Carburetor passage cleaning article?

JRrev

JRrev

Well-known member
Does anyone know which issue had the article about cleaning Zenith carb passages with a paper clip? I think it was in the "Restorer".
 
If you do not want to find Restorer articles try this:

https://www.santaanitaas.org/wp-con...y-Cleaning-Restorer-Magazine-Sep-Oct-2011.pdf

I have been using MIG or TIG welding wire. Not sure which (Mig or Tig), which comes in various diameters.

This wire is smaller diameter than paper clip, and stiff enough and flexible enough to bend (form to shape for each instance) to go around corners.

Drilling plugs is an absolute last resort.
 
Last edited:
This is the best article and I have used it for a number of years. Tom Endy is one of the best sources for anything Model A period! He has done an immense help to the Model A world with all the technical information he has written about. The fact is I would never drill out the brass plugs on a Zenith Carburetor.
 
I use the same 0.031” stainless wire that I use for safety wiring bolt heads. I have a spool of it, just cut off what I need. Sometimes I have to run the cut end through the wire wheel to get rid of the burrs that develop when I cut it with wire cutters.
 
Benson said:
I have been using MIG or TIG welding wire. Not sure which (Mig or Tig), which comes in various diameters.
Click to expand...
Same wire - MIG = metal & inert gas it comes on a spool. TIG = Tungsten & inert gas it comes in straight lengths like oxy acetylene welding rod.
There is also flux core MIG wire. It is hollow and has flux in the core - so you don't need gas to weld. Don't use it since it breaks fairly easily and you could end up with a broken piece left in a passage.
 
Carburetor guru Stan Howe always recommended using a wound "E" metal guitar string. It's thick, flexible, won't break, and unlike other "pokers", it has serrated rough edges that will scrape the sides of the passageways, not just down the center. This side scraping will open up the passageways even more.
I am not in the "don't drill out the passage plugs" camp. 100 years of accumulated gunk clogging the internal passageways is not going to magically go away by poking it with a paper clip or soaking the carb halves in a chemical bath. I recently tried everything to make a Model "B" carb run and idle better. Nothing worked until I drilled out the passageway plugs and manually cleaned out the collected crud. Now the carb idles as smoothly as a NEW Tillotson and has full power. I am not advocating willy-nilly drilling out the Zenith's plugs to check the passageways. I am saying sometimes just poking through them is not enough. In my particular case, drilling out the plugs and cleaning the passageways was the only reason this Model "B" carb didn't end up slammed into the trash bin out of frustration. It ALMOST did!
Marshall
 
The toughest passage to probe is the passage from the GAV into the secondary well cavity. You have to be patient with this one. Put a slight curve at the end of your paper clip or wire (down about 1/8 in.) so that you can start the wire into the 90 degree turn into the Secondary Well. After you have cleaned the carb, I play my carb like it was a flute using a small diameter plastic tube and listen to the change in air flow as you open and close the various ports in the carb body. This way you can verify that all passages are open. Ed
 
And last but not least, after you have scraped the passageways, consider soaking in carb soak (I've been using Berryman Chem-Dip for years, although I would guess that the formulation has changed as it sure doesn't smell like it used to) overnight, then shooting a bunch of carb cleaner from an aerosol using the tube that comes with the can. Will help clean up any residual from the passageway walls. Keep doing it until it runs clean, then thorough soap and hot water clean. Repaint with airplane dope.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top