My arch-nemesis CARBURETRON (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 14, 2007
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11
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104
Location
Denver, CO
Well, it's final. The old carburetor needs rebuilt.

I put up a couple of threads trying to figure out why the ol' lady wouldn't pass emissions, but recent testing shows it could be nothing but the (massively oversupplied) carburetor. A mechanic buddy suggests a broken float, as the sight glass is full-up. Thus, I need to know about the rebuild.

I have never rebuilt, tuned, or generally done anything more than look at a carburetor before. My experience includes suspension installs, t-cases, and lots of interior and body work, but nothing so exacting as the carb. While I have heard of the illustrious "Jim C,"--and no offense to him, cause what I have heard is all very good--I prefer to do my own work, or at least be able to talk face-to-face to whosever doing it.

What I want to know is, what am I getting into? Adelaide (my 1987 FJ60, by the way) is my DD and I cannot afford to have her out of comission for too long. What kind of time commitment am I looking at? I don't have a whole lot of experience...but I do have friends. With experience. And tools. IS IT WORTH IT?

ETC. ETC.

Thanks for putting up with yet another basic newbie rant, and for your help in advance,

johnbill
 
Taking apart and reassembling a carburetor is not hard assuming you approach it with a certain amount of patience and clear thinking. If the carburetor is excessively fouled or dirty and requires industrial strength chemicals to clean it up, this is more difficult for the non-professional. If the carburetor requires adjustment of linkages, etc., you will need special tools which cost almost as much as the JimC rebuild.

The first step is to purchase the toyota factory manual for the 2F engine. This has procedures for disassembly, assembly and adjustment of the carburetor. You should read the procedure two or three times BEFORE attempting to rebuild.

If you want to get the truck back on the road quickly, you will need to have on hand all the parts you may need. The rebuild kit includes gaskets and other small parts but does not include the secondary diaphragm nor the float or other "reusable parts".

Before removing the carburetor from the truck you should mark the location of all the vacuum hoses, etc., and take digital pictures or draw sketchs or something like that. I use lables made for electrical wires and label both the vacuum hose and the carburetor port with the corresponding label. However, if you need to deep clean the carb, you might loose the markings, and that's why I recommend taking pictures after you've marked the hoses.

My carb is not too dirty or corroded, so I just use spray carb cleaner to clean the inside as I take it apart. Take notice of where each part goes and pay attention to what parts use washers and what parts don't.

Another option would be to purcahse a used carb and rebuild that one at your leisure, then you can do a quick swap and not have to worry about having your truck out of commission for a long time.
 
If you wait it out a bit, you can pick up a spare carb on eBay for les than $100 usually, plus about $35-40 for a rebuilt kit. I think I got one (in an orange box) that even had a secondary diaphragm with it. You can rebuilt at your leisure, plus the tricky part of reconnecting all the linkages properly will be a snap because you will still have your original carb to compare it to. It's not a real complicated job to rebuild the stock carb. Get a FSM and make sure not to lose or break any small parts.
 
Der rebuild

Is it possible to buy those "reusable parts" separately, as in from a dealership or friendly neighborhood parts store? CCOT had a rebuild kit for around $40, and if I could get the rest together, then I'll definitely do it myself.

chitown40, I have most definitely considered rebuilding a second so I could keep the old girl running as a DD. But as a buddy says "The thing about used carburetors is, you've already got ONE of them right here." You got any hints on buying a used one that is in good enough shape to be rebuilt?

Finally--and I'll search the forums--but anybody wanna sell me that 2F engine manual? (Or a used carb?) The fellas at my local dealership are not what you would call "on the ball."

Thanks again everybody--I'd be stuck without the forum.
 
johnbill,

i too have a fear of carburetors. if you've never rebuilt one before, the stock 2F carb in my opinion wouldn't be the one to learn on. i would either bite the bullet and have have someone knowledgeable rebuild yours, or buy a brand new OE carb. i agree with the notion of "why buy a used carb when you already have one" mentality.

if you still want to rebuild yours yourself and minimize downtime, i'd get a brand new carb and then at your leisure rebuild your old one. if this were a '69 camaro with a 4 barrel Rocester or Holley carb, then i'd say rebuild it; piece of cake but the 2F carb is a can of worms.

just my two cents...
 
For the FSM, I would either find a local dealer than gives cruiserheads a C-Dan-like discount, or just call Dan directly at American Toyota. The good thing about buying directly from Dan is that you get the correct parts the first time. If you order over $100 worth of stuff shipping is usually free. As far as a carb kit is concerned, I've only used Keyster brand kits in the past. I got a carter brand once, but the accelerator pump was the incorrect size. I don't recall if I got it from one of the Toyota vendors or from eBay, but there is a Keyster kit available on eBay now for about $25.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...om:80/?from=R40&satitle=280105622311%09&fvi=1

Personally, I would just get a kit and a secondary diaphragm from a reputable cruiser vendor for piece of mind that you'll have the right parts.

