Carb Question

[88FestivaLX]

What should I do with the carb on my car? Should I rebuild it? Or is there a place to buy new/rebuilt ones? I still think that part of running problems this car has is something to do with the carb. I've never rebuilt one before. Is it difficult? I'm kinda scared of all the vaccum lines and everything. Any help? Thanks!

[batstiva]

I tried to buy a rebuilt one for the Batstiva, with no luck. The outfit that rebuilds them said they didn't even have any cores on the shelf to rebuild. That was a year ago, so who knows now. I ended up getting a used one from a member here. Corrected a lot of my problems, but not all of them. What is your car doing?

Rebuild kits are not that much, but never got around to rebuilding my old one because I damaged it getting it off the car.

[88FestivaLX]

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7969

That's what it's doing, ha

[88FestivaLX]

One more thing. Since I'm not by the car, does it have 1 or 2 oxygen sensors?

[Fordverde]

Just One.

[88FestivaLX]

I was just looking online and advance was listing an upstream and downstream. The only one I remembered was the one right up by the manifold.

[zoe60]

I got a rebuild kit for around $25. Not hard if you pay attention to what you are doing. Be sure to mark all vacuum lines carefully. Better off not messing with idle mixture but if you do count how many turns to bottom it out and put it back the same after rebuilding. Go ahead and replace O2 sensor 'cause it was about half of my problem. You can get a can of stuff to soak your carb in at auto parts store. I did all that and mine runs about a thousand times better now and gets way better gas mileage. Good luck!

[88FestivaLX]

I tried to take the carb off once before. All I remember is I couldn't get stuff disconnected and when I took the 4 bolts (or nuts) off that hold the carb down, it didn't move at all. Is there anything I should know or not do? Thanks!

[WmWatt]

I just gave my carb it's annual spray of carb cleaner. Don't know what's in the cleaner but is smells of ether. On a really dirty engine black smoke will pour out the tail pipe when the cleaner is sprayed into the carb. (I used to have an '82 Dodge Colt with the crappy Mitsubishi engine.) This time when I walked around to the back there was a puddle of water on the garage floor under the tail pipe. Vaccum guage is now steady as a rock. Took it out on the road, at 40 kph put the gas pedal to the floor, accellerated to 80 kph with no hesitation or surging. Nice little car.