I`ve given my buddy a `67 Buick Carb to rebuild for me but after disassembly and clean up the needle and seat from the new kit that we bought for this particular carburetor# is not the same as the one we took out?can someone please help me find where or what needle & seat i need or have?can someone provide me with a pic of some needle and seats so i can point out the one that was in the carb please? Thanks
to be alittle more specific the one we took out of my carb looked like it has a rubber plunger on the top of it,it looks like a plunger,the one in the kit does not look like this type at all??
needle and seat When you take the top off the carb the pump is on your right with the inlet facing you. Then you remove the gasket,power piston assembly and the plastic block around the float. When you lift the float out the needle should come with it IF the small hook is in place. This NEEDLE is triangle shaped on most carbs and the NEWER ones have a rubber tip on them that keeps them from leaking by. This needle is about 1/2 an inch long and 1/8 to 3/16 in diameter. The seat that this needle goes in is brass with a big screwdriver slot acrossed the top to take it out or install it. I've seen different versions of this assembly but the one described here is the most common. Hope this helps Rich
George, The 1966 and some early 1967 Q-jets used a very unique fuel inlet system. Don't know that I would call it a needle and seat. It was a type of plunger system as you described. Somehow the weight of the fuel on top of it would help create a more positive seal and prevent leakage. From what I can remember, most mechanics were puzzled by the design and even though it was a better system GM went back to the more familiar type of needle and seat setup. Now the problem you have is that the early setup may no longer be available as it was used barely over 1 year. You can try a couple of things. See if you can get a 1966 Q-jet kit. You may not be able to use all the gaskets, but it may contain the part you need. If not, you can try contacting "The Carburetor Shop" in California. They may also carry the part or there may be a modification kit so that it can be converted to the later design. I hope this gives you something to go on. Good Luck, Mark
That explains why it looks different than what the kit contains,hopefully i can find it somewhere thanks alot for the info Mark. Thanks
I had thought you could replace that style with a standard needlle and seat?? GM went back to the normal stuff since those ones caused a lot of trouble. I saw some info online somewhere, will see if I can find it again... later Tim Edit, is it the one on the bottom of this page? http://www.carburetion.com/Quads/r4needle.asp
Tim,the ones in all the kits i have look like all of the ones on that page,the needle i was refering to looks totally different,i had to locate an NOS rebuilt kit and that had the correct one in it. Thanks
The really goofy, '66 balanced-pressure fuel inlet valve was recalled-or at least superseded by GM because of fire hazard. A rubber diaphragm was all that stood between a fine running car, and uncontrollable fuel leakage with attendant fires. I think this was primarily an Oldsmobile deal, I don't see any mention of it in my Delco carb manual for Buicks. As a result, those '66 carbs got the name "Quadra-Flame". The balanced-pressure valve was quite a piece of engineering except for the under-designed diaphragm. To my knowledge, this was NOT used in '67, but I'm prepared to learn something new... GM shows a "modification kit" to put a conventional needle 'n' seat into those carbs, listed in the Olds section of my parts/service manual. It is (was?) part number 7036775
How can i go about changing to the newer style needle and seat so i dont have any fire problems,the one i took out was out of a `67 buick rochester 4bbl so i assume they did use them in `67. Thanks
Sorry, I don't think I can help, other than to say the original "seat" is pressed in, so I suppose you'd have to remove it, tap the casting for a conventional seat, and hope for the best. I don't know what was in the original GM conversion kit. Personally, I'd sell the carb on eBay as "Rare and Original" and use the hundreds of dollars you get to buy a new one. Can you give me the number of the carb? If I had the number, perhaps there's more info that I could dig up.