As far as finding a used carb, I just waited it out looking on eBay or for folks parting out rigs on MUD here and snatched a couple up for about $75 or less. When you have a couple spares, you can usually find good parts among the group and you'll have the spares should you need them down the road. But, it is a crap shoot when you buy off of a picture only. Just don't spend too much since you're going to be tearing it down anyway. The other option is to spend $300 on a rebuilt one from eBay and just keep yours for a spare for parts, etc. It all depends on your time, and how much $$ you want to spend. I personally like to rebuild my own -- its part of the whole cruiser owner thing.
 
johnbill,

i too have a fear of carburetors. if you've never rebuilt one before, the stock 2F carb in my opinion wouldn't be the one to learn on. i would either bite the bullet and have have someone knowledgeable rebuild yours, or buy a brand new OE carb. i agree with the notion of "why buy a used carb when you already have one" mentality.

if you still want to rebuild yours yourself and minimize downtime, i'd get a brand new carb and then at your leisure rebuild your old one. if this were a '69 camaro with a 4 barrel Rocester or Holley carb, then i'd say rebuild it; piece of cake but the 2F carb is a can of worms.

just my two cents...

I'm going to disagree with you, but still respect your opinion here. ;) It all depends what you're used to. The first carb I ever rebuilt was a stock Aisin carb and I found it pretty easy. The only tricky part is remembering which way the linkiages go, and thats what picures and a FSM are for. After rebuilding a few Aisins, I pulled my quadrajet off on my old 40 and rebuilt that. The q-jet was more intimidating IMOP.

If you have any mechanical aptitude, a carb rebuild shouldn't be a headache at all. If you have grizzly bear paws and are farsighted, it might be more of a challenge. :D
 
Is it possible to buy those "reusable parts" separately, as in from a dealership or friendly neighborhood parts store?


Finally--and I'll search the forums--but anybody wanna sell me that 2F engine manual? (Or a used carb?) The fellas at my local dealership are not what you would call "on the ball."

Thanks again everybody--I'd be stuck without the forum.

Check the www.sor.com web site. They have exploded views of the carb and show what individual parts they sell. A lot of what SOR sells you can get through the dealer. I will post the OEM parts exploded view later tonight. If you identify what you want, check with Cruiserdan for OEM prices.

Regarding the manuals, there is a phone number you can call to order manunals directly from Toyota. See the thread below. Post 5 has the phone number. Post 9 I list all the manuals I have for my 1985 FJ60. The 2F engine manual is the same for all FJ60 model years. If you don't have it, and are keeping your smog equipment, I also highly recommend the emissions manual.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=71781
 
It's really not that hard, i used the kit from SOR.
-It takes about 7 or 8 hours. I just let mine soak for a while, so if you scrubbed it, you could knock maybe an hour and half off.
-If you decide to take the carb's top half off first, have another person help, and go real slow and watch for anything popping out. Somehow, I almost dropped a check valve BB down the manifold.
-That, and when you are setting the carb back on, there is this throttle shaft that runs to the front of the car. It operates some lower front diaphragm or something. It can flip 180 degrees from one side of the carb to the other with the carb off. Make sure it's flipped to the same side as when you took it off. Other than that, you should be good.
 
If the bowl if full, just fix the float or needle valve first. For sure having the bowl too full will make it run rich.

The float and needle valve are easy to get at because you only have to take the top cover off. If you disassemble it and rebuild it, you stand a pretty good chance of screwing it up if you don't pay attention to detail.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
 
Here's the exploded view of the carb. Anything with a number was available at the dealer at one time...
carb exploded view.JPG
 
Having JimC rebuild a second carb is the safest way even though it may seem expensive. If you read threads of folks who have had this done you'll see results like "never ever ran this good".

Before I learned about MUD I had a local "rebuilder" do the one on my '83. Claims he tested it on a "bench motor" that turned out to be a HonDaToy 4cyl that might have powered a generator at some time. The butterfly didn't even close all the way (one of the original problems) so it wouldn't let my '83 idle. Some perfeshanal rebuilder!

An old mechanical engineer friend of mine once told me his one-word carb rebuild motto after I was having problems on my Fiat 124 after rebuilding the carb: "Dont!".

It ain't rocket science, but if you could do a perfect job with a manual & a screwdriver there would be no authentic, professional rebuilders.
 

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