Back in July 2024, I pulled a nearly 80-year-old car out from under a tree in rural North Carolina, where it sat untouched for at least five years. I’m finally working toward getting my 1948 Plymouth Special DeLuxe started and I just achieved one of the biggest steps. I just cleaned out one of the dirtiest carburetors I’ve ever seen. Now, it’s almost time to hear my classic ride sing.
Admittedly, I was a little nervous about working on my Plymouth’s carburetor. While I have plenty of experience cleaning and tuning motorcycle carburetors, I’ve never touched a carburetor on a car before. Further, the motorcycle carburetors I’ve cleaned and rebuilt had relatively modern and cheap replacements. This carburetor is a thoroughly vintage part and I’d hate to accidentally screw up such a lovely piece.
I was also a bit concerned about what the heck was the organic matter inside of the carb. Was I looking at dead bugs? Was it rat poop? Was it a pile of dead bugs? I’m not sure, but I also don’t let fear stop me from making progress, so let’s dig into what happened to my poor carburetor!
If this is your first time checking in on this series, I’ll bring you up to speed.
Back in July, resident wrencher extraordinaire Stephen Walter Gossin, a couple of readers, and I descended onto a property in rural North Carolina. This was the residence of a wonderful 95-year-old man named Willie (click here to read his story) and in a secluded backyard sat around two dozen Chrysler P15 platform cars, a BMW motorcycle, and a couple cheerful Citroen 2CVs.
How does a man end up with such a car collection? For decades, Willie was the foremost expert in post-World War II Chryslers and he had an affinity for the beloved French people’s car. Willie knew so much about every car in his yard that I bet he could have repaired them with his eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back. I’m also not exaggerating when I say he was considered an expert. His knowledge was so well-known that decades ago, newspapers and magazines featured his collection and his expertise.
As some of our readers know, I think cars are more than just piles of metal, glass, and rubber. The people who own those cars have stories that are just as, if not more important, than the cars themselves. Willie was no exception. He spent the 1970s as a trailblazing Black motorcycle cop in New York City with a style that could only best be described as dapper. Willie was easily one of the coolest people I’ve ever met entirely by chance.
Unfortunately, father time is unrelenting and Willie was no longer able to reach his backyard secret car compound. The cars back there all sat for years, merely feet away from the house. Eventually, he decided that the best path forward was to send his collection out into the world for other enthusiasts to enjoy. A gentleman from Mexico cleared out most of the cars, but somehow left the car that Willie told me was his favorite.
That’s the 1948 Plymouth Special DeLuxe that’s in my possession now. I made a promise to Willie that I would put his black beauty on the road again and I intend on making it happen.
It Was Better Than I Thought
When I last wrote an update, I talked about bringing the car home, evicting the horde of giant spiders I found inside, and then giving the car its first wash since it was parked six to eight years before. Then, I freed up the seized engine and then the car got battery power for the first time in several years. The car passed its systems check with flying colors. Everything works, even the nifty AM radio that has to warm up before it actually works! Even better is how the engine made nearly 40 pounds of oil pressure just turning over on the starter.
Thus far I’ve been shocked with how well the car has presented. The service brakes work, as does the parking brake, clutch, and transmission. The car also rolls straight and true with tighter steering than some more modern vehicles I’ve driven.
When I picked up the car in 2024, Willie said it had been between 5 to 7 years since the car last ran. He told me that the car ran and drove great when he parked it. Willie just ended up getting distracted by his other two dozen cars and by the time he came back to the Plymouth it was too late.
It would appear that Willie was not fibbing. This car feels every bit like it was parked only 7 or so years ago and that it was operating when it was parked. Heck, the tires, which were brand-new when the car was parked, still had air in them back in July. The date code on the old battery under the hood had a manufacture date of early 2018, which supports what Willie told me about putting in a new battery and trying to start the car.
Now I have even more supporting evidence.
