The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Question for Carb king

Having just completely dissembled cleaned ad reassembled a Carter ball & ball carb for a 1949 Plymouth 218 six the motor will only idle smoothly with about 1/2 choke. At higher rpms it runs great the accelerator pump works right and high speed jets seem to be working right what have I done wrong. Sorry for the MOPAR posting guys didn't know how to get the carb king otherwise.

TT..I'm not the carb king but sounds like maybe a vacum leak,,idle sys trouble,,don,t know how you cleaned carb and if all adj were done correctly was a new kit installed,,most time when you have to choke to get to run something is plugged inside((lack of enough gas and to much air hense limiting the air with the choke to match what fuel you are getting...doc

The easiest way to get this carburetor to run correctly is to replace it with the Carter W-1 used by Chevrolet! Oops, that wasn't the question.

The Carter BBR series carbs have a removable (with special tool) idle tube that has a number of very small metering orifices. If these are dirty, virtually impossible to clean other than by removing the tube. Carter suggests that one should never reuse a used tube, but it can be done if one is careful to reform the sealing surfaces.

If you do not wish to remove the tube, you might try careful disassembly of the carburetor, and submergence of the main bowl assembly (which contains the tube) in lacquer thinner for a couple of hours. Remove the body, and (wearing appropriate eye protection and protective clothing) blow compressed air through all of the passage ways that you can see in the idle circuit FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS. This method may work.

On a trivia note: the factory producing the various BBR series carbs for Carter used by Chrysler went on strike in 1947. Carter had sufficient inventory of the carbs to continue to supply DeSoto and Chrysler, but they ran out of Plymouth carbs. Carter then supplied the much more expensive Chevrolet carbs (W-1 574s) to Plymouth at no extra charge, and for a few months in 1947 Plymouth used Chevrolet carbs. This created severe customer service issues in some areas; as the vehicles receiving the Chevrolet carbs performed much better in all respects (power, fuel economy, and driveability) than those with the BBR series carbs.

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Jon.

Thanks for the reply I'll give it one more try then it's off to the W1 as i have several on hand. If I need a kit I'll give you a yell.

Carb king you are my hero did what you said the old Dodge runs and idles like a a hank.

Thanks Tony

Tony - glad the old Dodge is now running smoothly.

Jon.