The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Carter W-1 Carb rebuild

Hi Folks,

I've bought a kit to rebuild my Carter W-1 carb for my 41 truck. I've been looking at the carb for over a month now because I'm concerned that I'm going to mess this up. Are there any suggestions that can be given as to what to do and what not to do?

Any help would be appreciated!

Baldbaron

Did it come with an exploded view of the carb in the directions? That is extremely helpful. Use a large light colored terry cloth towel on a clean work bench to rebuild you carb on. The towel keeps tiny parts from rolling around on the bench. The light color makes the tiny parts easy to see. Make sure you have plenty of light too. Good Luck.

Baldbaron,

I just got mine rebuilt, and the fellow that did it, a professional carb rebuilder, told me that the cast iron body present a unique problem to the ameture carb rebuilder - rust.

The bodies rust up after years with no gas and a little condensation in them. He squirted a little carb cleaner into my tiny W-1 and poured out a rusty concoction onto his bench.

I let him put the kit in for me, and it worked out well. It worked out so well that I decided to go to a 261 - and I don't need the carb anymore.


Stewart

Stewart, what do you want for the carb... I have a good rochester(hard to believe) but would like to have a carter for a spare,,,thanks,,,Fred

Stewart - your rebuilder didn't tell you the whole story.

Once the carburetor has been disassembled, it is very easy to glass bead the cast iron throttle body. Carter parkerized the cast iron new. You can get a similiar result by taking the casting to a gunsmith and having it 'blued'. Once the castings were parkerized, Carter painted the castings inside and out with a semi-gloss paint (generally black, however there are a few browns, and grays).

The Rochester throttle bodies have the same problem, but they were not painted.

Baldbaron - if your kit does not contain instructions, look in your factory shop manual. If you do not have a factory shop manual, I would suggest this is an absolute necessity, but in the meantime; go to the local library, and inquire for the 'reference' section. Ask for a 'Motors' truck manual printed about 1950 (a car manual will do if they do not have the truck manual). There is an excellent section in the Motors manuals on the W-1 carb.

One 'trick of the trade'. We do NOT use the thin copper washers under the plugs (learned this trick from the Carter carburetor school instructor!). Instead we apply a drop of blue loctite to the thread of the plug.

If you have questions, call me during normal telephone hours (see bio).

Jon.

Jon,


This is a good chance for me to say that it's amazing how you share your stock in trade with the people on this site. How many other business's would take the time to "show you how" not less tell you where to go to find the proper information. Thank you.

Stuart

The fun starts here: http://chevy.tocmp.com/1941shop/41csm173.htm

Sure wish I'd known that a couple of months ago. I FINALLY got the gas to stop leaking by the plugs using about 80 ft/lbs of torque on each plug. :mad: I'm still having a problem getting the float bowl gasket to seal correctly. I have a 38 W-1. The gasket that came with the kit was too small so I cut my own out of gasket material using the kit gasket as a pattern & cutting it a little larger. There are no gaps or openings that I can see. The float is not sticking. I've tightened the screws as tight as I dare. The car runs well, it's just that the side of the bowl is always damp. With the lid off you can watch the gas climb the side of the bowl (capilary action I suppose)cross the lip and start down the outside of the bowl. It's interesting to watch but frustrating when it happens with the gasket in place and the lid tight. Ideas? BTW like Stuart says thanks for being so helpful.

Thanks all. I think I might have it rebuilt professionaly. What is a price range for a rebuild?

Baldbaron

Stuart - I am an ex-teacher that happens to have an allergy to chalk dust (really). I thoroughly enjoy the sharing of information. The hardest problem in answering some of the questions is wording the answers so to not violate the forum axiom that advertising should only be done in the swap meet section. So keep asking, and I will try to answer. Sometimes I will ask you to call, as some answers REQUIRE a dialog.

Baldbaron - your last question is one of the 'delicate' ones. One could expect to pay probably as little as $100. to a corner garage with 'professional' mechanics, and as much as maybe $600. to a company that does show quality (recolor, replate, blueprint, etc.).

Tiny - your question also fits this category. Carter (and Rochester) used velumoid as a gasket material. Velumoid was cut wet, and will shrink over time. There are vendors pushing new old stock kits. Also, there are 4 SIMILIAR BUT DIFFERENT bowl cover gaskets used on the W-1. Some vendors show only 2 kits covering all of the W-1's. Another company went to the trouble of acquiring the original blueprints and bill of material from Carter, and makes the proper gaskets for each kit. There are also many grades of gasket material.

But the gasket issue does bring up another 'trick of the trade' - the 'hammer' method of making a gasket. Simply go to the local parts house and purchase a roll of the black 'rubberized' gasket material. You also need a ball-peen hammer. When you need to make a gasket, cut a section of the material larger than the area for the gasket, lay the material across the surface, and GENTLY go around the edges striking the gasket mateial with the peen of the hammer. This will give you a proper size gasket with rough edges. Use this as a pattern to draw on some more of the gasket material. Cut out the new gasket, and you have one with smooth edges. Fingernail sissors belonging to your wife or girlfriend (NOT BOTH) make cutting irregular shapes quite easy.

Jon.

BINGO! The gasket material I've been using is basically paper, gas soaks through paper. Doh!! It's off to the parts house on the morrow. Tanks a ton.

baldbaron,
Another source if can't wait for the library to open is a company that sells only to the wholesale end, but publishes on their site a pdf file that shows an exploded view of the W-1 on page 20.
http://walkerproducts.com/Catalogs/components/index.html
Select Carter, wait for pdf to open and scroll to page 20.
-jeff

baldbaron and Jeff - we buy some items from Walker, and have the "paper" version of this diagram.

What is important to understand is what one is looking at. The exploded view pictured is a Carter 420s (1939-1940) Chevrolet. It is correct for one of the 128 different Carter W-1 carburetors (and nowhere on the listing does it state 420s). So the diagram is INCORRECT for the other 127 different W-1 carburetors.

This is one of the problems with the "generic" instructions that come in many of the repair kits. We always suggest acquiring the factory shop manual for the vehicle which will have correct information.

Many will say the generic information is better than nothing. I am not so sure (long story here), but maybe since everyone now knows that this diagram is the 420s the information may be better than nothing.

Jon.

Hey baldbaron the link I posed above (and below) shows the scanned & posted 1941 chevy repair manual. The page you end up at is the start of the carburetor section. The next page has the blow up of the W-1.
http://chevy.tocmp.com/1941shop/41csm173.htm

Tiny - the information for the 1941 in your last post is also virtually the same up through 1948. The 1949 has major differences.

Jon.