What Is This Horror?
I decided to tackle the carburetor next. Honestly, the carburetor was pure nightmare fuel. I was shocked when I removed the air filter and saw this:
Just what in the world is this? It wasn’t moving and it didn’t appear to be alive. I never really got close enough to sniff it either, but it didn’t have a stench or anything. But I’ve never seen anything like this before, so it was sort of freaky to me.
Luckily, I found a carburetor rebuild kit for this, so I decided to give cleaning the carb a try. Ultimately, I’m going to buy a spare carburetor, but I want to see what I can do with this one, too.
Disassembly was almost frighteningly easy. I discovered the magic of working on an old car. There’s an incredible level of honesty to everything. See all of the bolts in this picture? Those are the bolts you have to get off. Some of the bolts zipped off with a basic Harbor Freight wrench while the other bolts came right out with whatever slotted screwdriver I found on the floor of my garage.
My first observation about working on this car is that nothing is putting up a fight. Each bolt came out without any real struggle on my part. I didn’t even need to use a power tool. Working on this Plymouth was about as easy as can be. I’ve spent my entire life thus far in America’s rustbelt, so the ease in which these bolts practically flew off was mind-blowing.
I also want to get back to that “honesty” part for a moment here. Getting the carburetor itself off wasn’t difficult. I loosened the fuel line and the clamps for the choke, and all of it was right there in my vision.
Then came the throttle body. This part didn’t seem to be in that bad of shape, but hey, I was already monkeying around under the hood, so I took it out, too. Once again, one nut practically came off just by me looking at it with a stern face. The other nut? Well, I thought I hit my first roadblock. There was no clearance above the nut, so I couldn’t see how it was possible to remove the part.
I then looked at the throttle body and noticed it was one solid piece. There was no way to create clearance. As it turns out, I was thinking like I was working on a modern German car. See, if this were a Volkswagen or a BMW, I’d have to remove the fuel tank, ignition, and my neighbor’s gold tooth before the thing would even budge. Then I’d have to sacrifice a lesser car to Ferdinand Piech or Chris Bangle to finally get the part off.
In this case? As I loosened the nut, it lifted the throttle body right off. That’s genius! I’m not talking about “genius” like our headline structures, but actual genius. Why can’t all low-clearance parts be like that?
With both parts off, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. While the carb was entirely full of whatever nightmare fuel was inside of it, the junk actually did not make it all the way into the engine. Instead, it caked up around the carb’s bowl and didn’t progress further. Whew!
It was here I also confirmed that the car’s mechanical fuel pump was still alive. Remember how I said I just laid on the starter motor for two minutes or whatever? Well, the fuel pump definitely did some work. Both the carb and the engine got flooded. However, I was surprised that the fuel was as much of a liquid as it was. Yes, it had some of that varnish smell, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.
I didn’t want to take a chance with whatever crap was inside of the carb, so my next stop was to my air compressor, where I attached the blow tip and used the compressed air to blow out the horrors. Pretty much all of it came out in a congealed chunk. Honestly, it was disgusting enough that I did not bother taking a picture.
Building It Back Up
Once I got the carb inside, I followed the advice given to me by Stephen Walter Gossin and David Tracy and took the carb apart. Amazingly, the carb wasn’t that dirty. The gas inside smelled a little like varnish, but it was still thin liquid. I saw no rust or dirt deposits and nothing slimy to clean out. Nothing inside of the carb was seized or slow, either. I’ve restored motorcycle carbs that were in worse condition.
My plan involved first dropping the carb into the bucket of Chem-Dip that Gossin recommended I buy.
Admittedly, I thought that Chem-Dip was just a bucket of normal carb cleaner, but this is actually way more than that. Berryman Chem-Dip is some real corrosive stuff. How corrosive? If you mistakenly leave a carb in the bucket overnight, you might find your carb to be porous in the morning. If you don’t remove the rubber parts from your carb first, they probably won’t exist by the time the Chem-Dip is done cooking.
