WHAT WE DO
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Before and After
The SU carburetors are an amazingly rugged carburetors. At 30 or more years old they are probably due for some major attention. Rich-running carburetors cause carbon build up around the piston rings and valves, it also dilutes your engine oil causing accelerated engine wear. Lean-running carburetors can result in burnt valves or even pistons. Worn carburetors are difficult if not impossible to tune causing poor performance and wasted fuel – at $4.00 – $4.50+ a gallon every drop needs to used to its fullest.
Our Process…
Step 1
When your carbs arrive, they are carefully de-boxed. We try to reuse as much of the packing as possible and break down the boxes to assure no parts are left inside.
Step 2
Next we take detailed photos of our set to insure that the set you sent is what you get back. Your UPS label is removed from the box and attached to a manila wired card and follows the set through the processes.
Step 3
The break down is crucial because many sets have sat for years. I find rodent and insect dwellings inside the units often. Assemblies that have been untouched for years are sometimes reluctant to come apart.
Step 4
The wash! Everything goes into an ultra-sonic bath of hot water and our “secret sauce” mostly Dawn, and cooks for several hours and removes the years of accumulated oil and grime.
Step 5
After the parts have been sufficiently washed, they continue to the vibratory tumblers, large aluminum in larger units, hardware in smaller tumblers with crushed walnut shells to polish them up.
Step 6
When the parts emerge from the tumblers, they are hand finished to remove cleaning debris and rinsed in distilled water to remove solutions.
Step 7
“Big Boy Legos” is what I call them. Final assembly puts all the steps and pieces together, and creates the finished product. Machining is done, broken and worn parts replaced, gaskets, seals shafts, bushings, jets needles, springs update and replaced.
Step 8
Shipping, getting your carbs back to you. We use UPS, except for international shipping USPS. Finished carburetors are plastic bagged, boxed in new boxes with impact resistant paper packing, and finally emblazoned with the sucarbs.com logo, and return instructions if they label is lost.
Every restoration pays critical attention to the metering of your carburetor. This starts with the replacement of the metering needle and jet, using the recommended needle for your application (or any needle of your choice if you have special tuning). Most rebuilders offer this much, but more is required. The SU carburetor is highly vacuum dependent for its operation. Vacuum leaks at the throttle shafts are a common problem on these carburetors. These leaks allow unmetered air into the mixture and prevent the piston from raising properly due to the lack of vacuum in the system. Either of these alone are enough to cause a critical lean-running condition, combined they can quickly lead to major problems. To correct this carburetor bodies are bored and fitted with new bushings and throttle shafts. HD8 sets use teflon bushings which do not require machining. Strombergs with steel shafts receive new shafts only as required as they tend to not wear, new throttle shaft seals and bushings are installed. With the vacuum leaks solved it is important to make sure the piston rises and falls according to factory specifications. A piston drop test is conducted and compared to factory specs. Pistons which drop too slowly tend to run rich, whereas pistons that drop too quickly will run lean. Fixing slow drop is a matter of light sanding to increase clearance, fast dropping pistons have required replacement in the past. Most often overlooked are the piston springs, most carburetors I receive have mismatched springs in them. The proper calibrated springs are essential to the correct metering of fuel. Every set of carburetors receive a new set of matched springs. Bugeye Sprite H1 and TD H2 carbs do not use springs.
The float bowls are often taken for granted, but with the HS carburetors there are a couple of concerns. The bowl must be held at the proper angle otherwise the fuel level will fluctuate causing either rich or lean run conditions. Alignment is maintained with a nylon or rubber adapter and a ‘lug’ cast into the body of the carburetor. Very often the lug is broken off, I repair the broken lugs and replace the nylon adapters in all HS restorations. It is important to have adaptors in proper condition to prevent fuel foaming.
Floats are cleaned and then precisely weighed. Weight must conform to new specifications. The floats are then submerged in a ‘test fluid’ and held under pressure. The float is then weighed again; any increase of weight indicates a leak in the float. Replacement of floats as required is included in the standard restoration price. The HIF series of carburetors does have a history of bad floats. I keep new HIF floats on hand and have a good supply of used floats for H, HD, and HS series of carbs. New needles and seats are installed and the float level is set. Once assembled, test fluid is pumped into the carburetor at fuel-pump pressure. This ensures that the needle and seat are functioning properly and that there are no leaks in the fuel path.
The proper operation of your carburetors is the primary objective, the appearance is important also. Your carburetors are completely disassembled and all parts cleaned. I use state-of-the-art cleaning equipment with does not damage your parts. The connecting and choke linkages are polished. The dashpots are lathe sanded to remove any minor nicks and scratches, then polished to a high shine. Everything is reassembled using new stainless steel screws for the dashpots and float bowl covers (HS series). The result is a set of carburetors that perform and look as good or better than the new carburetors offered at more than twice the price. As a special bonus I will clean your heat shield and manifold at no additional cost.
Pricing
My price for this extensive restoration is very reasonable, especially if you consider the cost of doing it yourself. These are the currently advertised prices for the parts you would need:
[Pricing Chart]
