove the large fulcrum bolt, pull the detent and spring out of the carb and inset this little piece. All you have to do is remove the detent pin and spring pictured here and install the new lock out pin $7.50 @ summit Racing It engages the holes in the linkage and locks out the choke in minutes. Now only my center carb has a functioning choke on a cable to the dash and I don't have to worry about the outer two hanging up any longer. Hope it helps.
The choke plates are essential to getting proper air flow through the venturis. Do not run without them.
Great information here, simple, but if it helps when setting up. Easy to remember this little tech tip!
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