[Dick Boneske]

There you have it--97 pieces are used in the center carb used for Pontiac Tripowers from '57-'65. The automatic version had five more pieces for the hot idle vent. When restoring these carbs, every one of those pieces needs cleaning/plating/dichromating, or replacement. The jetting and venturi cluster idle circuits were unique to each engine---cubic inches, cam, transmission, etc.

The '57-'65 center Tripower carb saw only minor changes for the nine years Pontiac used that carb for Tripowers. From '61-'65, the venturi opening was enlarged to 1 1/4". Some of you are aware that the "larger" center carb used in '66 actually had a venturi opening measuring 1 3/16"-- smaller than the "small" center carb. The '66 obviously had larger throttle plates, but the venturi was smaller. I think Rochester did that to improve throttle response with the '66 setup.