The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Langdon Holley Weber Kit Disappointment

Don't worry, I'm wearing my flameproof suit.

I bought this setup because of all the good reviews I read here. What were you thinking?

First thing I tried to install was the mount for the air cleaner. The supplied bolt is too long. ??

So I started to take a close look at it.

1. The carburetor to manifold adapter is not completely finished. The bottom, especially, is rough. Considering that I can only use two bolts in the four bolt base flange, I expect air leaks. I hate to use Gorilla Snot on carburetor gaskets, but . . .

2. The gaskets are very poorly cut. I won't be able to use any of them. No isolator gasket.

3. The linkage is unnecessarily complicated, and there are no instructions for it's assembly, except one small fuzzy picture. Even if I was masochistic enough to use the linkage, there are no jam nuts for the Heim joints. I did notice that one user recommended Loc-Tite. Heim joints should ALWAYS have jam nuts.

4. The choke. He told me I needed the electric choke and a manual choke would not work. Horsepoop. That whole choke housing is going in the trash and will be replaced by one screw-on lever for a manual choke.

On the up-side, I think the carburetor will work fine, and I like the air cleaner, except for the provided mounting stud.

My advice is to buy the carburetor, which is inexpensive. Try to get it without any choke at all. Electric chokes sound strangely like electric jokes. Why give up a whole Amp just to keep the choke open? Don't buy the new one. Buy one that has been rebuilt. Appearance will probably be better and the price is $20 less. Take a few minutes to look at it and you will probably figure out that a 3/8 inch aluminum plate, one or two bell cranks, and a little ingenuity will give you a lot better experience.

Tom, I'm sorry, but I just don't see the added value here.

I will chime in with my thoughts/comments with the H/W Carb. It has been a while since I posted so bear with me.

I agree that the linkage is unnecessarily complicated and the lack of instructions was frustrating. Using the fuzzy picture to put the puzzle together was not what I expected when I ordered the set. FWIW, I installed this carb/linkage (I still use the linkage despite its shortcomings because it works) almost 5 years ago. Sounds like it has not changed at all.

The carb works great and I concur with you on the choke. I installed a manual choke kit on the carb and it works fine. I wanted to keep things somewhat original looking on the inside despite the change. I also did not want to run any more additional wiring or the dreaded heated water hoses to make a hot water choke function. BLUF, a manual choke works fine with this carb.

I am not sure what to say about the adapter plate or the air cleaner stud. I did not have those problems. The adapter that is sent is commonly available at your FLAPS though and you may want to check with a local place to see if you can find one with more well finished ends. To maybe allay some of your fears, I do not experience any leaks at the manifold junction that you sounded concerned about.

Overall, despite the shortcomings, it is a great carb and a great setup. I did not think the shortcomings in the linkage kit were any worse than some other kits I had received (brake cyl kit) from other sources and the tech assistance that Tom provided made up for any shortfalls in spades.

No flames here, just my 2+ cents thrown in.

I had a lot of trouble with my setup until I realized the gasket was a POS between the carb and adapter. I made my own and stopped all the vacuum leaks. I still don't have the electric chokes working right. I have thought about removing them and putting a manual choke cable on it too. I ground the extra flange pieces off the adaptor and it doesn't look toooooo bad, although it is a bit 'jury rig' looking. I'm not crazy about the air cleaners (not my cup of tea) but they work fine.

The air cleaners are what just flat stops me from using the whole set up. Surely there is a a better more period correct looking air cleaner somewhere out there one could use. These look like your common sauce pans, flipped over. As successful as this set up is, it would seem that by now someone could have come up with a more period correct air cleaner.
Joe

I recently purchased a dual Fenton intake and Carter-Weber carbs set-up for a 261 engine from Langdon's Stovebolt Engine Parts Company. I discussed with Tom a more "period correct" set of air cleaners and asked about using the original spark arrestor air cleaners. Tom suggested an set of 1950s oil bath air cleaners that he would adapt to fit the Carter-Webers (uses a standard filter element but that is not apparent from the outside).

