Thank Goodness for the CorvairCenter Forum

The other night Ariel’s dad, Tom, spent about three hours messing with my flooding right carburetor. He wrote an e-mail to his buddy all about it. I’ll quote an excerpt that summed up the evening.

“Here are the numbers:
· 4 – Number of test drives
· 3 – Number of times I pulled the top off the carburetor
· 2 – Number of needle-and-seats tried in the carb
· 2 – Number of times I checked and adjusted the float
· 2 – Number of fuel pumps tried
· 2 – Number of choke pull-off vacuum hoses tried
· 2 – Number of times I removed, cleaned, and blew dry carb parts
· 1 – Number of times I got gasoline in my eye (not much, but still not fun)
· 1 – Number of times I replaced the bottom carb spacer”

After searching the definitive online Corvair forum, he found a posting that informed him that GM went to a smaller float in 1964 (the age of my carburetors and drivetrain) and added a helper spring to help keep the needle shut. He remembered that the carburetor he’d been fighting with did NOT have the spring. He went home; found an older, larger float in his stash; installed it in place of the smaller float; no flooding. Yahoo! I’m back on the road again.