Dimensions for bottom of Carb

[odiekokee]

I need the dimensions for the bottom of the carburettor for an '88. I'm gonna draw up the adapter plate, and need a place to start. Need to know bolt pattern/locations, overall dims, and any protrusions.

Gonna be mating up to the escort 82 carb, so if someone happens to have that, shoot me that too.

Much obliged.

The file will be available in SolidWorks once it's done, or other 3d formats, may even release an actual print of the part once it's done.

Thanks,
Byron

[Banana Bonanza]

You dont have either a Festiva carb or a Festiva carb manifold? Are you converting a fuelie Festiva or something and yet to find a manifold?? Maybe easiest way would be to buy base gaskets for both Festiva carb and the early Escort carb. I would say the Escort carb is standard Weber bolt pattern but not 100% sure of that since I dont have one.

When I made my adapter plates (out of scrap 1/4 inch steel) to use weber, I just made a cardboard pattern of the Festiva manifold for one plate and used base gasket that came in rebuild kit for my Weber as pattern for the other plate. The work is in shaping the metal not in making a pattern.

Tominmo found this weber adapter kit for $42 for a '82 Mazda GLC part #99004.673 that looks like it will fit:

at http://www.webercarburetor.com/Image.../99004.673.htm

Oh and here is pic of base of carb I replaced with Weber on my car.

[odiekokee]

Well, I have a weber/holley carb from the '82 escort on the way, and the stock festi carb still on the running car. Trying to minimize downtime by having my adapter ready when it gets here. I need to know the locations of the holes to the manifold and the carb, and the bolt sizes, so that I can use countersunk head bolts (in SS if i can get them in time) from both sides. The gasket idea is a good one as I'll need them both anyway.

That thing you show above, works for escort to festiva mount??

[Banana Bonanza]

Neither TominMO nor I have seen the $42 weber adapter from webercarburetor.com up close, but in a discussion in another thread both think good chance it would work.




Its two plate kit and the plate that bolts to the manifold looks exactly like weird shape of opening for the Festiva. Bolt holes look to be simularly arranged. The other plate is for weber so if the Carter-Weber uses same bolt pattern, it would work.

I also posted in yet another thread a picture of a one piece weber adapter for a Ford Laser in Australia that looked spot on. Unfortunately they were selling adapter as part of a weber kit that included a carb for some crazy price.

The pic I posted is simply the bottom of the OEM Festiva carb off my car.

As to bolts rather than chase down some specialty bolt, for bottom plate I just took one of OEM studs to local farm store and got four regular metric bolts correct size and thread pitch from their specialty bolt selection and tapered their heads with grinder, then cut slot across top with dremel. Worked fine, then for upper bolts just uses closest size SAE bolts that would go in holes on the Weber and ground down heads on them to countersink. And bolts to hold plates together dont need to be countersunk.

Stainless would be nice, but you dont need to torque any of this down within an inch of its life, even grade 2 standard generic bolts are strong enough. Since you are screwing into aluminum, might want to use some antiseize or something on threads in case you ever want to take it off again.

Actually if I was going to do this any fancier (I just wanted it to work, didnt care about looks), I would instead just have gone for the $42 weber adapter where they already did all the work and provide all the hardware. Its for an '81 Mazda GLC, so just go to parts store and compare base gasket for the '81 GLC with base gasket for Festiva to be absolutely certain.

[odiekokee]

OO..... I didn't realize this was a still available thing. for $42 i think it's worth the investment. Thank you! (Saves me time in the machine shop scratching my head and making up new profanities and combinations of existing profanities)

[Banana Bonanza]

Just do the homework, none of us has a personal up close experience with the '81 GLC adapter. It looks right but that doesnt mean it is right. As I say compare an '81 front drive GLC base gasket with a Festiva base gasket. If they match up AND if the Carter-Weber Escort carb uses standard Weber bolt pattern, then you are all set. Friend had an early Escort and I'd like to say the Carter-Weber carb does use standard Weber pattern but its just been too many years and it wasnt my car. I do know the Vega and Pinto Holley-Weber carbs definitely used the Weber pattern cause I used one on my old 2.0L Volvo engine along with the Weber conversion manifold.

