[PontiacHO]

Purchased a “rebuilt” quadrajet from a guy. Sounded like a reasonable person. He said that “All American Carburetors “ did the work. Any opinions on their work? It runs well. Had to drill a 9/16 hole in the air breather base for the vent. Got the linkage done. Electric choke. It’s a 17057262 carb. It idles without stinking like it’s too rich. Not that this is an issue but my engine now has a more pronounced performance camshaft lope. Does a leaner carb enhance that?

[indymanjoe]

https://cliffshighperformance.com/si...orum/index.php

check out his site.lots of good info.

[Cliff R]

When I was still rebuiding and restoring carburetors I refrained from bad-mouthing other sources as it's just not cool and really never a need to do that to steer work in your direction.

Now that I'm retired I'll make up a short list of where NEVER to buy from or send a carburetor to.

National, I-5, Remco, Holley, All American, Carb Junkies, JET, .....I'll stop there as I've probably pissed enough folks off already, but the list is at least twice that long.

Every single carb I've had in here from those sources is absolutely a complete MESS and never had a fighting chance of working well on anything they would get bolted down on.

To save a lot of typing here is a link to one I got into and put up a thread with pics, good ready about commercially "remanufactured" carburetors if you have the time......

https://cliffshighperformance.com/si...LF42WLudnhRrvw

[PontiacHO]

Thanks. Maybe to add a more positive spin to this…

Cliff, taking in to account that you are retired, who would you say is doing quality work?

[Steve C.]

This might be of interest.....

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...jet+rebuilders



.

[PontiacHO]

Thanks Steve. Was curious about trusted rebuilders. Sean Murphy has closed…

[Cliff R]

I knew SMI was on their way out. Over the past couple of years or so I've had several sent here to get working correctly. Even though I'm retired from building them once in a while I'll take in some nice clean recently rebuilt/restored units that aren't making the grade. The last few that cam from SMI had multiple issues and were NEVER going to work well at all for the application they were built for. Although the finish and basics were fine, they did NOT have the correct calibrations and used "low" quality parts in them, IE those "soft" blue pump seals that don't last much longer than it took me to type this, tiny N/S assemblies that would NEVER keep the bowl full at the power levels they were being used on. "K" series primary metering rods and WAY WAY WAY too much main jet in them. For some reason I'll never understand there were huge holes drilled in the primary throttle plates, bypass air holes i n the voids filled with lead with some airbleeds enlarged where they should have been left alone and generous IFR's to compensate....duh?

I saw the writing on the wall and not much after I went back thru one of them I saw where they went out of business.

This type of work is in and out of here quickly and helps keep the bourbon bar full. Just a couple of days ago I took in a local Marine carb. According to the owner he had a co-worker "rebuild" it that was lengendary with Q-jets. Supposed to have been doing them side-line since Moby Dick thought he was a minnow, ran them on a couple of really fast cars he owned, etc. You know, a local guru-legend sort of guy. Well it didn't work for chit, would idle, but as soon as any load was applied coming out of the no-wake zone it puked all over itself and they had to limp the boat back to the pier.

Here is a narrative from a post I put up on it:

I took in a "walk-in" yesterday to help a guy out who just had his Quadrajet "rebuilt" by a co-worker who was also well known for doing them. Aside from idling OK he told me it didn't do much of anything else and puked all over itself once you got into the secondaries. So I contracted to have him bring it to the shop and stick around while I tore it down and checked things out.
Right to start with I removed the hanger and secondary metering rods one tip was bent pretty bad. This happens because folks install the top with the hanger and rods in place. The hanger and rods are one of the LAST items intalled and first removed...FWIW.

Anyhow I got the top off and all the POE and emulsion tubes were bent. That happens when you try to lift the top off before removing the choke link and link up from the pull-off to the secondaries and finding yourself twisting the top all sorts of directions to get the tubes clear of the top gasket. Ya, I know, the Youtube videos show it done that way and many "gurus" also follow that lead, but for the novice or first timer you'll end up bending the living chit out of just about everything in top of the carb until you get some practice at it or have the wife and all your beer drinking buddies there to assist.
The PP hanger arms were also bent from manipulating the top around to get it on and off or prying it out with a screwdriver and bending one arm up higher than the other.

The brand new "blue" pump seal had already swelled up to near double it's original size and the N/S assembly had a tiny hole in it that was NEVER going to keep the bowl full on this Marine application. The float was set about 1/8" below the gasket surface instead of 9/32".
The secondary throttle plates weren't coming full open and all the plates needed to be centered and indexed as to much light was showing around them. Both screws holding the baseplate down were finger tight.
I finallly got around to removing the fuel filter housing and low and behold we found the main problem. The "builder" installed a paper filter (Marine carbs use a high-flow micro-screen) and it was in BACKWARDS....DUH???
Pics below, taken this morning. The accl pump seal was twice that swelled up yesterday when it was wet with fuel!.......
[IMG]http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/attachment.php?

attachmentid=638805&stc=1&d=1724502250[/IMG]

[IMG]http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/attachment.php?

attachmentid=638806&stc=1&d=1724502285[/IMG]

[ponchjoe]

Is Ray Klemm a good builder of Qjets, any feedback?

[Joe's Garage]

I'm pretty sure Ray 'interned' with Cliff.

Lots of positive comments on FB.

[ponchjoe]

Originally Posted by Joe's Garage

I'm pretty sure Ray 'interned' with Cliff.

Lots of positive comments on FB.

Hence the wink lol

[Pepper Judge]

Originally Posted by ponchjoe

Is Ray Klemm a good builder of Qjets, any feedback?

Cliff referred me to Ray Klemm (CRK Carb and Performance) for an original 7040273 carb purchased here on PY some time ago.

Anxiously waiting for the completion . Will post some photos once done.

[tempest1964]

Just curious, how long you been waiting? In other words, is Klemm in time?

[Cliff R]

Ray worked here for many years and is still doing rebuilds and restorations.

He uses my parts and didn't forget what he learned here. Also, when he gets in trouble he asks for help and I help him sort it out.

Being a one man show he's going to have quite a backlog. If you find a "builder" out there with a 1-2 day turn-around there is probably a really good reason they are NOT busy.......

[Pepper Judge]

Originally Posted by tempest1964

Just curious, how long you been waiting? In other words, is Klemm in time?

Not a fair assessment on my carb as I initially told him I was not in a hurray and to take his time.

Might be picking up the carb in the next couple of weeks though.

[tempest1964]

Sorry, just throwing a little levity into this thread. Not trying to be a smarta$$. Just my sense of humor. You see, Klemm in time, kinda like Clementine. Oh well. Like someone once said, a joke isn’t funny if you have to explain. Carry on

[tooski]

Originally Posted by tempest1964

Sorry, just throwing a little levity into this thread. Not trying to be a smarta$$. Just my sense of humor. You see, Klemm in time, kinda like Clementine. Oh well. Like someone once said, a joke isn’t funny if you have to explain. Carry on

"Oh my darlin Clementine"That's the first thing I thought of but I didn't want to steer the thread off track.