I Kicked Jetta

[StarMetal]

No no, before you go thinking I kicked Jetta of Star Wars fame, I didn't. My wife has a VW Jetta car and was complaining that her gas gauge keeps reading full even though she's put some miles on it since fill up. Well got on the net and into a Jetta forum and apparently when they built the cars they had a problem of bending the sending unit's arm when installing it inside the tank. One fellow sometimes you can pound on the tank and get it working. Well I kicked it..and it started working. Damnnnnnnn, I never had to kick my Chevys!!!!!!!

Joe

[9.3X62AL]

Joe--

We "inherited" a VW Cabrio (Jetta convertible) from a family member having hard times, and they are an *interesting* vehicle to say the least. It's one of the few compact vehicles I can actually fit my 6'2" frame into comfortably. It hauls ***, too--very quick, agile, and responsive as long as you keep the engine revved up. Low-end torque is NOT its thing at all.

[felix]

Joe, I need a new carb for my 76 TA. It comes stock with a Q-Jet. I want one rebuilt, or brand new, with no leaks. A 650 is plenty of air for the 240 rear end which rarely sees more than 80 mph, and mostly town driving at 45 max. The car is absolutely stock including the CC. What say you? ... felix

[StarMetal]

Too bad I'm not there Felix, QuadraJets are a breeze to rebuild. Very simple carb to work on. I know Edelbrock sell brand new ones. I would imagine that Auto Zone had new reconditioned rebuilt ones too.

Joe

[StarMetal]

Felix

After I posted I got online on Auto Zone and they have a new reconditioned carb for you car for $229. That's Auto Zone in TN, might be a different price in your state. There was no core charge either.

I can't see how that thing is leaking. The gold colored upper portion is a one piece zinc casting. The aluminum bottom is just a throttle plate body. They use to have a leak problem on these two sealing plugs that are trapped between tha throttle body and the main bowl years ago but fixed that. They are a very very tuneable carb. Most hot rodders, though, are enamered with the Holley double pumpers. You want to talk about a carb that leaks....Holleys, but have gotten better. AFB Carters never ever leak.

Joe

[Scrounger]

Would that carb fit in a $7.70 box from Felix to Joe? Or even if it takes a bigger box... Now's your chance, Joe, a lifetime supply of FWFL...

[StarMetal]

Gawd, now I might be reloading carbs!!!!

Joe

[Willbird]

I will be the first one to step up and say "buy an edelbrock performer" nothing wrong with qjets, but the edelbrock is a sweet setup, and I even have a strip kit minus 1 set of springs and needles I'll donate.

the setup on them is very well explained in the strip kit (would have to look but I think it is a 650), actually most people don't even have to fiddle with them but I wanted better mileage, and got it. You can swap needles jets and springs to adjust midrange and wide open fuel mixture.

they are the AFB carter design with a few improvements, and share the qjets positives like no gaskets below the level of fuel in the float bowl.

if you want electric choke BUY it that way, I converted mine from manual, it would be a lot less hassle to buy it with electric choke.

From personal experience I think the performer is twice the everyday driving carb. a holley is.

Bill

[StarMetal]

One thing though Willbird, the QuadraJet is a spreadbore and a AFB won't bolt to the same manifold without an adaptor, which I don't believe in an adaptor. I believe the carb should fit the intake manifold without an adaptor. Now I do agree with you that the AFB is one great carb. I'm running one on my hot rod chevy.

Joe

[felix]

So, you two are saying the newly built eldelbrock is the one to purchase. Do we hafta' have the manifold too? Stock steel won't do? Remember, this will be a set it and forget it application for 50K miles minimum. It has to be right from the getgo because all of the guys I know will charge an arm and a leg to get it right in terms of tuning. In fact, the best tuning arrangement for us would be those electronic manifolds with computers that can be adjusted in the car while driving. If we can't do that, then it has to be the standard, ol'timey setup (with electric choke nowadays). ... felix

[StarMetal]

Felix

Edelbrock makes two types of carbs. One is the QuadraJet, such as you have, and the other is an AFB type like the old Carter AFB's that GM and Chrysler use to use back in the 60's and early 70's. The AFB's are called "square bores" because if you look at the throttle bores underneath they are four holes in a square pattern. The QuadraJets, on the other hand, are called "spread bores" because two bores are close together and the other two are spread farther apart. So they require two different manifolds. It's almost impossibe to gaurantee that a new carb off the shelf will run just perfect for your engine because each engine is different within itself.

Personally I think the best thing to do is have someone that knows or does carb rebuilding to rebuild your carb. Usually carbs don't wear out, their gaskets dry out and leak, they carbon up and get dirty, and their adjustment go out of tune, usually none of the parts, except for like float needles, wear out. It's pretty simple to rebuild them if you have a pretty good mechanical ability. You buy a gallon of carb cleaner, take your carb completely apart, soak it in the cleaner, rinse it off with water, then blow the parts off with an airhose. It's particularly to make sure you blow out the little holes, passages, and orifices a carb may have, even run a very fine wiring through them to make sure they are clean and clear of obstructions. Then you merely rebuild the carb with the new parts and gaskets that come in a rebuilt kit. The kit includes instructions and calibrations. The most important calibration is the float level. This determines the proper fuel level in the fuel bowl of the carb. There is also a choke adjustment. The QuadraJet has an airvalve on the secondaries (those are what open up on a four barrel carb when you put the gas pedal to the floor) to adjust when the airvalve opens to actuate the secondaries opening. This usually doesn't go out of adjustment on a QuadraJet and basically should be left alone. Once the carb is rebuilt and placed on the engine and the fuel bowl filled with gasoline, you can then start the engine and fine tune the idle mixture screws. The rebuild instructions will most likely tell you that the ignitial adjustment of the idle screws are one and one half turns out from fully closed. The best way to adjust them while the engine is running is with a vacuum gauge and you set them to obtain the highest vacuum, but you can set them by ear also. Then after those are set you set your final throttle idle speed which is the rpm's your engine is suppose to idle at in neutral or sometimes in drive with the brakes on.

Joe

[Buckshot]

............We put an Edlebrock Performer on the 429 V8 in my daughter's 55 Ford pickup. Just took it out of the box and put it on. Worked great for the most part. Since the engine was a '69 with points I put in an electronic distributer from a 351. This required a bit of 'magic' tweaking so I took it to 'Fat Fender Street Rods' in Fontana and they put the distributer in a distributer machine to fix it up for the 429. I also asked them to check the carb as it seemed a bit flat above 70 mph. They said the primaries were a bit light but okay and the secondaries were almost 2 numbers light for WOT, but they just went up one. It wasn't a race car, afterall :-).

Probably for an engine of 350 cubes (if it was set up like mine out of the box it'd be great.

.............Buckshot