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Thread: The Dummy's Guide to Robertson Carbing

  1. #1
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    Join Date:  May 2015

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    The Dummy's Guide to Robertson Carbing

    Hello ladies and gentlemen;

    I just got my Carb Kit from Bill Robertson and I'm trying to do the install. It doesn't exactly come with directions, but none of it is that hard if you know your car. I know the fuel system extremely well as I'm converting to carb due to fuel system issues.

    Specifically, I was having pressure issues with my K-Jet -- I wasn't getting enough pressure for the injectors to inject. However, after having replaced literally every part in my K-Jet system and having no joy, it was starting to feel like spending good money after bad. When Bill's carb kit offer came up, I decided to make the switch.

    Yes, I could have bought a 200-some dollar pressure meter tool and carefully tested every aspect of my K-Jet to find the problem. Yes, I probably could have gotten it to work -- but I didn't want to. Anyway, no need to start a controversy -- suffice to say, for my own reasons and to get around a problem, I've chosen to carb.

    ...

    So, first off, I unboxed everything I got from Bill and labeled each thing. Here's pics with my crude handwriting labels.

    My flash made the note unreadable -- so it's (counter clockwise) the baffle, a barbed bolt that I have no idea what it's for (pending inquiry with Bill), and hose clamps.

    20160709_114203.jpg

    Next, we have fuel filter (left) and fuel pump. I seriously need to not use my flash anymore, sorry guys ...!

    20160709_114354.jpg

    The carbon filter plate.

    20160709_115238.jpg

    Going clockwise from upper right, my new fuel injectors :) Or 6 blank bolts to fill the holes. 6 O-rings, and a bag of bolts and washers ... I believe those are for the manifold.

    20160709_115542.jpg

    Various greebles that go on the carb ... a bracket to mount my microswitches (upper left, going counter clockwise), some mounting hardware for the throttle and transmission cables, some bolts, and a spring. all part of the mounting hardware for the throttle/auto trans stuff.

    20160709_120100.jpg

    And finally, the fuel line tubing. I didn't unpackage these because it looked like it would be a pain in the butt to put back in the package :P

    I also had a box with the air filter assembly in it, but I didn't take a picture of it because it was already self-contained. These pictures are mostly for me to keep track of what I have.

    20160709_120334.jpg

    ....

    So with that out of the way, here's the state of my engine bay when I started. You can see, I've got K-jet installed but my injector fuel lines are going nowhere. I was doing my fuel-in-jars testing. fuel comes out fine when there's no injectors, but the second I put the injectors on ... no joy.

    20160709_120842.jpg

    I put my injectors in the jars and pressed down on the air intake plate to de-pressurize the system, then I unbolted each fuel line from the fuel distributor. I like to make a little tourniquet of shop rag around the bolts before loosening them to make sure any gas that may still be there doesn't make a mess. There wasn't much because I already took the pressure off.

    A familiar sight to anyone with K-Jet problems. SEE YA LATER JARS! NOT GONNA MISS YOU!

    20160709_123529.jpg

    Once everything was unbolted, I took the fuel distributor out. Then the air intake see-saw mixture unit thing under it. Then the front air pipes of the manifold. I carefully detached the microswitches for my auto trans, and then I disconnected the throttle and auto-trans cables from the spool.

    Finally, I detached the spool, and at this point the base of the air intake was removable. There's some bar that connects the throttle spool to a secondary spool on the air intake ... I couldn't get that to come off, so I just left them conjoined.

    The "metal trapeze" as I tend to think of the K-Jet manifold is held on by four bolts. My 4 bolts were in TERRIBLE shape; in fact, one broke off.

    20160709_144137.jpg

    I'm going to have to figure out how to extract that :( All four bolts were in awful shape, I'm kind of amazed none of the other broke.

    And then, my first look at the valley ... YUCK! It's a swimming pool!

    20160709_145125.jpg

    The sludge down there seems to be water and coolant -- somewhat more water than coolant by my estimation. The car hasn't been out in the rain or anything in the past year, but who knows what's gone on before that.

    I blocked up my injector / cylinder / spark plug holes and cleaned up the coolant lake as much as I could with what I had on hand. Going to need more paper towels :( My next task is to figure out what happened before putting the engine back together. It can never just go easy, huh?


    Stay tuned for the next exciting episode ...! Maybe next time without my camera flash.

  2. #2
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    The barbed bolt mentioned in my post that I could not figure out its purpose, as it turns out, is for plugging the fuel line return hole in the fuel pump boot.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by MountainGoat View Post
    a bracket to mount my microswitches (upper left, going counter clockwise)

    20160709_120100.jpg
    That is actually the throttle cable bracket. It bolts to the bar across the back of the intake manifold with the 7x10mm bolts. Upper hole in the bracket is for the throttle cable hollow bolt, lower hole is for the shift point cable hollow bolt.