The air cleaners arrived about a week after the rest of the intake parts arrived. They look good and fit well. A very thick o-ring is the seal between the carb and the base of the air cleaner. An off-center attachment post allows for alignment of the two air cleaners.

Tom provided superb machine-made gaskets for between the carb and the 2-barrel adapter and for between the 2-barrel adapter and the intake manifold. Only two of the four "ears" on the top of the 2-barrel adapters are needed for attachment of each 2-bolt carb, so I might eventually cut off the other two "ears".

I have not yet installed the intake and carbs but I have mocked them up on a bench. The dual-carb accelerator linkage is better than I had hoped for (far better than the linkage I have for two original Rochester carbs) but I still do not see how I will hook up the accelerator control rod from the bell-crack on the block.

Even though I have had minor problems communicating with Tom Langdon (perhaps due to summer shows/displays), I am pleased with what I have seen so far. It will be early August before I will be able to install and test the two Carter-Webers set-up on the Fenton dual-carb manifold.

Tim

If I have time, I post a few photos of the air cleaners and linkage, if anyone is interested. Maybe Chris Sweet will post a few photos of his Carter-Weber linkage and fuel supply?

I would be interested in any pics of that setup. I am getting ready to order the same setup. I considered different options on the air cleaners as well. I even considered painting the Langdon cleaners black as they would hint at the oil bath look. I did not want to cut up the oil bath cleanres that I have now. I would be interested in seeing your solution as well as Sweet's. thanks Tim, G.H.

Stalkweather,

Although I think this business/hobby needs more people to step forward and report their disappointments when they buy things, I think it's vital that you contact the seller via e-mail or snail mail (so you get their response in writing) and air your grievances with them before doing anything else. Then, after you have done what you could to resolve the issue, THEN go on an open forum and report your experience giving both sides of the story... good or bad.

I had similar (if not more outrageous) problems with a disk brake kit that I purchased from CPP and they absolutely refused to acknowledge any of my complaints. I have since reported their lack of cooperation and lack of quality control several times on this forum and I've given both sides of the story.... Mine with complete details and theirs - nothing.

I talked with Tom on the phone a couple of years ago.He recommended I use the carter/webers for my 1954 261.I have the dual offenhauser intake manifold.I trial fitted the carbs and linkage he provided,no problems yet.

The air cleaners I bought are the same ones you guys have.The last couple of months,I've been thinking about doing something different.I purchased another oil bath air cleaner,so i have two.I want to fabricate an adapter plate,so i can install them on the carter/webers.Do you think the original oil bath air cleaners will be sufficient for the carbs ? Will they draw the right amount of air ?

I would like to hear more about the manual choke setup.I think it would be great to be able to hook up my original choke cable to it.

I think that Tom recommends the Carter-Webers for 261s and the Holley-Webers for the 235s.

I had used original Rochesters on my 261 with an Offenhauser intake but I sold that set up (it started immediately and ran smoothly with water heat - oddly, the carbs did not leak much).

bowtietim,

Check the diameter of the oil bath air cleaners that you have. The automobile oil bath cleaners are too wide a diameter for the Offenhauser (the carbs are too close together. The same automobile oil bath cleaners are most likely too wide for the Fenton intake, which has a greater separation between the carbs but might place the rear air cleaner too close to firewall.

Tom adapted the small-sized oil-bath air cleaners for a 1/2 ton truck for use on the Fenton intake. He cut out the bottom in a pattern to match the top of the Carter-Weber, therefore it could no longer hold the oil - he put in a modern cartridge filter.

Tim

I think the Carter Webers are a small carb originally intended for a roughly 100 ci engine and therefore recommended for dual carb applications. I think the Holley Weber is a larger 2bbl carb that he recommends for a single carb application.

So here is an outside thought. What if a person modified the original choke cable to actually run a switch to apply or remove power from the electric chokes? It would essentially make an auto choke a semi-automatic, would not have the fulltime power draw mentioned earlier and trtain a stock appearance to an extent.

