Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing carburettor problems

I have a 1983 4/4 with a 32/34 DFT carburettor fitted as standard the car has done just over 50,000 miles since new,I have noticed staining under the K&N air filter which I think denotes possible leakage, the plugs are K&N and are more black than a healthy brownish colour, the exhaust pipe has a black coating but the exhaust does not put black smoke and I used to get 30 mpg now just over 22 mpg also the performance is not what it used to be. I would be grateful for advice any recommendation, does a carburettor fail after 50,000 miles?, should I get a new one? or clean it and buy a service kit? or is there another magical solution.

Take a look at the needle valve: when they wear they allow fuel to continually bleed past them causing the float level to rise and the car to run rich. If that's it it's a cheap fix.

Certainly running rich and I agree, the evidence of possible fuel overflow (staining under the filter) points to the needle valve. Since the carburettor, at 50,000 miles, has probably never had any work done on it it may be worthwhile putting a complete kit on it. In 36 years the seals and gaskets, which were never designed to cope with ethanol blend fuel, will have deteriorated.

If you can do the work yourself it is only going to cost you about £60.

+1. Rebuild the seals etc. It is not hard to do &get gaskets that resist modern fuels.

Check the butterfly spindles though, they do tend to wear. A genuine Weber /Webcon rebuild kit should come with one included.

If the housing is worn and the spindle is very loose then a new carb is probably the cheapest option unless you know a good machine shop that can insert bushes into the body and then line ream them

Arwyn

When you consider the relatively small cost of genuine it is not worth getting a non genuine kit.