Kevin,
The brass carb shafts normally sit in the aluminum holes when new. When you
get bushings the body holes have to be enlarged. The critical part is to have
the holes perfectly in line with each other across the carb throat. It's also
important not to 'bugger' up the holes inside the throat where the plates
seal next to. I brought my totally stripped Zs to a local specialized carb
shop and asked him NOT to make any attempts unless he was absolutely sure he
could do it right. A few days later he called and said he drilled first one
crooked and wouldn't be able to do the job.
I was furious and had no recourse with that shop so I sent the carbs to New
York (from California!) to Joe Curto Inc. (ad in Hemmings) He did a splendid
job at repairing/rebushing them and charged me less than the local guy was
going to charge before he botched it - and that included shipping! (I sent
two Zs and two SUs in one box)
Joe Curto has been restoring SUs and Zs for over 30 years along with other
Brit motor ancillaries.
ps1; I did alot of the work myself to reduce my costs like totally stripping
the carb bodies down and cleaning them - I replaced all gaskets, etc. myself
after Curto did the shafts. (Joe manufactures shafts for Moss so he was able
to supply me with slightly oversize shafts to repair my specific problem, he
also 'dipped my two suspect cracking Z bowl floats and plated my SU linkage
for another $10)
ps2; I used to have real bad 'run-on' with SUs ('63 122S Volvo) but now when
I turn off the key - the motor stops dead. The reshafted Zs ('63 TR4) enable
me to bring down my idle real smooth and even.
If I had to do it again - I would look for a local carb shop that is KNOWN
for working on SUs and Zs and HAS THE PROPER JIGGING, AND PLENTY OF
EXPERIENCE, FOR REBUSHING THESE CARBS. Some shops differ - most seem to want
the whole rebuild job, not just the shaft work, but I would still try to do
all the stripping/cleaning and rebuilding of everything else besides shafts
to save money - and that is plenty of work.
Carl Sereda
'63 TR4 since '74 in restoration mode
'63 122S since '80 in storage mode
'88 TBirdLX in daily driver mode
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