Captain Obvious

Nice. Not as tight of a fit on the shaft as the original arm, but looks like it would work. One other thing to consider though... Are you sure you've got enough linkage travel to lock and unlock the door? I don't remember how much dead travel there was on the original version, but since you're adapting one hole style to another shaft shape, you might have changed the amount of travel. Also might be nice to take a good close-up pic of the centering springs for those who aren't familiar. I took a look through my old lock pics (get it?) and I didn't take any of those. I was in such a hurry to get my locks back together that I didn't do a great job of documenting my work.

Second. That looks great!

Haha!! Exactly! I knew my bud has my back when I throw that stuff out there!! One of the greatest movies ever. As a matter of fact, I was considering Waco Kid as my nickname here, but didn't want to continuously field the question "Are you originally from Texas?" So I went for something a little more realistic. OK, a lot more realistic. I also considered Mongo, Black Bart, and Governor Le Petomane (you should look that one up...)

"As chairman of the welcoming committee, it is my privilege to extend a laurel, and hearty handshake."

Well I hope I'm not sounding like a know it all either as I'm certainly no carb expert. Heck, I've never even taken the 72 versions apart. Haha! Jarvo, Thanks for the info on the 72 alignment cones. I've held the 72 versions and looked them over casually but they weren't mine, so as much as I wanted to, I couldn't disassemble them. And I'm loony, but if I was mixing and matching parts and had binding pistons, I would heat and dig out the existing nubs, make myself an alignment tool, fixture and lock the chamber into it's new correct position, and epoxy inject myself a new set of nubbies. A little release agent on the chambers before fixturing.... Clearly overkill, and a good example of why why my projects take ten thousand times longer than normal!

Without seeing the parts myself, I can't tell you where the interference is, but dropping it sure doesn't help. It doesn't have to be bent much. A thousandth in the wrong spot would probably be enough to cause the binding you're experiencing. Think about it this way... The only "seal" between the upper side and the lower side of that suction piston is the close fitting (but non-contact) dimensions of the OD of the piston in the ID of the suction chamber. Doesn't take much distortion to cause interference. Out of round chamber. Out of round piston. Bent damper tube, Bent needle. Bent mounting tab on chamber. The reason the binding goes away with the screws not installed is that the chamber and piston can squirm around just enough in whatever direction it wants to in order to move without binding. Doesn't have to be a lot of interference, and doesn't have to be a lot of squirm. You'll figure it out, and hopefully it's as easy as swapping out the piston and chamber. Maybe you'll have to remove the nubbies, maybe you'll get lucky. As for the alignment pins.... You really only need two alignment pins to establish repeatable positioning. That's why a third pin on the rear screw is unnecessary. On the flat tops, the nubbies are actually cone shaped and that shape does a better job of establishing position than a straight sided cylinder. Are the 72's cone shaped or straight sided?

I second the skepticism on it being a 10K mile car. I suspect it's a 110K mile car. Pics or it didn't happen. Redardless, however... Welcome aboard!

Best of luck with the replacement parts. Hope that fixes your carb issues. While you're waiting for parts to arrive, can you take a couple close-up shots of the suction chambers and the top of the carb bodies where the nubbies stick up? I've never seen those alignment pins on anything other than the flat top carbs. Sounds like they started that process in 72 and went on like that through 74. So your carbs don't have any provision for aligning the nozzle underneath? Sounds like (unlike the previous years) your nozzle position is fixed and the suction chamber is (was) the movable entity?

Cool. Hope some of the concoction works. Anyone know what type of binder they typically use in that composite stuff?

Haha! Ooops... Sorry. Mums the word. Good luck!

Haha!! Glad to help! And just so you know that I'm not making this stuff up and do actually I live it with you... Here's my most recent expedition to frustration land. Dipstick from my kid's car. Snapped off in the block: Used a jigsaw blade in an exacto knife handle to cut a slot in it. An angled center punch to collapse it on itself a little, and an ezout to grab it and pull it out. See the remaining little stub of the SOB in the lower right: And here's the final result: You are not alone.

Maybe I'm underestimating the flexibility of the stuff, but I give it about zero chance of success trying to use just the door panel clips to retain that shape. And I'm not sure relief kerfs would do it either. The word "snap" comes to mind. Followed by the word "$^!#!".

I believe the flush trim bit is the cutting tool you put in your woodworking router to shape edges on stuff. As in: "Rough cut to shape with a saw and then use a flush trim bit in a router to cut the edges to final shape."

When the simple mundane five minute job turns into hours and hours of misery and frustration. Been there. Done that. When you spend two hours trying to pull the wheel speed sensor out of it's rusty hole in the suspension and still snap it off in the process. When it takes an hour to get the crushed, mangled, and screwdriver speared remains of an oil filter off the block. When it takes two days just to get a frikin dipstick tube out of the block because it cracks off at the bottom. When it takes a week to change your thermostat because the bolts snap off. You are not alone.

How would you handle the bend near the bottom? Flat is easy, but have you bent/formed/contoured Masonite? Sounds like you've got some experience working with the stuff? Soak it and dry it in a press? Maybe a little heat?

Wow. Good luck to him! That's got to be a rare bird for the person who just has to have the real thing. Seems to me that I could pretty much "convert" my 77 glass to 69/70 JDM glass with a scraper blade and some acetone...

Well there's no guarantee that those alignment nubbies will line up with your replacement suction chamber, but certainly TRY them first before you remove them. You might get lucky and have a temporary local relaxation of Murphy's Law. Doesn't hurt to try first. When you think about the geometry, you really need to be very close. You're trying to stick a 95 thousandths diameter pin into a 100 thousandths diameter hole and (in a perfect world) have it not contact anywhere around the perimeter. They couldn't hold the necessary tolerances at the factory, so they resorted to characterizing every carb instead by fixturing them and using "cast in place" alignment pins instead. And if you do cut the alignment pins off, remember that you're going to have to realign those suction chambers each and every time you ever take them off again in the future. (Same goes for you Cliff!)

Earlier you said that you have a 3 pot. (I'm assuming that means you have three screws holding the suction chamber to the carb body?) I've not messed with those personally and am wondering... Does that version have the little epoxy alignment nubbies sticking up into suction chamber to align the chamber to the body? If that's the case, then there's no guarantee that a replacement suction chamber will align correctly onto your existing body. It's a surmountable issue, but something to watch out for.

Despite the simplicity of the carbs design, they are actually precision instruments with some very precise dimensions in a couple spots. I'm not completely sure what part you dropped, but if you dropped the dome or the piston on the floor and bent either piece, then I think you're in the market for replacement parts. The clearance fit between those two parts is crucial and if it's not right, it will affect mixture ratio. If you're sanding parts to get the piston to rise and fall smoothly after dropping something, then the whole "constant velocity" part of your CV carb could be thrown off.

Wrong. The correct response is "He's a desperate man". I'm disappointed you weren't all over that... I though you had my back!

Haha! That was my first thought as well. Actually I think he's hiding in Honduras.

Lars, Just wanted to say thank you for your web site (www.carpartsmanual.com). I'm sure I'm not the only one around here that uses it often and would miss it if were gone.

You, my friend, got issues...

Flannel, blue jeans Herman Survivors, wallet with a chain. I was a stud and so were my wrist bands. At least that's how I remember it.

Woah, woah, woah now... You're talking about just the clothes, right? Nobody wearing them. I just want to make that perfectly clear before this thread takes an ugly (and I mean uuuugg-ly) turn.