The smaller oil bath air cleaners will indeed fit on Offy intake spacing. [IMG]http://thumb17.webshots.net/t/69/69/0/22/89/2922022890047579877PysoHd_th.jpg[/IMG]

Tim, I would like to see how you resolve the fender brace issue with the dual carbs and the Carter Webers. I want to put the braces back on my truck. Warren suggested swithing from side to side as they are different lengths and run at different angles as they use different bolt holes from one side to the other.

I have not even thought about how to deal with (or, without) the fender brace. I just removed it with the Rochester set-up. Maybe Sweet will remind us about how he did it.

I looked at my three trucks and their fender-to-firewall rods. The rods on each side are the same length and they attach symmetrically to the fenders/inner-fenders. However, I like Warren's idea about attaching the manifold-side rod one or two bolts rearwards (rather than bending the rod or eliminating the rod. I might have to cut and re-thread the rod but that is not a problem.

Here are some photos of the Carter-Weber "mock-up":

Carter-Weber set-up on the bench

Another view of the Carter-Weber set-up - the o-ring seal for air cleaner on right can be seen

Oil-bath air cleaner guts

i have just one question on the subject of dual carbs. do they contribute greatly to poor gas mileage???? ron BTW here is my setup. http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2828126130062793147UdBbzR

Yes, they do!
Jerry

Talking with Tom Langdon, he said the Carter Weber carbs are off of an engine that was originally 100 cid so 2 of them running on the primary side should roughly be the same carburetion as the stock 235 had with secondaries in reserve. I have heard the argument that the dual carbs actually gives better fuel distribution compared to single stock carb. You will hear some claim of a mileage increase with multiple carbs but I never checked mileage before or afterwards to be able to comment myself.

I have run a single Holley/Weber on a bone-stock 235 as well as a dual C/W setup on my current built 235+. Both installs were without any problems and the performance over the past 5000 miles has been flawless. Granted, the linkage picture requires some common sense to assemble but everything needed for the installs were included. Ditto for the electric chokes.

I find it difficult to believe that the quality of his products has declined, and with an average of 18-20 mpg at a cruising speed of 70 mph @2000 rpms I have nothing but praise for the setup. I feel it blatantly unfair to cast dispersion on a product that has performed so well for so many. Performance and mileage are directly linked to the engine build, transmission final ratio, R&P ratio and tire diameter. If you expect a carb to solve the issues of a mismatched setup, then you are going to be disappointed. However, if you've taken time to do the math, get your gearing right and want a carb setup that will provide reliability, flawless performance and good fuel economy, then the H/W or C/W's are an excellent choice. As for the breather selection...if you don't like Tom's setup don't buy it!

Dave

my rebuild has 430 miles on it and i am getting 9-12. i have dual rochesters, mini-hei and nova 2.73 rearend and a s-10 five speed. granted most of my driving is stop and go. i went to indianapolis yesterday but was on good secondary roads not interstate. ron

A properly selected and tuned multiple carb setup on a street vehicle will IMPROVE fuel economy given reasonable driving habits.

Of course, aggressive driving habits will contribute to poorer fuel economy regardless of what fuel system is employed.

Jon.

fla54cnevy3100, i am not trying to steal this post but i just went thru your albumn and it is great. i have another question, in the pictures of the insulation, did you put insulation up under the dash or just use a oem pad? i also read what you said about the air flow and i completely agree i rarely use the a/c not at all yesterday on my trip. ron

Czechman, you are essentially right, but what can he do after I complain to him? Even if he sends me another kit for free, I wouldn't use it, and I doubt that he would fabricate something for free that I would consider using.

I did several hours of research on this setup before buying it. Seemed like everything I heard was positive and I anticipated having my truck running right in a few hours. Now I think I'm looking at more than a week of fabrication and modification. Since I sold the Rochester B yesterday, I've taken a truck that ran and made it not run. That is part of the disappointment.

Unfortunately, I'm an engineer (not the kind that drives trains), and have perfectionist tendencies. I figure I will have to spend at least a day on the carburetor adaptor, even leaving all four lower ears intact. It will take at least a day to make the isolator plate between the adapter and carburetor that the bell crank and choke cable adapter will atach to.

