I have heard, not to say that I heard correctly, that the tri-carb set up of the original Corvettes was too much carburetor for normal daily driving. The three carbs proved their worth when demanding performance, but the original Corvettes were not built for speed or handling. Because the tri-carb was too much for daily driving and too temperamental, many owners converted to a standard 235 single carb manifold and mothballed the triple set up. Supposedly, this is why you can occasionally find a Corvette tri-carb rig all by itself as a barn find. Could be completely untrue, but that's what I've been told.
My hunch that more were contributed to the number of barn finds by being purchased as dealer accessories to bolt on to non-Corvette 235's than by being stripped and mothballed, but who knows. On a similar note, the Corvette split manifolds that were sold as dealer accessories supposedly way outnumbered the ones that were actually attached to Corvettes and that's why these can still be found, still rare but more common that the triple rig.
Matt
Matt - the Carter YH could be tempermental (NOT the fault of the carburetor). Somewhere, and I cannot find it, I did a major article on the YH. When I find it, will post on my website. Until then:
(1) Four distinct and DIFFERENT generations of the YH, and many parts WERE/ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!!!
(2) After the genuine Carter kits for the Corvette dried up in the 1950's, THERE WERE NO KITS WITH THE CORRECT GASKETS UNTIL WE REPRODUCED THEM ABOUT 1980!!!!!
(3) Same thing is true for the Corvette fuel valves. The gaskets and valves in the FLAPS kits were simply WRONG!
Corvette YH carbs with the wrong bowl cover gasket and especially the wrong fuel valve (orifice too large) tended to flood, and spill gas on the engine. NOT the carbs fault that the owner or mechanic used the incorrect parts.
Same reason that the Dearborn carbs can be found; fuel leakage on a boat, FOR ANY REASON, is unacceptable.
The YH's were not too much carb for the Corvette. Back when we still had time to restore carbs, did several sets, always with happy customers.
Jon.
