What did you do today?

[Hooli]

IMG_20200329_192859.jpgI should have warned you I could bore for England about this shit.. Despite the Coventry plate this was the demonstrator for Anglian Autos, the Rootes dealer here in Colchester. Annoyingly I know a chap locally who was an apprentice there at the time but he doesn't recall the car. Sold in autumn 1960 to a man from Braintree who kept it 30 years or so, it went through a couple of owners before my mate Jason bought it in 1997. We went everywhere in it for about eighteen months (there's a YouTube video of a Rootes clubs meeting at Burford in 1998, the car is featured at the end) before it came off the road for a reason I don't now recall. He died in 2016 and I just had to have it but it's pretty much been sitting since I got it, bar a visit to the village show in 2017. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures taken just now before putting it away. I'm not going to lie to you, this has more or less made my day just having it out under its own steam. One of four survivors this colour as far as I know, I've only seen one other though.

It is a lovely looking thing, all I'd want to do with it is tidy those wheels up a bit.

[Nibblet]

I have a few of these Nikki carbs, one is new, they were cheap as chips....unlike the Weber 36 which is a straight bolt on. So I'm going to stick with the Nikki examples, they all have the same baseplate dimensions and a few slight variations in the linkages which will be useful as there's not much space. I'm going to have to alter the original Saab rod linkages at the very least, I may have to change over to a cable operated accelerator, I also need to buy a choke cable and knob as the old single choke Fomoco carb had a coolant operated choke.
Bonus piccy of beermat gasket previously used.
Farted about with plenty of carbs before but never built linkages etc so any advice well received.
My current plan is to drill/tap the base of Nikki carb and threadlock in a piece of studding/bolt, then I can slot out the corners and it will fit reasonably well despite being undersize.

[CLINT]

I tapped the base of a Nikki once with a large bolt. Very satisfying.

[Nibblet]

I've only got a small bolt but I'm hoping that my special threadlock will help seal Nikkis hole up tight.

[DodgeRover]

What about making and adaptor plate up nice thick flat plate and fit countersunk Allen bolts in each half to marry the two together?

Have never tried a Nikki... Do they go well?

[CLINT]

I cannot vouch for them all unfortunately but yes that one did

[Nibblet]

What about making and adaptor plate up nice thick flat plate and fit countersunk Allen bolts in each half to marry the two together?

Have never tried a Nikki... Do they go well?

That was my initial thought but the holes are too close in spacing for that; at the same time they're not close enough that the holes in the carb base could be enlarged a bit. The bases of the carbs are cast iron, if they were steel I'd fill the holes with weld, enlarge the bases and re-drill.
I don't know much about these carbs except that they were very popular in the 70s as aftermarket upgrades to single choke carbs on Jap cars.

[John F]

How about if you offset the adaptor by 90°?

[DodgeRover]

Or shifted it down so one lot of holes line up then you should have enough space at the other end? You could profiled it slightly to get round the obstruction in gas flow

[Nibblet]

Or shifted it down so one lot of holes line up then you should have enough space at the other end? You could profiled it slightly to get round the obstruction in gas flow

The intermediate plate has to be square in the middle as its channelled (on the other side in the photo) from the primary choke hole to the two ports for the ventilation and brake booster, if it's not lined up in standard form those channels are open to the venturi. The only way would be to weld a sub base on the bottom of the carb-ideal but a lot of effort even if it's steel or cut slots in the corners of the car base after first tapping and filling the holes--which is what I'll start on tomorrow. More work than I'd planned but I'm buggered if I'm paying £500+ for a, new Weber 28/36 or paying a couple of hundred for some rusty turd that looks like it's been dredged out of a canal.