    Throttle cable bracket, with cables still attached, stays in the car whenever you take the intake manifold off -- just like K-Jet. In this pic you can see my bracket slung over the passenger valve cover:

    IntakeValley.jpg

    Microswitch bracket is already bolted to the carburetor. You may want to take it off to attach the microswitch (much easier). Microswitch holes are slotted to allow the microswitch to be adjusted fore/aft. Position the microswitch so it is tripped when the throttle plates are fully open:

    SteveSetup4.jpg

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by content22207_2 View Post
    That is actually the throttle cable bracket. It bolts to the bar across the back of the intake manifold with the 7x10mm bolts. Upper hole in the bracket is for the throttle cable hollow bolt, lower hole is for the shift point cable hollow bolt.

    Throttle cable bracket, with cables still attached, stays in the car whenever you take the intake manifold off -- just like K-Jet. In this pic you can see my bracket slung over the passenger valve cover:

    IntakeValley.jpg

    Microswitch bracket is already bolted to the carburetor. You may want to take it off to attach the microswitch (much easier). Microswitch holes are slotted to allow the microswitch to be adjusted fore/aft. Position the microswitch so it is tripped when the throttle plates are fully open:

    SteveSetup4.jpg
    Thanks for the clarification!! That does make more sense. I'm going to review the pictures you sent me in detail when it comes time to mount the carb itself to make sure I don't have any more mix-ups.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by MountainGoat View Post
    The "metal trapeze" as I tend to think of the K-Jet manifold is held on by four bolts. My 4 bolts were in TERRIBLE shape; in fact, one broke off.

    20160709_144137.jpg

    I'm going to have to figure out how to extract that All four bolts were in awful shape, I'm kind of amazed none of the other broke.
    Electrolysis/galvanic corrosion. You've got enough meat hanging out that you should be able to put a baby pipe wrench (optimal) or a 5" pair of Vise Grips on it and break it free by hitting the tool with a hammer, like an impact wrench:

    BabyPipeWrench.jpg

    In the future hit your socket wrench with a hammer to break free other bolts, especially coolant distribution pipe (Y pipe) bolts and bolts holding on the water pump.

    Bill Robertson
    #5939

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by content22207_2 View Post
    Electrolysis/galvanic corrosion. You've got enough meat hanging out that you should be able to put a baby pipe wrench (optimal) or a 5" pair of Vise Grips on it and break it free by hitting the tool with a hammer, like an impact wrench:

    BabyPipeWrench.jpg

    In the future hit your socket wrench with a hammer to break free other bolts, especially coolant distribution pipe (Y pipe) bolts and bolts holding on the water pump.

    Bill Robertson
    #5939
    I'll give that a try, thanks for the advise. I've been dreading the Y-pipe bolts since I've read those are notoriously bad about breaking.

  7. #7
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    Constant torque is what snaps the fasteners off. Use hammering action to break them free. Put sacrificial anti-seize on the replacement fasteners. I use military spec zinc anti-seize, specifically designed for steel fasteners into aluminum (http://www.mcmaster.com/#10105k41/=137s2zg). This is the same stuff the Navy uses. I've also used hot dipped galvanized washers for extra sacrificial anode, especially in the cooling system (look closely at washers on my coolant distribution pipe and thermostat housing).

    Bill Robertson
    #5939

  8. #8
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    Just put my manifold back on after popping it off for another thread. This is the antiseize I use on the hold down bolts:

    ZincAntiseize.jpg

    Bill Robertson
    #5939

  9. #9
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    DAY 2

    Okay - so I can't install the fuel pump until parts come in, and I want to replace my water pump and associated pipes because of my mysterious coolant in the valley. I can't afford that right now, so I'm a little stuck.

    My agenda today was to remove the K-Jet stuff I didn't need anymore, and to clean up the valley as best I could for now.

    Here's what I took off:

    20160710_131256.jpg20160710_131315.jpg20160710_131322.jpg20160710_131244.jpg

    There's quite a few vacuum hoses that are now dangling. The carbon filter stuff goes completely unused now if I recall correctly -- that's why there's the filter plate included. So the bundle that goes to the carbon filter goes away. I'll refer to Bill's diagrams when it comes time to hook vacuum hoses up. I took some pictures so I'd remember what I left dangling.

    20160710_131425.jpg20160710_131432.jpg20160710_131447.jpg

    Finally, I prepared my new "fuel injectors" (aka bolts). I wanted to plug the injector holes ASAP to avoid contamination -- already I know some grit has fallen in there from when I changed the spark plugs HOWEVER... I learned the hard way that you need to put the boots, then the clamps, then the bolts in ... putting the bolts in the boots, then trying to clamp them, will not work because the bolt head is too big for the clamps to fit

    So, I put them in just to plug the holes, but I need to pull the bolts out of the boots, clamp the boots, then put the bolts in next time I'm there.

    Afterwards, I cleaned the valley as best I could. I will drain the coolant and start taking off the water pump parts next time I'm there.

    20160710_140953.jpg20160710_141000.jpg20160710_141009.jpg20160710_141026.jpg20160710_141049.jpg

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by content22207_2 View Post
    Just put my manifold back on after popping it off for another thread. This is the antiseize I use on the hold down bolts:

    ZincAntiseize.jpg

    Bill Robertson
    #5939
    I've put in an order for some.

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