I'm hoping I can find some '72 Vega carb base gaskets because I'm not that good at cutting gaskets.

I'll also have to spend some time finding correct connecting and mounting hardware, because nothing that came in the kit is suitable. For instance using steel nuts with built-in star washers, but no steel flat washers, to connect the carburetor to the aluminum adapter is just silly. Remove the carb a few times and you need a new adapter.

I don't know. I talked to Tom, and he talked me into buying about $80 worth of stuff that I didn't think I needed, but he's the man. Now it turns out that I didn't need it. His opinion that my engine didn't need any oil filtration system at all should have been a clue.

I'm going to post pictures of the process on webshots so you can see what I mean.

Fla54Chevy3100, I'm glad you had so much better luck and common sense. My installation is also going onto a bone stock 235 Hi Pressure engine. Single carb. Maybe another one later, but this first one is going to be a challenge.

I'd like to remind you that I bought the setup based on many people in this forum saying the same thing you did, but how do you get a look at the real thing? Nobody around here has one. My first look at the real kit was when I opened the box. Kind of hard to decide that I didn't like most of it before then.

I'm stuck with the gearing that I have. I think it is 5.73 in 4th. There's no way I will ever be able to get the truck up to 70, and no way I'll ever get 20 mpg. That's not the goal. This is a 1 ton Duallie dump truck, a 1950 3800. I just want it to run reliably, and be easy to maintain. I figure max speed will be around 50 and mileage, if I'm lucky will be 15,

The other comment about being disappointed with something that so many others have had good luck with reminds me of one of my favorite sayings from the military, "Just because you have always done something one way doesn't mean that it was ever the right way to do it."

That's not the point.

The point is both sides of the story are necessary to make a fair assessment of the situation. We would just like to know what the response is, regardless of what it is. That will tell us a lot about the merchant's business practices so we can decide if we want to deal with them.

I have a retail business that sells products that are often discussed in Internet forums. Everything I sell is unconditionally satisfaction guaranteed and when someone buys something from me that they are not happy with I simply tell them that no one can guarantee that everything they sell will be perfect, but what I CAN guarantee is that I'll jump through my a$$ to do whatever it takes to make things right... and then proceed to jump.

And you know what... it hasn't cost me a dime. To the contrary I've gained thousandss of loyal customers who put food in my mouth and a roof over my head, and speak well of me in public. I couldn't imagine treating them any other way.

Any merchant can pull something off the shelf and sell it. The true test of a merchant is what they do when things go wrong... THAT'S what we deserve to know.

All right, Czechman. I'm not a confrontational person, but I will contact Tom Langdon and tell you what he says. I just don't think he can do anything for me except give me a refund for some of the pieces I wish I hadn't bought.

Jon, I'll concede that a perfectly-tuned and properly-engineered multi-carb system can do wonders for performance, and at least equal, if not improve gas mileage. From the discussions we have here on a regular basis, I'm prone to believe that finding that mythical combination of just-right parts selection and correct tuning, and then keeping it in tune, is about as likely as finding a chicken with lips!

At various times and places, I've been the only guy in town willing and/or able to take on multi-carb setups, and make them run right, but I'm firmly convinced a good single-carb system is preferrable, especially for a daily driver that doesn't spend most of its time parked at a car show trying to impress onlookers with that sexy multi-carb system.

So far, that approach has worked on Austin-Healey, Jaguar, M.G., Honda, Triumph (car and motorcycle) Chris-Craft boats, Ford, Pontiac, Chevrolet, and a few other vehicles, with Zenith, Solex, Mikuni, Stromberg, Weber, Carter, Holley, Edelbrock, and Predator carbs.
Jerry

Posted this to Tom Langdon just now. I will also post the reply, if I get one.

"I received the Holley-Weber kit a few days ago, but didn't really start to try to put it together until two days ago.

I'm not happy.

The first part I tied to put together was the air cleaner mounting adapter. I immediately noticed that the supplied bolt is at least 1/4 inch too long. So I took a look at the rest of the kit.