The benefit is that if you’re careful, you can drop your parts into the bucket, come back in a few hours, and your part will be squeaky clean.
My carb is a vintage Ball & Ball unit from the Carter Carburetor Corporation, which worked as a supplier of fuel systems for Buick, Chrysler, and sometimes its own rival over at Rochester Products. It also hasn’t been around since 1985, so I wanted to do my best to keep this piece of auto history working. Because of this, I decided to let the carb cook in the juice for no more than a few hours.
Amazingly, that turned out to be too long. Chem-Dip works so well that not only did the carb come out of the cleaner significantly better than it went in, but Chem-Dip was so aggressive it nearly dissolved all of the black paint on the carb’s accessory parts. Oops!
Sadly, I learned that my carb rebuild kit didn’t come with all of the parts pictured in the listing. It was supposed to come with new jets and a float! But I decided to make the best with what I had. I disassembled every part of the carb that I was able to reach. Then I used a can of carb cleaner to blast out every single orifice. Nothing gave me a single bit of resistance.
From there, I took my wife’s old toothbrush and got scrubbing. Honestly, it was cathartic doing this. I never thought it would feel so good to have some carb clean therapy. Or, maybe that was the chemical fumes getting to me. Oh well.
Once I reached a point where the toothbrush no longer made any progress, I decided to replace what I could. Since my carb rebuild kit sucked, I was only able to replace all of the rubber seals, all of the gaskets, a plunger, and the fuel line inlet with the needle that seals the fuel flow with the float. While I had everything out, I confirmed that the float also still, you know, floated.
Once I confirmed that everything was moving smoothly and was free of debris, I packaged the carb back up. Here’s what it looks like right now. I still want to do some final cleaning, but I’m satisfied enough with what I have here. At the very least, it should get the car running. Again, I’ll be buying another carb, but I had great fun doing this cleaning.
I Need Some Help
Here’s where I turn things to you. I want to install a fuel filter. I’m going to drain the tank, but I know it’ll be impossible to completely clean the fuel system. Here’s the twist, all of the fuel lines that I’ve seen under the hood are hard lines. I’m going to get under the car to find some rubber lines, but I’d prefer to have the fuel filter in the engine bay where I can quickly swap it out. But I’ve never had to slide a fuel filter into a hard line before.
Do you have any recommendations? I’m considering this glass filter, which would mount onto the end of the carb:
Also, I think this car needs an official project name. How about Project Plymouth Rock? This thing is going to rock so hard when it’s running!
At any rate, with the carb clean and all of the other work already done for me, I can almost taste the engine running. I still have a long way to go with cleaning the fuel system. I’ll also need to replace the radiator once the engine is running. But I’m making real progress here! At this point, I’m pretty sure hearing that straight-six fire for the first time in seven years or so might be the highlight of my year.
Now we just have to hope it was not the pupaea of the rare North Carolina blue spot, swallow tailed butterfly or something.
Could have put it in a jar on the kitchen window sill to see if it would hatch, if you were not married, I suppose…
That’d be a terrible place for a butterfly to emerge. I think getting out of the carburetor and out of the car would have a significant risk of damaging the wings while they’re wet and soft, and possibly not enough airflow to properly dry them.
FYI: There’s a guy in France selling a neat little circuit board that you can wire into an AM radio, and it will add FM reception using the same tuning dial. Right end of the dial is 108 MHz, left end of the dial is 87 MHz.
You can also get a companion board that preserves AM functionality so you can switch back to AM, and the dial works as it originally did.
Here’s a YouTube video where one is installed in an old AM console radio, configured, and tested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smSHdXGBhI8
There’s a link to the site selling them in the video description.
It’s a pretty neat gadget. Too bad it didn’t arrive before FM started becoming terrible.
Well that’s a fancy fuel filter. A part befitting the car, you should definitely go with that choice for looks alone, if nothing else.
