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- Apr 14, 2004
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Its no secret that good cores are getting harder to come by. Gotta start with good bones and go from there, just like with the rigs. I bought this core a few weeks ago on the forum, advertised as a '71. It had the bellcrank for the early'70s that the cable hooks directly to. I could tell just from the pics that it was likely a composite carb, but I thought the bones were good, so I pulled the trigger.
Got the core and sure enough the date code starts with a 1. Now that could be '71, '81 or '91. But that, along with the bellcrank would be enough for most to assume that it was a '71.
I started disassembling the carb, wondering why the throttle body had an idle speed screw only found on a Cali-spec 1974. Then I realized that the bellcrank wasn't shiny like most of the linkage; it was bare metal. wait a minute: so is the Throttle Positioner. And so is the cap screw above the needle and seat. And so is the accelerator pump lift rod!
One of the bolts that holds the fuel bowl to the throttle body is too short, and the other is missing. Flip the core over and release the hollow screw from the bottom and it is a complete screw, no shoulder. Finally the light bulb goes off: this IS a 1974 Cali-spec carb that someone has gone through the trouble to remove the EGR plate from and retrofitted to 1971 specs.
THAT would have required changing the screw. And the bolts. And the lift rod. And the throttle positioner. AND it would require removing the banjo line above the float seat. It's not an easy retrofit, but it obviously can be done, and was done.
I thought about returning it to Cali-spec, as I have all the parts on hand to do so. But there isn't a lot of call for 1974 Cali-spec carbs. So I decided to finish the retrofit, in a way only I can. I opened the unobtainium vault.
Locating the fuel bowl hardware was easy. Same for the Throttle Positioner. I looked in the box of cap screws and found that I still had a couple of NOS ones. I got a little stash of NOS belllcranks from the middle east recently, and I knew for sure that I had an NOS lift rod in the vault. So it was time to have some fun.
Got the core and sure enough the date code starts with a 1. Now that could be '71, '81 or '91. But that, along with the bellcrank would be enough for most to assume that it was a '71.
I started disassembling the carb, wondering why the throttle body had an idle speed screw only found on a Cali-spec 1974. Then I realized that the bellcrank wasn't shiny like most of the linkage; it was bare metal. wait a minute: so is the Throttle Positioner. And so is the cap screw above the needle and seat. And so is the accelerator pump lift rod!
One of the bolts that holds the fuel bowl to the throttle body is too short, and the other is missing. Flip the core over and release the hollow screw from the bottom and it is a complete screw, no shoulder. Finally the light bulb goes off: this IS a 1974 Cali-spec carb that someone has gone through the trouble to remove the EGR plate from and retrofitted to 1971 specs.
THAT would have required changing the screw. And the bolts. And the lift rod. And the throttle positioner. AND it would require removing the banjo line above the float seat. It's not an easy retrofit, but it obviously can be done, and was done.
I thought about returning it to Cali-spec, as I have all the parts on hand to do so. But there isn't a lot of call for 1974 Cali-spec carbs. So I decided to finish the retrofit, in a way only I can. I opened the unobtainium vault.
Locating the fuel bowl hardware was easy. Same for the Throttle Positioner. I looked in the box of cap screws and found that I still had a couple of NOS ones. I got a little stash of NOS belllcranks from the middle east recently, and I knew for sure that I had an NOS lift rod in the vault. So it was time to have some fun.
)