1. You told me that there was no way to hook up a manual choke so I needed the electric choke. That is just not true.
2. You recommended a new carburetor instead of a rebuilt one. The carburetor I received is obviously new, but has significant corrosion issues.
3. The carburetor base gasket is unusable.
4. The adapter between the carburetor and the manifold will need considerable cleanup before it will seal. The casting inside is also porous and I'll have to figure out some way to deal with that.
5. The linkage is a mishmash of parts, with no instructions, and could easily be replaced with one bell crank.
6. The fasteners are all wrong. Heim joints without jam nuts? Never seen that before. Some of the comments I've heard say use a lot of Loc-Tite. Shouldn't be necessary. Nuts with captive star washers against aluminum? No way.

I bought this setup after reading a lot of positive comments on Stovebolt Forum. After I mentioned some of my concerns there I found that others have had similar issues, but not mentioned them. The carburetor is a great idea, but I am not happy with the accessories, and there was no way to find out without buying one."

Hotrod Lincoln, you made me think of the first engine I rebuilt. A 1962 Austin Healey Sprite with the 1 Liter engine. Dual SU carburetors. I bought a Uni-Syn to try to get them close, and it ran fine, but I didn't have any confidence, so I took it to a dealership to have it done by a professional.

About 3 months later one cylinder quit firing. It was in the middle of a trip so I kept on trucking and it was running on 2 1/2 by the end of the trip. So I popped the cylinder off and noticed that the #4 exhaust valve was missing at least 1/3 of it's skirt, and #3 wasn't much better.

Those were sodium filled valves and I think they cost about $16 apiece. Big bucks for a poor college student in 1973.

When I checked the carbs I found out that the had been adjusted so that the front SU had to open to 2/3 before the rear carb started opening. I have no idea how they did that, but I never let anyone else adjust them after that. It ran fine for years, and got nearly 40 mpg on occasion.

i just bought the same kit. though i have not installed it. it looks good to me. i dont think that i will have any real problems installing it although im sure there will be some tweaking to do.
im pretty sure that tom assumes that anyone adapting an alien
carb to a old chevy engine knows that its going to need a little spit and glue. hell the new carb is worth the 189 i gave for the whole deal. philip

I worked with Tom a few years ago on my three carb setup for my 53.
The engine is a 58 Car 235 with a 3/4 cam, HEI backed by a T5 and later rear end. Tom had the best price anywhere on the carbs at the time. He warned me I had to do some sheet metal work to make it all fit but it was worth it. the carbs bolted up with no problem and we were able to figure out the linkage. We had it running good in no time. More instructions would have been great but I didn't see it as anything I couldn't figure out. I think it's generally understood that anytime you make the departure from stock (and many times when you don't) that a certain amount of head scratching should be expected. Just to clarify is this the linkage we're talking about? Post some pictures showing your issues. I'd like to see what your talking about.

You should have had a good idea what your were going to receive by looking at the picture on Tom's site that I posted above. If from that you had further questions as to "Why it's not just a bell crank" I'm sure Tom would have addressed them or anyone here on the bolt that had installed one would have been happy to talk about it or send you pictures of their install close up.
I'm disappointing and surprised you brought this here without even a call to Tom first. Also in my experience regarding customer service issues pick up the phone not the keyboard Email is great but it's hard to get the felling for the conversation with pixels not voices. For a not confrontational guy your email to Tom sounds pretty harsh I'm sure you didn't mean it to be but once again that's how it comes across in black and white. How bout working with him not against him to resolve the issue. I have no doubt he will make it right if your reasonable about it. Tom is also an Engineer and I'm sure he'll be happy to get your feedback.

I would recommend in your case returning it all to Langdon.
Track down one of the carbs with a manual choke (or get the kit and convert it).
Build a better carb base adapter and linkage.
Document it, take pictures and share your solution with us.

"Since I sold the Rochester B yesterday, I've taken a truck that ran and made it not run. That is part of the disappointment." Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on Tom's part. If it ran so good why are you replacing it?