I was gonna say, that’s a pretty part, innit?
I mean, I immediately opened a side tab to search for these and investigate compatibility with my Zenith 28IF carb.
I did have concerns about the carb being full of junk when we popped the hood and found that the air cleaner was not attached to the carburetor and was sitting a few inches off of it. Good that none made it into the engine.
I replaced the carb in my Deere a few years ago, but last year it started starting a little more rough the year before. Time for a cleaning this year. Can confirm the sheer satisfaction of a new rebuild.
Another option for cleaning carb part is to soak it in Pinesol, works pretty good.
That’s the power of Pine-Sol, Baby!
is this for real?
Yes, it works great
I like that filter! You could get flare fittings and flare the hard lines. Or cut them back and use a short section of rubber fuel line and hose clamps.
After draining the tank you can try putting a gallon of diesel fuel in it and shake (if possible.) That worked well on a 66 Mustang that sat over 30 years. It was nice the tank had a drain plug.
No hose clamps for fuel under pressure please. It’s just not worth the risk.
The shaking works quite well if you can get an assistant to help shake the tank, and throw a chunk of log chain with the diesel to rattle around in there. It’s amazing what that will knock loose.
I once saw Derek on Vice Grip Garage show his DIY gas tank cleaning method: a jug of CLR, a pound or so of hex nuts, and vigorous shaking.
Mercedes, please, take the advice of a diesel tech that got cancer at 34, use nitrile gloves for this kind of thing and save yourself.
Arguably worse than the cancer is the fact that I’m a 36 year old that has to constantly moisturize their hands all winter long, lest they crack and bleed. Many years of Brake Kleen and other chemicals ate away the fat cells in the skin of my hands. SAVE YOURSELF!
With that PSA out of the way, excellent work! I’ll echo others here and suggest investing in an ultrasonic cleaner. They have a great many uses.
For the fuel filter, why not install something akin to a Ford or GM inline filter? They made them to be connected to hard lines and the simple metal construction would look the part. Sure, you can’t see the contents, but if you just change it regularly you’ll probably be fine.
Nitrile gloves also help prevent dirt and grease under the fingernails, which is probably in the top 5 worst things about working on cars, right after stuck bolts, rust flakes in the eye, and missing 10mm sockets.
Probably also save your sink from looking disgusting.
One of the reasons my auto tech career didn’t last long was that I kept getting migraines in reaction to the chemicals. To this day, I wear a paint respirator to use brake clean (the miracle parts cleaner, TBH) and even then if I don’t have enough ventilation I could still end up with issues the next day. As a hobbyist DIYer, it’s increasing not worth the trouble.
Oh my! Ok, I will definitely do that the next time. Thank you so much for the advice! As you can probably see in the photos, I had exam gloves on early during the cleaning. The Chem-Dip melted through them and I just continued on without the gloves. In hindsight, the fact that the gloves melted should have keyed me to the idea that I shouldn’t get that stuff on my hands.
So, yeah, you have great advice there!
I’ve also seen those in-line fuel filters out there for metal lines. I was looking for something I could see into. Back when I used to revive motorcycles I used clear filters and kept swapping them until the output from the tank became clean. Of course, those bikes used rubber lines, which were easy to snip and add a filter into.
In this case, I might just end up with one of those metal filters and just monitor it regularly. Thank you!
No personal experience, but Derek of Vice Grip Garage strenuously warns against the cool-looking tubular see-through in-line fuel filters. Looked like anodized aluminum to me. Says they invariably leak.
I always used the see-through plastic ones in accessible but cool places. And always carried at least 2 spares when first putting a car on the road after a few years cause they’ll gunk up quickly one you hit a few bumps and free up the junk in the tank.
Come to think of it, if the Plymouth still has its stock fuel pump then there should be a filter with a glass sediment bowl built into the bottom of the pump itself. If not, then the easiest way to add a filter would be to replace whatever pump it has with a correct one.
