FJ60 Carburetor Issues? Potentially an easy fix with the help of a skilled/seasoned veteran

[jiggyman]

I have an '84 FJ60. I replaced all the suspension on the vehicle because I was having some death wobble issues. There was still a little looseness in the steering, potentially a sttering gear box issue?!?! Not really sure. But nonetheless, I found a local mechanic who had it for about 5-6 weeks. Says he couldn't source parts but did in fact find a leak in the transfer case and that the front drive shaft seal was leaking. When I dropped it off, the vehicle ran great. It didn't start great, but once it was started, it was a nice pur. Figured the carb needed some rebuild love at some point. When I just went to pick it up, the car wouldn't start, which was typical. So we shot it with some starter fluid and it started, then immediately died. We worked on this for almost 2hrs to no avail. While we were trying to get it to stay running the fuel pump started spewing gas everywhere. After a quick trip to Autozone, we replaced the fuel pump and went back at it. Removed the gas line from the carb and the fuel pump was pumping it up, but the carb wasn't getting gas. Possibly something blocking the line from letting the gas in? Fuel filters were clean and working fine. Looked in the sightglass, and nothing. No gas. When you put a little gas in the carb, it runs until that gas is gone. So there's something that is restricting the gas from coming into the carb, and I can't figure it out. I have a rebuild kit, so i'm great with rebuilding, but after getting two bolts off, the two on the valve cover side is where I near lost my salvation. I have a 12mm wrench that I cut down and grinded down the sides to give me plenty of room to remove them bolts. But before I pass the point of no return I figured i'd ask......am I missing something?!?! Is there something else I can try? I've tapped with a mallet, sprayed with carb cleaner and manually worked all the moving parts. I'm guessing my ultimate issue is a stuck float or clogged jet, but those are just guesses. Any help from the experienced grease monkey would be much appreciated.

 

[micruz60]

Try an Okie carb rebuild?

Remove air filter box, use a piece of clean cardboard cut to fit over threaded post- and while engine is running , clampdown (by hand), the cardboard over the air intake of the carburetor thereby starving the engine of air and stalling it. This may ‘pull’ the obstruction through it’s passage?

 

[orbittron]

Sounds like you really need to rebuild the carb. There's probably old build up/ gummed up fuel and other crud in there from old gas. The 12mm nuts on the carb studs are a PIA, but doable with patience.

 

[MDH33]

Sounds like a stuck float valve, which you'll be replacing when you rebuild the carb.

 

[Pighead]

You don't need to take the whole carb off the manifold to get to the float and needle valve. You can just pull the top off the carb...

 

[jiggyman]

So I went ahead and rebuilt the carb. Getting the carb would have been very difficult if I hadn't have cut down my 12mm wrench. Simply cut it in half and was a piece of cake at that point. Just excercised patience when loosening and tightening the bolts as there wasn't much room for wrench travel.

Needle valve was caked up with black tar looking goop. Cleaned everything, got it all back up and running/starting, and it's now needing a good adjustment. Since i'm in the middle of a move across the country, any tools I have to registering/seeing RPM's is packed up. So taking it to a shop here locally so they can tune and adjust the carburetor properly.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[Spike Strip]

One of these 12mm Snap On dissy wrenches makes this job way easier. They're around $10 used on ebay. I put them in a vise and bend them just a little more and grind a little off the sides of the head and it's a Snap! (bad pun, yes ).

Just for peoples coming across this thread in the future...

S6163