Just my 2¢, I ain't mad at ya'.
Steve

Well, I read everything before this and I have to step up and give "kudos" to Tom. I ordered the dual Holley Webers, Offy intake and Fentons from Tom some time ago. As one person mentioned, you can't expect to mate something totally off the wall to an original engine without having to make mods. I too am an engineer and found that with a bit of ingenuity, you can make it all work just fine. I ground the ears off the adaptors and they look fine. After all, you can hardly see them down there. The linkage set-up for the two dual carbs was challenging but I got them synchronized and linked nicely. The only thing that I don't have right yet is that I haven't gotten the accelerator pedal rod to bellcrank to carb linkage quite how I would like it (it's a bit too stiff so far, especially when coming out of first gear). Used one of the electric chokes and ran the wire to an auxiliary fuse panel under my dash that is only on when the key is on. Didn't need the other choke at all. Starts nicely. Didn't use the water inlet/outlets that came with the carbs but simply used the electric portion. Have the spun aluminum (Hellings) air filter covers with the dry elements and they look great in my opinion. All gaskets fit beautifully (don't need the insulators plates) and the filter adaptors fit perfect on the carb tops. All in all, I got my money's worth and the view when I open my hood is terrific. And the performance is outstanding to the point that it scares me when I step on the gas. As far as I'm concerned, Tom is the man. There are pics on the engine rebuild album link below but I'll be happy to take additional ones if anyone needs them.

I don't think you read my posts very carefully. I spent half an hour on the phone with Tom before I bought the kit. And NO, my linkage does not look like the one in his catalog. There is no piece in the kit that looks anything like the the piece connected to the throttle shaft, for one thing.

The parts I received were just wrong, or poorly finished. However, I need the carburetor, the manifold adapter, and the air cleaner. The rest is useless. What is he going to do about that? The "New" carburetor has significant corrosion on it. Maybe that is not an issue to you, but, to me, 'New' should look a little like new.

I can't post a picture of the linkage that I received on Webshots right now, but I will as soon as I can.

Next step will be making the adapter usable, and I will post before and after pictures on Webshots in the same folder, as well as pictures of the supplied carburetor base gasket and a usable version.

The bell crank is on order. I need to get the isolation/linkage connection plate built. The manual choke linkage will also connect to this, and I'm going to leave a little extra to mount the fuel pressure regulator, and maybe a hard shell fuel filter, if the plumbing doesn't look to restrictive.

I'm not mad at anyone except myself. I have to admit that the deal on the cost of the carburetor, and the air cleaner, which I happen to like a lot, was really good. Maybe my main disappointment was that so many people recommended this setup, and it just doesn't look like the kind of thing I would build.

After following this thread for the past few days, if I were recommending a set up for your situation, I would recommend a stock one bbl Rochester 'B' carburetor, a stock oil bath air cleaner, the stock linkage and the stock manual pull choke. All those parts are guaranteed to fit and perform up to your expectations.
I would then put the “hot rod” kit up for sale in the “Swap Meet” area.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, If you've found the secret formula for getting the Rochester B to perform correctly for a reasonable length of time I think it would be a good addition to the Tech Library, or you could do one of your in-depth how-to's in your photo library.

Disdain for the B seems to be the driving force to switch carbs.

Yeah, just posted something on that Woody, taint no way to get them to run right all the time unless someone comes up with a decent gasket for them. When it taint weeping fuel it runs fine. That is except for the slight hesatation on take off. No it's not the accelerator pump, that's working just fine!!!
I have posted quite a few pics of the work I've done on the 'B's.
Even staying stock has it's drawbacks.
Denny G

Denny, you're missing the point.

I bought the Holley/Weber kit because I had severe problems with Rochester B's. It's theoretically possible that the real problem was lack of a fuel pressure regulator, but I really didn't have time to find out. The Rochester B that I had leaked like a sieve from the throttle shaft ends, the mid carb joint, and a few other places. A replacement would cost more than $300. (One that I would trust.)

