Zeniths - would you or wouldn't you?

[bobswei]

A friend dropped off a pair of Zeniths off a '70 T motor. Car had been sitting for years. The idea was to rebuild the carbs but they are pretty roched out. He's talking about buying replacements but I'm wondering if these are worth rebuilding. Half of the things are siezed up, frozen or breaking when removing. One of the fuel squirters was frozen inside the body and broke off when removing. It's only an "O" ring holding it in. Can it be drilled out? The atomizer tubes are frozen in. Tried heat and soaking over nite. Still stuck. I know, most of the parts can be found but is it worth it?
Thanks for any guidence.

[Zuffenwerker]

I’ve done this job a couple times on nasty old zeniths. It’s worth it if you can do it yourself but if you have to pay someone to do it then it might exceed the cost of the carbs. Are the throttle shafts ok? If you can get em cleaned out and remove all the broken crap those carbs can tune up nicely

Daniel

[Hi_Fi_Guy]

I’ve rebuilt a few and echo the sentiments above. Just have realistic expectations. A perfect pair of Zeniths will never won’t provide the the throttle response a new pair of PMOs or a well set up pair if Webers will. If you are ok with that then you will find most of the parts are available to bring the carbs back from the dead.

[1QuickS]

I've looked at my records and was surprised to find I have serviced only 20 sets of Zeniths out of over 500 carb projects. Seems like a lot more! I quit servicing them several years ago since every time I worked on them I became irritated with them. If they are corroded then the irritation increases. Zeniths like to break shaft couplings, like yours has. This means throttle shaft removal. Squirter jets get brittle and can then break due to a seized o-ring for goodness sake! Thread pitches are not what you would think. Seized and broken screws require a careful hand and preferably a mill to center drill to extract.

If those came to me to service I would recommend sourcing a better core set to start with.

Throttle shaft fitment on Zeniths tends to last longer than on Webers.

Zeniths on a 2.2T are a perfect match but if you have another engine then expect to fiddle with them. Zenith throttle response is fine and comparable to good Webers but you need to make sure all the bits are working correctly, just as for Webers or PMOs.

I sold my inventory of Zeniths carbs and provided hands-on training on Zenith service to David Cheney: dcheney205@gmail.com

Reach out to him for parts and help as you may need.

Good luck!

[bobswei]

OK, well there's an update: I talked to the owner of these carbs, as the body count mounted, and he found a good working pair of Zeniths localy. He still wants me to rebuild the original pair but like Paul says, "If they are corroded then the irritation increases." And that's exactly what's going on. I soaked them in Chem-dip for a few days and the throttle shafts are still bound up. One did free up a bit. I've rebuilt a few Webers in my life and they came apart easy and went together easy. These are fighting on everything and breaking if not staying siezed.
Since the owner has a new pair, I think I'll return these and get back to my 914 that I'm trying to get road ready. I'll also pass on the info for parts (david cheney). Thanks!!
Thanks for all the responses. Great info.