Now that the fuel pump is up to speed, the next wea

k link is the carburetor. It looks awful and appears to be putting fuels everywhere except where it’s supposed to. This car has the original two-barrel Autolite 2100, and the rebuild kits are available at the usual suspects, for just about

$10, which includes the needle valve and seven gazillion gaskets, which is absurdly cheap. This thing needed cleaned in the worst way. The acceleration jets were both clogged, and so was the fuel filter. There’s rust everywhere, and if I could reproduce the process for making the gaskets and membranes this crispy, I could probably sell it to a fast food chain for a billion dollars.

Quite a pleasant evening project, actually, and as easy as it could be to put the rebuild kit in, with only one gasket needing minor fitting, and that’s coming from someone who has never rebuilt a carburetor before. After reassembly (and getting a new fire extinguisher), it now fills up to where it should, and the jets work as they should. Still nothing but backfiring in the exhaust, so we’re back to ignition.