Big opsie with the carburator

[jjefferson]

Well folks heres a good one for you - it will give you a good chuckle.

Rebuilding my carb, things are going smoothly (we all know were this is headed). Dropped one of the ball bearings in the accelerator pump shaft (drivers left side of carb) and put the little retainer clip in. And then it hit me that I had dropped the wrong ball bearing into the hole. I used the big one not the little one.

Not a problem I said - I'll just tip the carb over and it will fall right out. Nope.

This is were you get that millisecond of panic, followed by the the thought that you know better, and that you are an idiot.

So now I have the bigger ball bearing stuck in the passage way - its a perfect fit in case you were wondering.

I can jam a q-tip into the chamber from the float side (down the slot) and it makes a cool sucking noise and I can see a mixture of lube oil and gear oil (see below) and stuff slipping past the ball bearing.

Looking at my carb it appears that this is the one passage way that doesn't have a plug for it. - am I wrong? I would like to be, that way I could just pull the plug and put a new one in. That part of my carb is dinged and dented so I can't tell. This is the passage way that makes a hairpin turn up towards the float chamber, sort of like a elbow.


Things I have tried:

1. Compressed air via a small hose into the bowl side trying to blow the bearing upwards - nope. I did get hit in the nose with the hose - that was kind of funny. This is the point that I put my safety glasses on.

2. Heat - heated up the carb in hopes the alum would expand and let go of the ball bearing - nope - started the rag on fire though.

3. flooded the carb with 90w gear oil, filled the air hose with gear oil, and tried to blow it all thru via the float side of things - this only covered me and my shop in lube oil - my woodshop now smells like lube oil.

4. magnets - tried a really powerful rare earth magnet - this was Charles idea - I figured that this would work - It just has to....I can hear the magnet go ca'chunk but bearing still stuck. Charles mentioned that we all have one of those days. That made me feel a little better - not much.

5. Tried packing the whole thing with old school rotella grease via a vet syringe - managed to break the syringe I was squeezing so hard. It was also my last vet syringe.

6. Tried using my brake bleeder suction thing with a small hose on the ball bearing - sucking one hell of a vacuum but nope.

My next step is to drill out from the bottom and then have someone tig/migweld the hole shut. Thats assuming that theres no plug for that chamber.

Also had someone tell me to boil the carb on the stove - don't tell the girlfriend that one.

All this because I was bored and was killing some time. This will be easy and fun, haven't rebuilt a carb in a while. The stupid thing ran fine, but no - I had to go mess with it, and take it all apart.

Love any ideas - or maybe some whiskey, or even a good "should have seen what I had done stories"

So does anybody know if that passageway is plugged or not?

Jim Jefferson
www.knockabouttoys.com
1954 M37 Billy minus the carb
1970 Jeep Gladiator
and a work bench covered in carb parts.

[knattrass]

Sorry to hear your fate... I had debated about doing it myself.. you confirmed that I made the right call in sending mine out to Jim Wallace.

[HingsingM37]

Isn't the learn as you go club fun? I waited until the very last step to ruin my carb rebuild. All went well then my Kung Fu grip stripped out the fuel fitting threads on a beautifully re-finished carb body I am looking now at that body, mine is a later series carb and it has a plug outside at the bottom of the pump well, but it does not look like it will help extract the check ball as it is offset to the right side.
Now I am asking as to why my ball and retainer is still in there?Did the new core body I used already have one that looked ok and I didn't use this or DID I FORRGET TO TRANSFER IT INTO THE NEW BODY? NO-NO, TELL ME I WOULDN'T DO THAT....Guess I will find out when I test fire the engine next month.
Anyway, Loctite has a new product out called "Freeze". It is a mixture of refridgerant and penetrating oil. This might work if you spray the ball with it and cause it to contract, then tap the carb body to dislodge it. It is about $9 a can though. Good luck

[Cal_Gary]

After wasting cash on two rebuild attempts of a bogging carburetor, I decided to get one of John Bizal's rebuilt gems-problem solved.
Gary

[jjefferson]

I'm going to give it a few more attempts at the carb this weekend. I'll see if I can find the loctite product.

Just one of those things that you do, and you know better.

Being in the merchant marine I have always tried to adhere to the old KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid.

The other good one I used to live by was - "lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part" Used to have that one posted on the bridge of the ship. That was always true when someone wanted to load the ship with heavy items and forgot to take into account high tide vs low tide -especially true at docks with no loading ramps. Always amusing.

Jim Jefferson

[jjefferson]

Well you we all breathe a sigh of relief. Finally got the little bastard out.

Used the grease packing idea on a larger scale, filled the forward slot (bowl side) with grease from the grease gun, and then jammed a Q tip end down the passage – out she popped. I should have thought of using bearing grease sooner rather then using 90wt gear oil. Just have to love hydraulic pressure.

Now to clean out all the grease and put my workbench back in order. I think I will leave all the gear oil splatter on the ceiling as a reminder. Put the right ball bearings in the right holes and off we go.

I might still be able to go haul some logs this weekend after all – that’s if it ever stops snowing – another 4-6 inches today.

Jim Jefferson

[jeeptech2000]

You know the old saying "If it works don't %&@$ with it"