8 replies to this topic

[Goatboy]

EA82 2bbl Hitachi. I am mechanical, I do all my own auto work but I have never done a carb rebuild. How hard is it and how long does it take?

[jdub]

I have the same setup. Just proceed with care and cleanliness and you will be just fine. I am not familiar with the Hitachi (yet, anyways!) but if there are any mating surfaces you are going to want to be sure they are flat against one another, and not warped. That might require a bit of 400 grit and a flat surface offered by a piece of glass.

I have rebuilt Solex, the dreaded three-plate Zeniths, Strombergs, SUs, Amal, Mikuni, and others. In all instances, I use butcher paper from a roll at one end of my bench, unwinding the paper and working on fresh paper on a regular basis. This is what prevents bits from jamming jets or hanging up floats. Just be clean and get a good manual and you are home free.

Finally, never drill out a venturi or jet. You will NEVER get the flashing off the rim of the new hole or get the hole set to the proper dimension or angle. Trust me on this one!

Best of luck,
John

EDIT: It should take you a long afternoon. More with beer.

[Karl]

I'm about to do the carb rebuild myself this weekend (with the help of my mechanic guru!) I've done a carb rebuild before and am confidant that we will get it right, but I've got two questions for y'all:

I'm going to replace all the vacuum hoses while I am at it, any idea how many feet i'll need? (87 gl, d/r 5sp, cruise contrl)

any further suggestions, or anything particular to our carbs I should know about?

much obliged,
-Dok

PS how'd the rebuild go goatboy?

[MitchP]

About 137 ft should be enough!

[beauregaardhooligan]

More like 2 miles!
Seriously, with that kind of experience you should have little troubles. Just follow the directions with the kit.
Be sure to remove any corrosion on the manifold/carb mating surfaces as coolant circulates there to warm it up. Now is a good time to replace those coolant hoses if questionable as they are a PITA to get at when the carb is on. They are notorious for developing pin-hole leaks that are about impossible to find.
It's helpful to take pix of where all the vacuum hoses go beforehand. It's easy to mix them up on installation.

[thealleyboy]

I am not a big fan of the Hitatchi design. I started working on them on the old Datsuns, and have had mixed results. In fact, if I was down to rebuilding the OEM on a decent car, I would have it done professionally. Your original carb is your "ace in the hole", and you only have one shot not to blow it.

The most important thing is to keep your parts in order during dissassembly and cleaning. It's easy to get things crossed up if you are not careful. This means lots of baggies and coffee cans. This tends to slow things to a crawl, so be prepared to put some time into the job.

The carb kit is very important too. Some of them cover many models, and have extra parts that can cause confusion. Try to find the right kit for your model.

When you get it back together, you have to deal with adjustments. I think the Hitatchis are hard to tweak, but then again I'm no expert.

I would encourage you to take a stab at it, and hope for the best. Rebuilding a spare would be ideal so that you can keep your OEM intact. Then, if the rebuild doesn't work out, you can have your original rebuilt by a pro, and still be in good shape.

good luck, John

[ccrinc]

"Carburetor is a French word meaning 'leave it alone' "!

Emily
http://www.ccrengines.com

[Karl]

I've never been good at staying out of places I'm not supposed to be in!

The rebuild went well, but of course with all those vacuum hoses it took way longer than expected. Just labeling them and getting the carb free of them took up a good chunk of time. tonight the carb goes back in and all those hoses get replaced...
wish me luck!
-Dok

[JonOfScio]

hope it goes well for you.