How often do you rebuild your carburetor?

[romantic comedy]

Neil, you mention shaft seals. Can you give any details about replacing them.
Where do you get them? etc...
thanks

[ndutton]

Some rebuild kits include them, some don't. I confess I bought my last few kits from other than MMI and the seals were included. I think (not certain) the MMI kit does not. I do not have a separate source for the seals by themselves. Maybe a carburetor shop might if you can even find one any more.

[Dave Neptune]

B-bearing source

If you can't find the seals in a kit you can find most any seal at a "bearing" house. It is just a std seal that was fitted to the carb. The seal may even have numbers on it for an easy match. If no numbers take a caliper along you'll need OD ~ ID & sometimes length. I use Monarch Bearing for seals and bearing needs and have found every one I have looked for, even on 50+year old machinery, engines and especially transmissions.

Dave Neptune

[romantic comedy]

Thanks guys. MMI kit does not have seals. Sound pretty easy to source.

[gary randall]

I have to qualify my every year vote because I don't replace the parts unless they appear to be damaged, like a needle valve that has no needle part left, for example.
I do however give it a thorough cleaning and inspection and replace the gaskets after complete disassembly.

For me, the payoff lies in eliminating a potential source if trouble develops with the engine.

I also like knowing it well enough to be able to strip the thing down on the dinette table in a rolling sea without losing track of what's what. Sometimes it's a long way from an Internet connection and those on the forum who are always there to bail me out!

[hanleyclifford]

Thanks guys. MMI kit does not have seals. Sound pretty easy to source.

Interesting that the MM kit # FCAR_02_54 contains the jets, nozzles etc but not the seals whereas the "other site" in #K2112 includes the seals but not the jets. http://gtgravelyparts.com/zenithcarbs.html. I think it might be a good idea to have both kits in the cabinet.

[jbsoukup]

I drain my carb every fall as part of winter layup.
I have not touched it since rebuilding it in 2005 with a Moyer kit.
In the spring, I just tickle the pump and she starts right up

[Nahart]

I rebuilt my carb a couple of months ago and did a dumb ass thing. Motor started and ran like a dream. Next week it would start but not idle. I started upstream and replaced my racor filter (5 years old) and fixed a leaky cutoff valve and added a polishing filter. Everything ran great, but I still couldn't idle so I pulled the carb I had rebuilt a few months before, expecting to maybe just clean the idle jet. When I opened it up, everything was full of varnish and gunk. Cleaned her up and she runs like a car now. Apparently you can't trust ethanol to last a year. But, I've learned my lesson. I've changed to non-ethanol, I will drain the filter more often, and change all filters annually. And I will give the carb a cleaning annually, only after changing filters.

The bad thing about the A4 is that it will run under the worst conditions, allowing bad stuff to sneak up on you, that is if you are a procrastinator like me.

[ubxf]

I voted for when it breaks, that is because i was under the impression that it was an extremely critical part not easily serviced. That's why i bought a new carb when my old one was misbehaving. Now i took the plunge and my first attempt wasn't so good, but on the second try(thanks to a lot of great infos generously shared by knowledgeable forum members) it looks a lot better and seems to work. Time will tell if i did it correctly. If it's the case then i will do it on a yearly basis because i was shocked to see what was in there when i opened it after 6 years of light work.