I called them first but it was a Friday afternoon and I had to be home 4 hours away on Saturday. I was told that it would be Wednesday before he would have my Autolite 1100 back to me as he didn't have one on the shelf. The trip took me 8 hours btw because of carb issues. I hate rumble strips. Many miles running the shoulder in top gear with the choke pulled idling to the next off ramp.
Kragen & O'reilly's farms their parts out to the lowest bidder. I've never had any issues with NAPA parts
Its like that here I was looking for a rebuild kit for the rochester b thats on my 1946 chevrolet 3/4 ton. The guy at the counter at the local NAPA didn't even take a chance to look at the carb as soon as he saw it he said we can't help you its to old. But Westwood Autoparts next door which is run by a bunch of old timers who know what they are doing found me a rebuild kit and had it at the store the next day before lunch!
I just rebuilt the carb on my Lincoln... took 5 minutes to yank it off, and maybe 2 hours on the Kitchen table to yank it apart, clean it and pop it back together with the rebuild kit. And that included fixing the stupid leaky float. Maybe it's me, rebuilding carbs has always been pretty easy for me. Reinstalled it, made some adjustments and the gas sucking pig is happy again. But the problem is these days that nothing uses carbs, or Generators, or all metal radiators that can be rebuilt. New OEM stuff on new (boring stupid plastic) cars has gotten so damn reliable and combine that with so few cars out there that there's not many rebuilders left, and a lot of the ones left work to a price, which means shit. Go to your local supermarket parking lot and I challenge ya to find more than 1 car in the parking lot with a carb on it. I think the last car sold that used a carb was around 1989. Generators? I don;t think they've made a car that uses them in over 40 years. So it's like my mechanic said when the Lincoln's radiator blew open for the 2nd time and I was ready to go to the radiator shop with a baseball bat... The problem is, there's just not that many guys around who do this anymore and we're talking about parts for cars that are less than 1% of what's on the road.
I spent 45 minutes composing a detailed reply to this, and then the Internet took a shit and I lost everything. Here's the short version : over the last several years I have had very good luck getting rebuilt carbs from (get this) J,C. Whitney. These were carbs I bought to use on a temporary basis while I was having the originals professionaly rebuilt. They included a Holley 4160 and a Quadrajet (both $189.95 no exchange) and a 2GC for $129.95 (no core charge either). The carbs worked great, but it takes 4 to 6 weeks and the cosmetics aren't the best. They have someone local (Chicago) do them; I tried to find out who it is, but they don't deal with the general public. I bought the last one about a year ago, so I don't know what the deal is right now, burt it was a good deal for me.
Whenever I needed a rebuilt carb, I used Recarbco. They do everything in-house and I have never had a problem with them.
Ok. Now I'm just having fun with O'reilly's and their junk rebuilt carbs. Rebuilt Autolite 1100 number 4 came in today. It was FUBAR like the rest. The last three the vent valve rod was missing and there was a plug in its place. This time there was no plug in the vent. This would have been a disastrous fuel leak. Now let's see what number five has to say.
Autolites are pretty easy to rebuild even for a novice. The only carb I won't touch is a Q-Jet, got a crappy batting average with them. Do you still have your original core? Bob
O'reilly's is sending my original back to me. My carb puked 4 hours from home at a buddies house and I only had 2 wrenches and a combo screwdriver. Otherwise I would have rebuilt it.
I quit buying reman carbs from the chain stores....they're all made overseas. I now go to swap meets and buy old originals and rebuild them myself.
first off never by a rebuild crab, go to a junk yard and try to find an original one if you can and as far as O'Reillys call that store manager and he or she wont take care of you the call their corporate office that will get shit done then
As far as I know, there is only ONE large commercial carburetor rebuilder left in the USA, and possibly a few small ones. I do not know if these rebuilders are used by which parts chains, OR if some of them use overseas rebuilders. For at least 60 years (I have documentation to prove this, not just my opinion); the commercial carburetor rebuilders have "grouped" several different carburetors together under one of their part numbers. You can easily prove this by looking at any aftermarket carburetor listing and check how many original carburetor numbers "cross" to the parts house number. Within this grouping, ALL carburetors are RECALIBRATED to the rebuilders specs, regardless of the original specs. All idle tubes are resized, all jets are resized, etc. Also, vacuum takeoffs necessary for the use of any of these carbs are pressed in to the carbs that did not have them originally. And as a general rule, hot idle compensators are plugged as they require some time to make sure they work correctly. Since the hot idle compensator is no longer functional, vehicles with auto transmissions may experience stalling in hot city driving. Finally, the original tag was removed so knowledgable customers did not know they were getting the wrong carb. A far better scenario for the enthusiast is either building your carb yourself, or having your original rebuilt by a local mechanic to original specifications. Chances are your parts house rebuilt carb will NOT perform as well as your original; but it was "cheaper" (at least it appeared that way if all you compare is initial price). And to those who might think this is a "grind my own ax" post; it isn't. Due to a ridiculous backlog we are NOT accepting customer carburetors for rebuilding. This post is strictly informational. Again, do it yourself; this is a hot rod forum, not a remove and replace forum. Jon.
When my wife and I had a dedicated run from Dallas to Laredo to Los Angeles to Dallas, we frequently took truckloads of parts to Laredo to go down to Mexico for rebuild. There would be "watermelon boxes" full of alternators, starters, etc.
The problem with finding them in a junkyard is that the Quadrajet hasn't been made for 21 years, now. The odds are good any car you find in a junkyard has had a rebuilt carb, and guess where it came from? Unless you can decode the numbers on the carb and confirm it's original, you're no better off than you would be at a parts house.
years ago i got several rochester b's from oreillys, they were all tomco. i had about a 50/50 sucess rate. and like they said if you need a 292 carb you will get a 250 rochester b. that was ok when they were $50. i have rebuilt the last several and i'm no carb pro. they always run better and sometimes real good. the problem is the kits are getting higher and higher.
Do a little research & you'll find , in many cases, autozone ,o'reilly.napa car quest , are all selling the same rebuilt's by the same co. water pumps , starters , alternator's , etc,etc..... dave
go to ford barn ask kentct or here on the hamb is dickster he gave me the right kits with correct no chinese parts and it works like a bloody dream...go to o reillys,auto zone etc if you want a car air freshner..go to the guys who are in the same hobby as you and it will be done right
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