The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Carter fuel filter

Hello. My 54 3100 came equipped with a Carter inline fuel filter. You can kind of see it in the picture here . Although the glass bowl is orange in the picture, it cleaned up nicely.

The problem I have is that I can't seem to find a filter element for it. The online vendors carry elements for the inline filters they carry, but I can tell from their pictures that their inline filters have a much shorter glass bowl than my Carter bowl. All of the local parts stores can't seem to help me. I did find one post awhile back that said NAPA part 3943 did the trick, but it wasn't clear to me if that person has the same one I do. Does anyone else have this inline filter? If so, where are you getting your filter elements from?

Also, I'm curious if the Carter on this filter bowl is the same Carter that makes the YF carburetor. I thought it was interesting to see Carter on my fuel filter yet the carb on my truck is a Rochester.

Greg,

I'm not real familiar with these things, but have always figured that this was actually a sediment bowl, and other than a very fine brass screen on the top, it had no filter element per se.

Stuart

Yes, it's the same company that makes the carburetors, and yes, there's a porous ceramic filter element. IIRC, the filter element is supposed to be held up against the metal housing by a spring to the bottom of the glass bowl. Most people just clean the ceramic filter with a blast of air in the reverse flow direction. The company's slogan used to be "The ABC's of carburetion- - - -Always Buy Carter!"
Jerry

Carter made SEVERAL of these glass bowl filter with SEVERAL different ceramic elements. These are so close in size and appearance that we finally gave up trying to sell the elements.

As HRL says, try the compressed air on your existing element, but try bathing it in lacquer thinner first. The lacquer thinner does a good job of dissolving the gum/varnish/residue from the fuel.

Jon.

Thanks for the responses guys. My problem is that the truck came with nothing in the glass bowl! I have no ceramic element, spring, or brass screen.

Judging by the way it looks I'm thinking carbking and Hotrod Lincoln are right--I don't see how a small brass screen would secure to the cap.

So where can I find a ceramic element and spring that will fit? What did you all think about that NAPA part 3943? Any help you could give would be appreciated. I'd hate to buy a new/repo inline fuel filter just because I can't find an element for my original one.

Greg - will take another try at this one. My first post was done when I was in a hurry.

Carter produced at least 6 different versions of these glass bowl filters, each taking a different ceramic filter. These filters may vary in one dimension or another by less than an eighth of an inch. Unless you KNOW SPECIFICALLY BY PART NUMBER which filter you need, and find an N.O.S. one in the box, your chances of matching up the filter are about 1 in 25 (other companies also made their own versions, with ceramic filters). While various of the filter elements regularly show up on Ebay, the springs virtually never show up. There are about 10 variations on Ebay now. Try the search - Carter ceramic filter - and check the box to search descriptions as well as titles. But you may purchase several before you get lucky, and there is still the spring.

We restore these things, but currently out, and won't have any done at least for 1 year, so figure I can get by on here mentioning the restoration, since we have none for sale.

We acquire used units, and when we have accumulated 75 to 100, we sort them, and then restore all of a given type at the same time, sending all of the steel pieces to an electroplater, and painting the zinc alloy with epoxy paint; and replacing the original leaky cork gaskets with a modern neopreme. Doing 10 or more allows us to take the time to determine which element is used; and then when they are sold, we inform the customer of the part number of the element. This allows the customer to watch Ebay and other places to acquire additional elements.

Suggestions - depending on what you are trying to do:

A) The cheapest and best solution is a modern inline filter at your local parts house!!! The ceramic filter does filter out large grasshoppers (and small birds), and yes, if you have one with the Carter Magna-trap, it will filter out rust. But the ceramic filter was obsoleted in the 1960's because the paper filters did/do a better job plus they are cheaper, and don't break when accidentally dropped!

B) If you want the glass bowl unit with ceramic element for "looks of the period", try to find a COMPLETE unit, either at a swap meet or on Ebay, and restore it. There is a complete 1950's unit on Ebay right now for about 50 bucks, which is a decent price. If you are going for looks, the deeper bowls were used in the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's. There are also some of the shallow bowl versions on Ebay in the 30 buck range. These were used in the very late 1950's and early 1960's before the paper filter obsoleted them.

C) Another method of acquiring a glass bowl filter with PAPER element is visit your local auto parts store. Purolater had them as late as a few years ago, I haven't checked lately. The tops are the wrong color for the 1950's look, but red paint is cheap.

Jon.

Thanks Jon for a wonderful explanation/writeup on this topic. It is disappointing to find out that it will be difficult to get the right element, not to mention the spring. What is your take on NAPA part 3943, "Fuel Filter (Gold)"? It looks like it could fit on there the right way.. although I'm guessing you still need the spring. I can always get one of the AC inline filters from the various vendors or local parts stores, but it would be nice to use the filter that originally came with the truck.

Greg - I do not know if NAPA 3943 would fit, but I doubt it. The spring would be mandatory.

Jon.

I cant help you with the filter# even though im using one each on both my '54s,,but,when i needed a spring i went to ACE hardware and dug thru their spring assortment and came up with a really close to original one.
I doubt if anyone is going to look THAT close at my fuel filter to see the difference.........
Marty

Thanks for the ACE hardware tip Marty.

I think I'm going to check out that NAPA part and see if it will work. I'll be sure to report back if it does (BTW, here is the original post where I found the reference to this part).

If the part doesn't fit then I'll probably end up getting one of the bowl-type filters from one of the vendors. I'm not trying to win any awards, but I'd like it to look and work as close to stock as possible.

My '46 didn't come with a filter, so I bought the one that Jim Carter has (the glass bowl type) and it appears that the paper filter elements are made by Delco.

Just a thought.

Just an update for anyone else has the same problem: not surprisingly, the NAPA part didn't fit. It was really really close, but not close enough. Looks like I need to eBay a complete unit or just go with the similar-looking filter from Carter's. Hold on to your ceramic bowl filters if you have em! Thanks to everyone who gave their input.