AirborneRME

Today I pulled the carb on my 72 Cutlass S holiday because it kept stalling out and I have had a rebuild kit for it sitting on my desk for a while. After looking it over I noticed a portion of the carb was breaking off. I'm not familiar with carbs and I'm hoping someone can tell me if this carb can be saved for if it is just a giant paper weight now... Thanks

The red circles indicate on the carb where those valves meet the body of the carb which is where it is cracked and coming apart.

-R.J.

MDchanic

Looks like a ported vacuum take-off.

They made a LOT of variations of these.

If you use ported vacuum for your vacuum advance, then you only need one of those tubes.
If you don't, you don't need either one.

You can probably plug the extra one with silicone sealant where it's breaking.

- Eric

AirborneRME

Eric,
Thanks for the speedy reply. Yes that larger port is already blocked off and was not plugged into anything when I took it off, although that smaller one was. The crack is pretty much where those two ports meet up with eachother and they meet up right against the carb. Do you know what kind of silicone you would recommend if I tried this out?
-RJ

MDchanic

Well, if you wanted to just seal the whole thing, squeezing black RTV into the tubes would work well, and be kind of removable in the future.

If you want to seal a crack, then JB Weld or similar epoxy is probably better.

- Eric

Oldsmaniac

I believe those vacuum ports or tubes are just pushed into the carb housing and you may be able to wiggle it out and put a single pipe on there.. Thats if you can grip it with pliers...

joe_padavano

Correct, though I would hesitate to wiggle it only because the tube is harder than the pot metal carb body. Instead I would use a tight-fitting sheet metal screw and a slide hammer or pliers to pull straight out. Of course, the easiest and safest route is to just seal it with goop.

AirborneRME

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I think I'm going to dip the carb and let it sit for a while so I can carefully clean off some of that dirt and grime that is on it. Once I can get a better look without damaging it anymore than it already is I'll see what I can do.

Just glad to hear there is a solution to the problem (hopefully)

MDchanic

Hey, if you were really obsessive, you could work the tube out of the carb, bead blast it, braze the crack, then cadmium plate it.

But then you'd have to move into Allan's garage to avoid the men in white suits, who seem to strangely lose their sense of direction when they come near his neighborhood.

- Eric

AirborneRME

Welp... I ended up taking the carb in to Badgely's, a local shop here in Lansing, MI well known for Olds mechanical work. They had 3 H/O's and a delta when I was there! Anyways, I left the carb there overnight, should hear back tomorrow, they are thinking they can repair it for me, seeing as how this is my first time dealing with a carb I'd rather be 100% sure it's salvageable before I go tearing it apart myself to rebuild it.

I'm sure I'll be back on here with more questions when I get it back and begin the rebuild process! As always thanks for the help!

-RJ

Octania

Easy fix, I'm sure that Badgely's can handle that.

Worst case, there are a LOT of donor 2-bbl carbs in the world.

I am in Lansing too, and have a few parts cars.

BILL DEMMER

RTV is not a good fix for this, JB weld is superior. RTV will shrink over time, and possibly end up inside the motor.

Brazing pot metal takes a fair amount of skill, if you get the pot metal too hot it melts away fast.

that carb. number should not be too hard to find in a decent boneyard.


bill

MDchanic

Hmmmm. I've used it years ago to block an unneeded PCV tap into a crankcase, and it showed no sign of ever deteriorating, but I will admit I never used it on a carb. fitting.



To be clear, I was talking about brazing the crack in the steel tube, after removing it from the pot metal, but I agree that any sort of brazing or soldering of pot metal is something that might not end well - it's certainly something that I wouldn't attempt.

- Eric

AirborneRME

UPDATE!!! Just got a call from Badgely's, they repaired it. $10 out the door! Going to pick it up in a few, then on to try my first carb rebuild.

I'll ask how they did it and share it with you all