[odiekokee]

I had info on doing the swap somewhere along the way, and now that i have all the bits and pieces, i can't find it. Anyone have a clue they could loan me?

[Banana Bonanza]

There are several threads on weber and carter-weber carburetor. Which are you looking for? Basically you remove your current carb and clean the manifold where carb set of any and all residue. Assuming you bought the adapter above. install bottom plate using a gasket, then gasket between and install top plate, then another gasket and install the carburetor. You will need to run a hose from one side of vacuum advance on distributor to the vacuum port on base of carb (pick the one with zero vacuum at idle if your carb has more than one). Festie distributors have two chamber vacuum advance. Pick one and block the other. If car doesnt run right afterwards, swap connections. One is advance, one is a retard. And you have to connect throttle cable. And choke depending what kind of choke you have. The Carter-Weber as do many of the Webers has electric choke I think. I have a water choke on mine so had to splice into a heater hose. You can also get one of those universal manual choke conversion kits from any auto parts store in HELP section and replace whatever comes with carb with that kit.

Thats it. Oh you will need an air cleaner. Lot aftermarket cleaners for the Weber. Think the Carter-Weber has squarish top so you probably either need to find an early Escort/Fiesta cleaner or make your own. I have Weber carb but am cheap so made my own out of an old flat bottom chrome "hot rod" cleaner. 10 inch works fine and you can find normal off shelf air filters that fit. Oh you also either need to route pcv hose to the air cleaner or use an after market breather clamped to the nipple on the valve cover.

I guess if you've never done this sort of thing before, it could be bit confusing, but really pretty simple compared to the OEM carb setup.

If you are using Carter-Weber somebody posted a thread with all kinds of pictures.

Post pics as you go and I or somebody will help, though doubt you will need much help once you get into it.

Oh and since none of us has used the adapter kit, tell us what you think of it.

[Banana Bonanza]

The guy with the Escort carb is Festy46. Here is only thread I found and pics are gone or didnt load for me anyway. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=17594

I am not finding it but know he posted bunch pics on some thread.

[odiekokee]

Well, neither plate of that kit matches the gaskets. I don't have the carb off the car, but assuming i have the right gasket, the stock side won't fit, and I checked both the gasket and carb base on the escort carb, no luck there either. Suggestions?

[TominMO]

Well, neither plate of that kit matches the gaskets. I don't have the carb off the car, but assuming i have the right gasket, the stock side won't fit, and I checked both the gasket and carb base on the escort carb, no luck there either. Suggestions?

Looking at that bottom plate from the kit (the left one in the pic), and the picture that Banana provided, the bottom kit plate looks like it would be perfect for the Festy manifold. What do you mean when you say neither plate matches the gaskets? This kit is of course made for a Weber application, so yeah, maybe it won't work with an Escort carb. But you might be able to adapt the kit plate for the Weber carb (the right one in the pic) to the Escort carb, and custom-make a gasket out of generic gasket material from the parts store.

Another option: using the Festy manifold base gasket and the Escort carb base gasket, take them to a machine shop to see if they can manufature a one-off adaptor plate out of aluminum for you.

[odiekokee]

Well, that's kinda what I had planned, partially. I am the machinist doing the work, and one-off prototyping is my thing. I was just hoping to get out of doing the work myself...I've got plenty of company work to do, without gov't projects. The festy side, the 2 "bottom" holes match well, the other two are about .300" under length, and the hole nearest centerline is about .100 too near center. The carb side holes are about .250" over length. The hourglass shape on the festy side plate also appears to be inverted. I'll probably just make new plates based on the concept here and go on with business. Now i have to figure out how to make the carb work. Not sure what's what. It has electric choke that I don't know what to do with, and some other doo-dad attached to the second (high throttle) butterfly opposite side from throttle. >.<

[TominMO]

For electric choke, just attach it to a wire that is hot when the ignition is on.

[odiekokee]

hwo does it know when to turn on and off?

[TominMO]

hwo does it know when to turn on and off?

That's how it works on Weber carbs; I think the "hot" wire heats up a coiled wire in the choke, which then gradually opens the choke as the wire heats up and uncoils. The wire stays uncoiled while the car is running, obviously, then cools down and re-coils when you shut off the ignition.