Buying a Carburetor Kit

When finding the right carburetor kit for your carburetor, it is important not to rely on the vehicle application, but to use the carburetor number. It is easy for someone to sell you any kit that is close, but they aren’t paying the shipping, you are, and who needs the hassle of shipping kits back and forth until the correct kit is found.

Carburetors are 30 or more years old and the chances of the carburetor having been swapped out is high. Even if you think your vehicle is using the original carburetor you should still be using the carburetor number. It would be easy to forget that 40 years ago, the carburetor was replaced because of some kind of problem. Replacements were often different carburetor numbers than the original. I often hear “I know it is the original carburetor”, just to find out later that “the kit doesn’t work”. Guess what? The carburetor turns out to be non original. Take a little time and do your homework before you buy a carburetor kit.

Where is the carburetor number?

Many carburetors had a tag placed on the top of the carburetor, usually held on with a float bowl screw. Some manufacturers use a tag and also stamped the carburetor somewhere, and still others only stamped the carburetor. Want to know where your carburetor may be stamped? Carburetor Identification

So, your carburetor doesn’t have the tag anymore and there is no number stamped anywhere on the carburetor. What do you do?

  • Determine what type of carburetor it is. Not just the manufacture, but the series also. Don’t call me up and say you have a Holley 1 barrel that needs a kit. I can’t help you with that kind of information. Just to get started and at a minimum you need to know if it is a 1904, 94, 1940, or some other series. It wouldn’t take very long to poke around on the internet and find a carburetor that looks like yours. Still not sure, email me some pictures of the overall carburetor. I can probably identify it. This still won’t get you a kit number because a carburetor type could use four different kits.
  • Visit my YouTube channel and watch some of the videos. you may discover your carburetor type there.
  • Once you know the series you may need to take your carburetor apart. We want to get some hints from your carburetor parts.  I say may because in some cases, just knowing the carburetor type will be enough. For example: My Carter BB kit comes in two numbers. One fits all without a dashpot and the other fits only the dashpot type. My listing for this kit explains how to determine which one you have. In this case you could easily come up with the correct kit.
  • Measure the accelerator pump. You need to know the overall length and the cup size. I try to add this information for each carburetor kit under the technical info tab.
  • Measure the orifice size of the float seat. This is the hole where the gas comes through (the round brass thingy). You are going to have to do this with some kind of tool that will closely fit the hole. A set of small reamers are good for this. Small drill bits can also be used but you will need to convert any fractional measurement to decimal.
  • Put the carburetor type in the search box on my parts site. Mike’s Carburetor Parts
  • carburetor partsNow visit each carburetor kit product listing and compare your information with the information in the technical tab.
  • Compare your gaskets with the gaskets in the product picture, or video.
  • Another possibility would be to find a part number stamped on your carburetor and then match it up in a carburetor parts manual. Carter was one company that was good about stamping part numbers onto each part of the carburetor.

So, do your homework and get the correct carburetor kit the 1st time around. Don’t settle for a kit that might fit.

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