PapaJ, here are two photographs (in one) for you.
Cluster Of Carbs 216 size on your left, 235 on your right. There are no differences between those carbs above the base throttle device below each carb. Red dots show a minor casting change, but no difference in behavior nor rebuild kits.
Those red dots tell me the 216 carb way over on the left has a much later 235 carb mounted on the cast iron base throttle. Tops of carbs and the bottoms are interchangeable, sorta.
Looking at the bottoms, 216 left, 235 right, you can see a difference in throttle throat size and a difference in the spread of the mounting bolt holes. A 216 is smaller for both.
Nonetheless, you can interchange tops, the carb itself, between 216 and 235 bases. A rebuild kit will cover both carbs, 216 and 235, sorta.
Most kits have base manifold gaskets for both sizes. Some kits are different, either 216 or 235 but not both. Generally, 1954 and earlier will be 216, 1955 and later will be 235. However, there is a crossover in 1955 year for catalog listings, have to watch this. If you can, order a generic kit, a kit which specifies way back to the Forties and up to the early Sixties. Those usually have both manifold gaskets.
Even if you buy a wrong kit, the only "wrong" thing will be the manifold gasket. You can make your own very easily, nothing to this, nothing special, just match up any vacuum grooves or holes, same for both carbs, then shrink or spread your bolt holes. If your throttle throat hole is a tad bit too big, this will not hurt a thing, makes no difference on these tiny engines.
For trivia, I often buy a half dozen of these carbs off Ebay to mix and match, and to have small parts which are sometimes missing, like choke cable and throttle cable clamps. Always good have a few extra parts carbs, cheap enough to buy. Never know when you will have a leaky float or a rusty butterfly.
In this case, I will build two carbs for a Fenton dual carb intake. As you can see my 216 carbs and my 235 carbs are not precise matched pairs; those red dots. When done, I will have two very nice matching carbs. This Fenton intake matches up with Fenton exhaust manifolds, no need to grind away at an intake manifold to match the two, like mixing an Offenhauser intake with Fenton exhaust headers.
This 216 dual carb setup will be bolted to a 235 engine. Matches up fine save for the intake port size, 235 is slightly larger. No problem, adapter rings are available or the intake manifold ports can be bored out.
Order you a "generic" kit. I think Jim Carter carries those. Don't panic if your manifold gasket is wrong, make one or buy one individually. No sweat, all else is the same.
Billyray
