12 hours for a Weber rebuild – Really?
 

I am about to tear into my two carbs (40 IDA's) this weekend and am trying to estimate how much time it will take.

I expected it to be a relatively easy task – remove – teardown - clean – rebuild with a new kit and was surprised to see a time estimate of 12 hours in Wayne’s book……

Is this right? For one of both?

Thanks!
Sam

it would take most shops the better part of a day to complete the job, including getting them sorted out after the engine is fired up.

Most shops? That's funny. So.....how long would it take someone who's been working on 911's exclusively for about the last thirty years, John?

You have to remember 3-4 hours just to let them soak in carb cleaner and to blow out the passages. 1.5-2.5 per carb to rebuild and the rest is reassemble and re-tune them.

Whoa!! The customer should not be paying for soak time.

12 hours of work does not surprise me at all. Look at all the little bolts, screws, etc. on these things.

hey, $100hr for soak time. :)

That solevent doesnt work for free nowadays

After seizing up two 914 Type IV motors in row due to Weber problems (well, one had a timing issue as well), I would gladly pay 8 hrs. to save the price of those engines.

No, no John -- they caught Elliott, don't let them catch you "soaking" with a pro

I don't charge to soak the carbs but it is one of the time consuming steps that could add up to 12 hrs. If your trying to budget your time.

Is it more if I watch ?:p

I rebuilt the Zenith's on my '71 about 12 years ago. As best as I can remember this is how it went:

About 4 hours on Saturday to remove them and start soaking them. Woke up hung over on Sunday and rebuilt them on my coffee table while watching TV. Took about 16 hours. Installed them after work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. This included dropping a nut in the intake. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve it with a magnet and wire, took about 3 hours, very patient.

After that about 2 weeks of tweaking a little everyday to finely get them running well.

They still work great to this day, 12 years and 40,000 miles later.

KevinS

I soak mine overnight. Carb cleaner today isn't what it used to be, at least out here in the Pacific. I've still got an agitating basket in a 5 gal. can, and even that has a difficult time cleaning well with the new chemicals.

Berryman's B-12. The only way to go...SmileWavy

12 hours is Wayne's estimate for time needed to DIY a set of webers, not the time quoted by a shop to do the job.

If anything I think 12 hours is low for elapsed time start to finish, or about right. I did mine over several evenings, with another week or so of dialling them in. But then again, I soaked, and ultrasounded, and twiddled with bushings and accelerator pump linkage.

YMMV

I'm in the middle of doing mine but have paused because I need to replace some parts.

From someone who is doing it for the first time, I would say that 12 hours DIY is for someone who knows what he is doing and is moving along confidently. I think I'll take a total of about double that as I'm on the learning curve.

12 hours over 3-4 days is how long it took for me to do it *right*. If you want to rush the job, then sure, you can. But if you want to do it right, it adds up. These times are based upon a DIY job too.

- Pull fuel pump fuse, run the car empty
- Remove air cleaner
- Disconnect linkage
- Undo gas lines
- Remove nuts from carbs (1 hr)
- Scraping off the old gasket material from manifolds
- Scraping off the old gasket material from the carbs
- Disassembly of one carb at a time (so you don't confuse or messup parts)
- Cleaning of all passages
- Replacement of jets / cleaning
- Q-Tipping the insides
- Measuring and checking free play of throttles
- Setting the proper float height
- Reassembly
- Repeat for carb #2
- Install back on car
- Hook up linkage
- Hook up gas lines
- Reinstall air cleaner
- Adjust and tune carbs

I did this when I got my black RS clone. Took about 12 hours over three days cleaning every nook and cranny very carefully.

-Wayne