How hard is it to pull the fuel tank? If access is easy enough, just send the tank to a rad shop to get properly steamed, then just flush the feed line and enjoy your vintage motoring!
I was a block honing monkey for several years and after reading the SDS on the honing oil and saying to myself “what the hell is defatting of the skin cells?!” I religiously started wearing gloves even though all the guys made fun of me.
When I worked in a machine shop I got so much shit for wearing gloves when running the waterjet and the Blanchard grinder.
Way to take care of yourself. I was also mocked for wearing a mask when using a grinder, but blowing blue boogers ain’t healthy for anyone.
Exactly. I had to carry a card to alert emergency personnel that because I was running the waterjet, I may have a antibiotic resistant infection. But wearing gloves was a weak move, haha.
Also, if that water bottle wedged under the computer monitor has gasoline in it, do me a favor – find another type of container. I have a family member that used to work investigating poisonings and she has some nightmare stories about people re-using food and beverage containers and someone else in the household getting really sick or killed by what was actually now inside.
When my daughter used to race Quarter Midgets back in the day (Early 2000’s). We had a night race and my idiot Father in Law, put gas in a Gatorade bottle on our pit cart without telling me. In the dark, I picked it up and took a big swig, it was pretty horrible and ended up in the ER. Never a good idea to store gas in anything like that.
I once woke up super hungover at a festival, grabbed the first bottle of water I saw, and took a big swig.
As it hit the back of my throat I remembered how I’d had to decant a glass bottle of vodka into a water bottle. Yep, that was the one I’d grabbed.
Somehow I kept it down, and it did seem to help my hangover….
Good call on the gloves. Back in the autobody days, my bosses fingers often looked like what would happen if bratwursts that were left on the grill too long also bled.
Hah, not to brag or anything, but I had to moisturize my hands even way before I started as a mechanic. Sure, it jumped up a notch from the brake cleaners and such, but my hands were pretty dry already. Plus the cold climate and the everlasting wind made it worse.
Skip the harsh chemicals next time- the best answer I’ve ever seen for cleaning nasty old carbs is a cheap harbor freight ultrasonic cleaner, filled with Simple Green and water. I was so surprised the first time I did that to an old motorcycle carb, and it came out shiny as could be, and completely clean. I have a colleague who rebuilds old motorcycles, chainsaws, and other small engine equipment as a side hustle, and he says he will never go back to chemdip or carb cleaner.
Yes, ultrasonic tanks are amazing. I use one at work every day to clean stainless hospital surgical instruments. It works fast and well and can be non-toxic if you use the right solutions.
That’s a great idea! I’ve been meaning to buy one of those, now is a great time to pull the trigger! I hear those are great for cleaning basically anything you can fit into them.
An ultrasonic parts washer should have been David Tracy’s best wedding gift. It would help maintain Elise (not her real name)’s sanity. Being a spouse is hard work.
I fully agree with the Simple Green as the chemical. Even if it takes a bit longer to get things done, it’s worth it for health reasons. I keep a gallon jug of it around. I also have the spray bottle of it too.
I need to get an ultrasonic cleaner. it’s time. I think I got a crappy one for my wife’s jewerly many years ago, but it was worthless.
I’m going to buy one now. Thanks.
I could be very wrong, but I would guess that Dawn Powerwash would be effective on the stuff that needs to be removed without destroying the more delicate bits. It has proven to be both Powerfully effective and also gentle in other applications around my home. But I haven’t used it on anything under a hood.
Probably would be, yes. Simple Green is pretty gentle too, and is supposed to be safe for people too. I’ve heard the founder would drink some when he would pitch the product early on. I’ve also never seen it but any rubber or metals, even when I’ve forgotten things in the washer.
I was thinking about this and I bet those fuel lines aren’t that bad at all. Six or so years actually isn’t that terrible and it was pretty warm where Willie lived so possibly less condensation?
