VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 Carburator Rebuild

I have a complete 1953 auto-choke carb that I would like to get rebuilt,any reccomedations?Any help would be appreciated.By the way,when I get this carb rebuilt,I will tackle the rebuild on another spare one that I have.

Why don't you do the spare one first. The Rochester is very simple to rebuild and follow the instructions in the shop manual.The kits are inexpensive also.

At the risk of getting in trouble here, go to Chevytalk.com, click on the 49/54 forum and look for a post entitled "Old Car manuals on line" by K Hardy. There is one of the best manuals for rebuilding the Rochesters that I have seen, it is free for the reading. Mr. Hardy has taken the time and effort to enter many old car manuls on line for any one to use free of charge.

Your absolutely correct Glen, it’s free, but lets not forget that The Old Car Manual Project is supported by many, many people, many from this group, that have contributed hard to find manuals and documentation and that it does take a considerable amount of green to keep TOCMP on line. So even though it is free for all to use, a small voluntary contribution once in a while will assure that one of the most valuable assets to the hobby will stay alive and healthy.
This is only my feeling and in no way am I connected to nor do I even know Keith H., I just really appreciate what him and the other contributors have done for us and think they should be supported.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

At one time we had a forum that posted a link to K.Hardys site. Maybe we should ask Bill Barker to post one and make it a sticky and keep it at the top of the forum. (Vendors and favorite sites maybe)?

I am a contributor to the site and understand that nothing that good is ever "Free".

I would still recommend following the instructions for a 1953 carburetor (if that what you have) as they are printed in the shop manual. There were some minor tweeks in the year before and year after.

Well,I guess I'll have to buy a new metal pail,and some carb cleaner,just don't like absorbing the stuff into my hands....hopefully,the float is OK and nothing breaks when I take it apart Wish me luck!!

There is nothing to break. Just note where small parts come from, such as the spring under the power piston and the spring and ball in the pump circuit, etc. The float is quite durable. Normally you would shake it to see if one of the floats is filled with gas. If this unit has been out of service for some time the gas would have evaporated.
If you get a spray can of cleaner you will not need a can, Spray the cleaner through the few passages there are in a Rochester and flush with water. But a pair of Nitril gloves if thats a concern.

I always have to do some research to decide where the small of the two steel balls go. I have been known to get them mixed up. Once I had a swap meet Rochester that some shadetree used a hundred pounds of air pressure to blow out the inlet. guess what? the float was kinda collapsed. but I drilled a 1/16" hole in the flat side and carefully blew it back to shape and a very small drop of acid core solder stopped up the drilled hole. I am running that float in the 53 today. I found out that the cast iron throttle body also needs to be checked and the circuits cleaned and un-stopped. I have found some differences in how the ports in the throttle body are arranged. I have a favorite one. It is one of the later versions and it seemed to work ok with all the float bowls that I have used, all post 1953 versions so far. I have been running the same carb on the 53 now since 1998 without changing anything, never had it off but this summer I will pull it and replace it. It seems to be getting a bit sluggish on a hot start and is perculating more than it did when it was newly rebuilt. I am going to try some slightly leaner jets, just one number leaner.
When I work with carb cleaner B-12 is my favorite aerosal and also pour can I always use a pair of nytril gloves inside some of those yellow dishwashing rubber gloves. I get two or three uses from the yellow ones. I also use a full face shield like the one made for the bench grinder, B'12 got on a pair of el-cheapo plastic safety gogglesand left permanent spots in the plastic! I reckon you don't want to know what it would do to your Mark I eye-ball. I haven't used any of the soaking carb cleaner anymore except for those pesky Quadra-jets. I just use the little red blow straw with the aerosol B-12 and usually a full can will do a Rochester model B or BC one barrel or two lawnmower carbs. Some of the mistreated carbs I have run into lately have varnish that is really tough to remove any way. My Troy bilt tiller sat a couple of years with gas in it and I like to never got the gas tank cleaned using 1/4" nuts in the tank along with a mixture of 1/2 gas and 1/2 B-12. I shook and shook, dryed it up and still there was varnish. I let the 100% B-12 sit in the tank for a week before I got it clean.
I think it may be better to run all the gasoline out and then fog the engine down with Seafoam before putting the tiller up for the winter.

All very wise advice!

Gene, congratulations to you and more so to the Chat site for your !0,000 posts. I don't know of any person that I have greater respect for on this site. Your postings are always helpful, informative, and valuable to any of us that have had the fortune to have read them.
THANKS, GENE aka Chev Nut!!!!

Feel the same way here Gene, thanks for mentioning that Mack. I wonder how many people realize or appreciate just how much time it takes to post 10,000 replies not to mention that many of them require a considerable amount of research. Well I sure do and you’re one who has always been there with an answer.
Thanks
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL