Hello,
Since your carb seems to work OK most of the time, I doubt
that a "rebuild" kit will do it much good. You may end
up messing up something that is already working. I
would suggest checking just the choke mechanism.
It is properly hooked up?
Also, is the fuel line and carb bowl staying full of fuel when the car
sits idle? Does your fuel pump have the little priming lever on the side?
Try pumping it several times before starting and seeing if it helps.
I think that many carb rebuild kits, especially the cheaper ones, can be
a waste of time. They contain mostly gaskets. Are the gaskets the
parts that tend to fail? Of course not. The kits should be
called "carb reassembly kits", not "carb rebuild kits". The only
real mechanical parts they fix are the float valve and the diaphgram,
and you can easily replace the diaphragm by itself. Sometimes when
I have "rebuilt" a carb, I realized that I was replacing somewhat worn
but well-made parts with new but poorly-made ones. And of course,
a rebuild kit does not fix the serious problems, like worn jets or
throttle shafts. And a typical Stromberg rebuild kit does not even
contain a new needle.
If you need to open up the fuel bowl and check for crud and contamination,
all you need is a couple of gaskets, which you can get for 2 or 3 bucks.
(Since you can drive the car OK once it starts, I doubt that is your problem.)
But blindly taking the carb apart and putting it back together again
(with new gaskets), hoping that you will luck out and fix a problem,
is not a good strategy, IMHO. The next thing you know, you will waste
real $$$ changing the fuel pump, ignition, etc. with no real improvement.
Sorry for my rant,
Doug Braun
'72 Spit
P.S.: For a new Spit owner, rebuilding a carb is probably a good learning
experience, even if it doesn't actually fix anything...
At 09:08 AM 8/21/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello again,
>
>Well, the spit is almost ready for the safety, just needs new tire and it's
>ready (I hope!!!).
>
>One thing I haven't been able to fix yet is the starting. When the engine
>is cold, I just can't get the engine to start without using some carb
>cleaner right down the throat.
>
>I pull the choke to the max, pump the gas pedal a few times but still
>nothing. Sometimes I will get one or two turns on it's own but never enough
>to keep running. I haven't done a rebuilt of the carb yet (although I do
>have a rebuilt kit ready to be installed). The cables, spark plugs and
>dist. cap, points and condenser have been in the car for at least ten years
>(the number of years it has been sitting in a garage!).
>
>Once started, it idles smooth and runs fine. I went around the block a few
>times (actually enough to add 15 miles to the odo in the last 3 days), and
>the engine ran quite nicely up to 4000 rpm (I didn't want to go more than
>that for now).
>So my guess is that the carb is probably OK but since I'm new at this, I
>maybe waaaay in left field! ;-)
>
>Any thought on what could be the problem? I'd don't really want to open the
>bonnet up everytime I want to start the car when it's cold!
>BTW, I'm running a single ZS CD-150 (for now) on the '69.
>
>Once again, TIA
>Steph
>Ottawa, Canada
>'69 Spit - Hers (Now running under it's own power!)
>'71 TR6 - Mine (Getting jealous!)
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