Maybe toss in a bottle of fuel system cleaner and with the starter run fuel straight out of the carb lead and into a container with no back pressure as a crude flush to see what comes out?
It would be best to use flare connections under the hood given fuel under pressure and vibration. You never see any of my offers for anything, but if you need help with flares, I’ll be happy to share my hands and flaring tool. However, it’s really not that difficult and YouTube is your friend. You should also probably have a quality flare tool and learn because well, brakes… Also a cheap tubing bender really helps, especially when you’re a novice.
Finally, if any crud did show upon flush, I’d then wonder if the fuel line comes off the tank easily? If yes, brake cleaner cleans out almost anything.
Anyway, why the fuck am I given you advice when you have slack access to DT and Handsome Goose? I’m such a know it all fool, but in my defense, I am genuinely trying to be helpful. lol
I’ll second ‘quality flare tool’. I used those clamp ones for years, but now have a ratcheting Ridgid one and the difference is vast.
I went straight for a good one from the start and was very glad I did.
I bought: Ares 18025 which is single size only (3/16), but works well in tight spaces.
There’s also the friction ones available at HVAC supply houses: they work quite well for stuff over 1/2”.
To be fair, quality clamp-type can do a decent job, but the cheap chrome ones from the box stores are just an exercise in frustration
Yeah it’s funny just how much quality a double flare requires and how fast it reveals a cheap tool. Just how fast can this cheap tool twist some tubing? lol
Handsome Goose… soo right. We aren’t supposed to point stuff like this out, but got dang is SMG a handsome dude.
I know. I like him so much, but just hate looking at him. 😉
Every time I see him in an article I think he should have the Handsome Boy Modeling School album playing to accompany his great stories.
I really hope he’s not offended in any way. I certainly mean none and I’m pretty sure he knows I’m not hitting on him, no matter how tempting.
“I can almost taste the engine running.”
Well, they say to watch your “carbs”…
“Plymouth Rock” That’s perfect! I love that meme where they’re getting off the ship and there’s a rock shaped like a car and it says:
“Pilgrims land on Plymouth Rock”
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/plymouth-rock–372039619188947387/
Great work Mercedes! This is so awesome…what an amazing car
OTH, a Plymouth Rock rooster was the meanest chicken on the farm we moved to when I was 15 and one day it spurred its way up my dad’s leg and ended up shredded up for dinner that night. Tasty, but it was probably the sauce my mom drenched it in.
The carbs in my ’67 VW squareback turned out to be the wrong ones, even though I drove with them for decades. I had two other pairs of carbs from my brother and a friend that I had for decades too. I finally got over the trepidation of carbs, and did a lot of research to find that the jets differed left to right due to the asymetrical air filter. Taking them apart to their bits and pieces to find that I had all the right jets, bits, and pieces to result in two proper carbs! Once I got over the trepidation, I understand the zen of cleaning and assembly. Once installed they worked great!
.1
Does Willie read the site? Is he a member? If he doesn’t read the site or doesn’t have Internet, how can we get his these updates to his well loved cars?
As far as I’m aware, Willie does not go on the Internet. Sadly, most of his cars disappeared into the hands of an unknown gentleman from Mexico, so we may never hear about those. One Autopian reader did save a DeSoto and SWG has a 2CV that he has to write about.
That said, it’d be nice to get a Willie update once or twice a year. Just to at least see how he is doing.
Those of us that were involved stay in touch and have discussed having a little meetup at his house sometime in the future, potentially bringing some of the cars that were purchased and the trailer I bought from him.
This is good to hear. 🙂 🙂 🙂
“Just what in the world is this? It wasn’t moving and it didn’t appear to be alive. I never really got close enough to sniff it either, but it didn’t have a stench or anything. But I’ve never seen anything like this before, so it was sort of freaky to me.“
I’m pretty sure that’s rodent bedding and turds!
