Weber Accelerator Pump Cover Plating

[frankc]

I have a somewhat strange question - does anyone know what type of plating was used on the accelerator pump covers for Weber carburetors? I was having a batch of parts plated and threw in all the carburetor linkage along with these covers.

Given their appearance, I assumed the covers were originally yellow zinc plated, like the rest of the misc carburetor components (see "before" photo). But when I picked up the parts, the plater said he could not zinc plate them, and offered some other process (I forget the process type), which I agreed to (see "after" photo).

When I got home, I checked and discovered that the covers are indeed non-ferrous, but they feel too heavy to be aluminum (otherwise I would have opted for anodizing). Does anyone know what type of metal these are, and what type of plating would have been applied to give them the appearance of yellow zinc?

If I am unable to match the original plating, other options would be powder coating or try the Eastwood spray-on cadmium finish product, but I'm not sure how well the latter would hold up to gasoline.

Before:


After:

[1QuickS]

They are die cast zinc and were zinc plated followed with a yellow chromate finish.

This is how I refinish them after disassembly and refurbishment.

Note the enlarged holes and increased slot widths in them, they were dipped in muriatic (hydrochloric acid) acid for awhile which removed metal resulting in the enlarged holes & slots before they were pickled in the typical American carb finishing tank.

[frankc]

Paul,
Thanks very much for the response - I did not notice the amount of metal removed until you pointed it out. I suspect the plater did not know they were cast zinc either at first, and put them through the normal plating process with the rest of my parts.

Would you consider these parts still usable? If not, are replacements even available?

[Trackrash]

Mine were definitely not usable after I got them back from being plated. I ended up replacing them. Not sure of their availability at present.

[1QuickS]

PMO makes replacements that are of aluminum. OEM cover plates can be had but need sourcing; I reserve sales of these NLA Weber parts to customers who have their carbs in my shop for service. Yours might be useable, the think to check is the fit of the fulcrum pin, if loose then it might be possible to seat it with a good epoxy. The sealing surface needs to be flattened by sanding against a flat and hard surface. Your top covers have the reinforced perimeter which is stiffer than the earlier versions so I would think you could use them with confidence. If the slot is quite wide you could fill it out with a thin washer to help keep it located...

[frankc]

Paul,
Thanks again for all the useful information. I checked the fitment of the fulcrum pin yesterday, and did notice a little play. The splines of the pin still engage in the hole in the cover, so it appears it will stay put when tapped in. However, if new covers are available (and they are not outrageously expensive), then I would prefer to go that route.

I understand your need to sell your inventory to only your customers, so I will start with contacting PMO on Monday to see if they sell replacement covers (I would prefer aluminum anyway). Searching online yielded a couple of other possible suppliers as well.

One other unrelated question - how do you re-plate the accelerator pump lever with the plastic roller bushing on it? The plater said the roller might survive the plating process, depending upon whether it was plastic or nylon, but he did not want to risk it. And the only apparent way to remove the roller would be to 1; drill out the axle pin or 2; heat the roller and attempt to slide it over the end of the axle (and risk breaking the roller). I decided to leave them as-is for now as their condition is not that bad, but somewhere down the road I may want to have these re-plated when I'm doing some other restoration work.

[1QuickS]

The replacement top covers by PMO include the roller-lever arm. Contact Weber Carb Parts for a click & buy supplier of PMO parts for Webers.

[frankc]

Paul,

Perfect - thanks so much for your help. I'll be ordering the covers tomorrow.

btw, the work you do on Webers looks amazing. I know who to contact now when my Webers need rebuilding down the road.

[frankc]

Paul,

One more question if you don't mind. I have been in contact with the folks at the link you provided, but they do not know if the PMO AP Covers are a direct fit replacement for Weber 40IDAs. They placed a call into PMO yesterday to verify, and I'm not in any real hurry so I can wait (no response from PMO yet), but I'm just wondering what your experience has been regarding the compatibility of the PMO covers for both PMO and Webers.

Thanks

[1QuickS]

Hi Frank,

You are up late.

I'll check my PMO covers with Weber throttle bodies...99% sure they work. I've build Webers using PMO accel pumps before.

[1QuickS]

PMO accelerator pump top covers will interchange with OEM Weber top covers.

[frankc]

Thanks Paul.

Funny, your response came in 8 minutes after PMO's confirming the same.

Thanks again for all your help.

[frankc]

To supply some closure to this thread, I wanted to post some pictures of the PMO accelerator pump top covers compared to the Weber covers.

As you can see from the photos, the PMOs (right) are much more robust than the Weber parts.

[frankc]

PMO pump covers installed on Webers (with PMO fuel bar):