The Stromberg Carb

[aint no econo box]

So we ordered a Stromberg 2bbl rebuild kit from Cars....

So I was intending on rebuilding that old thing.....

But, Murphy's Law intervened, and we got a Stromberg rebuild kit, but only for an early, single float Stromberg.....
However, the replacement bits & pieces were the same, sans the correct gaskets.... And I decided to go ahead with the tear-down anyways.....

Well, I'm kinda glad I did, because that carb was so full of crud, it's a wonder it ran at all.... It was obviously rebuilt at some point in the past, and only done half-a$$ed.
For instance, the spring that goes underneath the pump piston was missing, the discharge check ball under the inlet nozzle screw was missing, the floats were out of whack, and the choke spring was unmounted....

I cleaned it out, using up two cans of carb cleaner in the process, replaced everything that I could replace, and buttoned the carb back up. About ten minutes later, I had that old Stromberg back on the engine, and fired up....
The best part is, it still works. The other part is, it doesn't run any better than before.....

In the process of tearing the carb down, I noticed that the fast-idle cam spring is toast.... It looks like somebody tried to bend it out for some odd reason.... So the choke and fast-idle cam just kinda floats in the breeze.

All in all, I am pretty impressed with the Stromberg's ability to tolerate and operate, for so long, on a crappy rebuild and general DSPO abuse. If that had been a Holley or Edelbrock, I highly doubt the car would've been driven anywhere. Heck, even with the idle-mixture screws fully seated & the choke all buggered up, the thing still started cold and ran with little complaint. I guess the simplicity of this carb does it a lot of justice, and now I'll definitely think twice about entertaining the idea of replacing the carb at a future date.

[rcull]

Sounds like it should have been intolerable to drive.