A basic Holley/Weber costs $60, and $80 for a new one. (Not worth the extra money.)

Selling a single Holley Weber as a performance carburetor would be ridiculous. They were used on small cars in the 1970s, like Audis, Vegas, and a few others. The Vega engine was 122 Cubic inches, IIRC. A single Holley Weber is rated at 216 CFM.

For a performance carburetor you would never go lower than 1.5 times the engine capacity. For a 235, that would mean at least 352 CFM.

During my career, a lot of people have decided that I am stupid and obnoxious. Interestingly enough, none of those people are still in business.

Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, but this is the link to WebShots where I will post pictures of my idea of a conversion.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/564126102jBBKyv

Just an observation. The supplied gasket is 0.065 inches thick and the Fel-Pro is 0.020 inches thick, but I'll be using two, so 0.040 inches with a 1/4 inch thick aluminum plate between them.

Well, considering the water choke is only partially electric, and is electric-assisted, I don't think employing a switch will do much.

I did install the water choke on mine, and although I had to fiddle with it a lot, I did get the darn thing to work right and had no problems with it at all. So it does work.

The linkage would not stay bolted up, so I welded it where it was coming loose. that solved my problems. No, it didn't come with instructions, but I'm pretty good at figuring things out, and it was kind of like messing with an erector set as a kid.
It's a little complicated but works well.

I didn't have any problem with my adapter or gaskets. Mine were fine. Perhaps you should send yours back for an exchange.

The one problem I did have was with jetting. Unfortunately, according to Holley, the jets for those are no longer manufactured. But I did buy some smaller jets from a guy in California and drilled them out to approximately what I needed.
What you could do, since it's brass, is to solder them closed and then drill out to the diameter you need. Hardware stores have those miniscule exact-size drill bits.

How did you know that your jets were too large? Fuel fumes in the exhaust? Fouled plugs? I'm really curious, especially since I may have to do the same thing.

Did Holley say that there were no jets from other carburetors that would fit?

I doubt if anyone here thinks you're stupid.
Jerry

Starkweatherr,

Looking at your pictures it looks like exactly what I had, I know its been said , but you may have to use some ingenuity to make it fit just right, I think I have read some other posts on here where people have actually machined their manifold to fit the carb. I know I had a difficult time installing my Holley weber, but its ok now. It never wanted to line up with any of the holes. I agree the gaskets were a little off as well however I don't have any leaks.

I would be interested in Jets, mine runs pretty rich even leaned out.

Anywho, I think what what most folks are saying is that this kit is what it is, take it or leave it, its probably one of the best out there to replace the Rochester B. Once you get it on, you see the difference. Just gonna take a little bit of patience.

Just my 2 cents good luck, and I know nobody thinks your obnoxious or stupid here, in fact they appreciate the news.

Later
Birge

I appreciate your support. As I said before, the Langdon conversion got such good reviews that I assumed it would have instructions, bolt right up and work perfectly forever.

You're right, I should have known better.

I still working on it, but I can't find my sander to finish the edges of the manifold flanges. I also haven't decided whether I'm going to make the plate or have it done.

So far, the '72 Vega gaskets have cost $5 and the bellcrank was $25 from Summit. The chamfering took about half an hour. The sanding, including the manifold should take less than an hour. I plan to spend about an hour with my trusty Dremel tool cleaning up the adapter bore. I'm going to paint the adapter flat black, because I like flat black

It will take a few minutes to mount the bellcrank (after I figure out the angle), choke adapter and return spring mount. Dual return springs of course. ( My tank was headed for a small German town one cold morning when my driver told me the throttle was on the floor and wouldn't come back up. I'd had one throttle return spring on order for months, now the other one had broken. You can't navigate the narrow streets of a small German town at 32 miles per hour. I had to remove the inside engine access plate, (18 bolts) and manually operate the throttle linkage until we got through the town. Kind of nerve wracking. I've never willingly driven anything without working dual return springs since then.)

I may have to modify the existing throttle linkage rod due to the height of the adapter. No big deal.

I will post pictures as I make progress.

Once again, thanks for yur support.