Sure looks like a mouse house.
Looks more like insect legs and the occasional thorax to me. Whatever, glad it didn’t make it past the carb.
“The car also rolls straight and true with tighter steering than some more modern vehicles I’ve driven.”
This is not the first time I’ve heard this RE a ’40s Chrysler product, they handled exceptionally well for the era, the early death of Walter P. Chrysler was probably the worst thing that ever happened to the company, even worse than the merger of unequals that ultimately destroyed it
Agree. Have you read “The Dodge Brothers: The Men, The Motor Cars, and The Legacy”? If not, based on your historical Chrysler knowledge I think you may find it fascinating.
No, but I should
All I know about the Dodge Brothers is those weird TV ads they ran a couple of years ago. And that’s probably all apocryphal.
I’ll look into this book. There are probably interesting books about the Fords and some people on the GM side of things.
Great progress! A 1948 P-15 Plymouth Special Deluxe was my daily driver from high school through college (1986-1991), then came back out at various times when I needed a backup car. I even lapped the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in it!
https://itisgood.org/auto-biography/#48Plymouth
These are wonderful, reliable, easy-to-fix, quality-built machines. I remember the pleasure of working on them well. Sounds like Willie took good care of it. Enjoy…
Ha! I lapped the IMS in a Datsun B210 owned by the daughter of a PR person for that site and her father who covered the Indy 500 for the Indianapolis Star. At that time, they would take people around the track in a Ford shuttle van like you’d take to an airport car parking lot. This would have been in the early mid-80s. I was NOT allowed to pass the van. I’m sure her parents have passed, but I wonder what happened to her. She was really cute.
You have experience. I bet with a little knowledge this thing fires right up!
Fantastic work, Mercedes! Can’t wait for first start. Bravo!
So was that your wife’s “old” toothbrush before or after you started scrubbing the carb?
Before! 🙂 She just bought an electric toothbrush so that one mysteriously disappeared from the bathroom.
And yes, the tiny desk I use for work is also my workbench. My wife puts up with a lot of crazy.
…and that’s why we love them. 🙂
I like the name! This car already rocks.
Those glass filters though, those are the ones Derek of Vice Grip Garage likes to say, “Start more fires than ex-wives.”
Dang it! I’ll take another look at the fuel pump. Maybe the inlet hose is rubber. If so, I’ll use a classic in-line filter.
Fuel fires in old cars like this tend to be the result of old, leaky cork and paper gaskets. I think as long as it has a modern silicone gasket you’ll be fine.
If it turns out to all be hard line, you can still splice into it. You can even borrow my tubing cutter.
I’ve never had a problem with glass sediment bowls but there are filters of similar design for use with hard lines that have metal bowls instead.
I’ve got two of these, the Carter 3405, for my Travelall, with metal and a glass bowls. I’m currently looking for a rebuild kit, but they are hard to find; I’d guess the bellows inside isn’t manufactured anymore.
Wasn’t he talking about the aluminum cylindrical ones, not the old bowl type?
That’s my memory, but I could be wrong.
-pretty sure he didn’t replace the bowl on the Ford tractor at his place
You know what, you’re right. I got that wrong.
A few months ago, someone on this site explained why I used to see so many VW Beetle fires back in the late 70s. Fabric wrapped rubber fuel lines or something like that. My garage, when I had an ill-bought BMW Bavaria always smelled like raw gasoline. Anyway, be careful!
There are fewer things more satisfying than taking an hour or two and cleaning up a grotty old carburetor, rebuilding it with new parts, and slapping it back on the engine. This can lead to a sense of god-level superiority when the engine fires up and runs like it should; it can also lead to an overwhelming sense of self-loathing and despair if it doesn’t.
Your carb is pretty basic, and should be an easy job. I did a Holley 2300 last summer and got it running reliably after eight-plus years of hibernation. You got this!