Lean Idle

By the way, my rotor is somewhat loose on the
distributor shaft. You can turn the rotor a few
degrees before it starts turning the breaker
cam. I've tried 2 rotors. Is this common?

Also, one of the rear tires is leaking clear
fluid. Is calcium chloride clear? I'd prefer
not to have CaCl in the tires because of the
corosion but need some weight for traction.

Thanks in advance. This discussion board has been a big help
to many of us.

Danny

The Marvel carburetor is a great little example of early engineering and will last forever but the idle mode is lacking to say the least.

I don't know which carburetor you got from Don but if you got an original Marvel it is probably a rebuild and it may need to be lapped between the two halves of the carb. If it is a look alike it may never idle. They are even worse in the idle mode.

Here is a file I have on lapping the Marvel to acheive best idle.

In order for the Marvel carburator to idle the gasket that goes in between the bowl and the throat of the carb. Where the two surfaces mate must seal completely this surface is sometimes not finished very good on the marvel and their may be some uneveness around the edge of the two mating surfaces especially if the carb has had a few too many brogan adjusts.(pecked on with various and sundried things to stop it leaking etc. These mating surfaced can be leveled by Lapping them on a good sheet of about 100 grit wet or dry sand paper laid on a flat solid surface. The tow small blind rivets that hold the float hinge to the carburetor housing must me pried up so that the hinge bracket can be removed. Use a figure 8 motion till all the bumps are gone. You can also do the same thing with a large flat file but it won't be as flat as lapping.The object is to prevent any air leak where the idle Passageway connects between the two surfaces. If you get this sealed properly it will idle.The passageways also must be free of any foreign materials. The best tool besides compressed air that I have found to clean out the various size passages and orifices is a welders tip cleaner plus compressed air Added on Date: 15:49:36 1/27/99

Does anybody out there have a look alike that idles smooth at low RPM?

I'm hesitant to taste something that I don't
know what is. If I could get one of the cats
to do it, I wouldn't mind loosing one of them,
but I still wouldn't know if it was salty
or not:) Maybe I'll test it myself. If Zane has done it, I might live through it.

Have you noticed if it is common for the distributor rotor on a front mount to be
slightly loose?