Gramma's Car: the new project!

[SuperNovaSS]

That's awesome Steve. I hope you don't feel like I was trying to hijack your thread. I just thought it was a decent parallel. Again, great job on the build and family.


Jason

[njsteve]

No problem. Loved the photo. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[earntaz]

Will not Plastigage give a more accurate measurement on a dry surface -- no oil or Lubriplate? TAZ

[njsteve]

The actual area where the plastigage was placed is clean, though it's hard to tell in the photo. I wiped the application area clean of oil and lubriplate prior to the application of the plastigage and retorquing the main cap. After taking the measurement I then clean the plastigage off with a little brake clean and then reapply the lubriplate prior to reinstalling the main cap and torquing to spec.

[cook_dw]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I then clean the plastigage off with a little brake clean and then reapply the lubriplate prior to reinstalling the main cap and torquing to spec. </div></div>


Most people dont realize that leaving any of the plastigage on the bearing surface can cause a premature failure.. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

I sent that 1971 7041262 455 Quadrajet to Eric (Vintage Musclecar Parts) for some magic. Let's see what he does with it. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

[VintageMusclecar]

Last month Steve approached me about building a Quadrajet for this project. Of course I enthusiastically agreed!

The carb arrived Wednesday. Nice packaging job Steve! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]



I got the carb out of the box and immediately two things jumped out at me. See if you can guess the first one:



Look closer...



Somewhere along the line, a ham-fisted &quot;mechanic&quot; has cranked this poor carb down to an intake with everything they had.

Can you see the resulting bow?



Look at the gaps at the end of the straight-edge:



And in the center of the top casting here:



I've seen a LOT worse, but this one still requires de-warping.

Now that the lid is off (not w/o a struggle, be back to that in just a moment), we can see she's nice and crusty inside.



Here's the next clue something was amiss:



Not an OEM fuel inlet fitting...that usually means....



Yep...a self-tapper. Someone's stripped the inlet threads at some point. Nothing we can't handle though.

As I alluded to above, the carb didn't want to come apart w/o a fight. It usually takes me ~45 minutes to break a Quadrajet down. I fought this one for over 2 hrs and <span style="font-style: italic">still</span> lost a couple of battles along the way lol.

One of these things is not like the other...



Both of them were stuck tight....with a lott'a heat and some penetrating oil I got one to break free, but the other wasn't having any part of it.

Lousy little....&amp;*@^*^!^$



I tried heat &amp; Vice Grips, again to no avail--broke off flush, so I had to drill the remnants out from the backside.

SO...the carb's 99% disassembled at this point, and the main body is currently cooling down on my de-warp fixture. Once it's done I'll de-warp the top casting, then it's back to the main body to remove the idle pick-up tubes. I don't normally remove the idle tubes when servicing a Quadrajet, but when one's this crusty inside, they really need to come out to make sure there's no corrosion in the main well and/or on the tubes themselves that could cause problems later on down the road.

More soon, stay tuned.

And before I forget, thank you Steve for letting me be a part of this build. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[markinnaples]

Wow, you do some amazing work. If I'm ever in the position of having one (or two) carbs rebuilt, you're the go-to guy.

[njsteve]

Holy Bowly, Carb-Man. Looks like the Joker had his way with that quadrajet!

Sorry about that, Chief. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/eek.gif[/img]

[VintageMusclecar]

LOL...no worries my man, we'll handle it. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]