Holy shit it took me years to figure that one.Get a motorcraft one!

Before you crank it.... Did you put oil back in it?

Never a stupid question,like when you ask someone at the boat ramp if they put the drain plug in.

Lol, I stuck a piece of tape with "ADD OIL" on the valve cover as a reminder.

Update 8/7

I had a chance to mess around with the Jeep yesterday evening, and made a little progress.  I wanted to try cranking it again, but decided it would be best to try priming the oil pump and make sure I was actually building oil pressure.  

I still had my TDC mark lined up on the harmonic balancer, so I pulled the cap...



The rotor was almost at 6 o'clock.

I cut the handle off a large flat head screwdriver to use as my priming tool...fit perfectly in a small drill.




Ran the drill for around 20-25 seconds, with my oldest watching the oil pressure gauge on the dash...needle never moved.  I could *feel* the pump build pressure, or at least become harder to turn, but no movement on the gauge.  Finally dawned on me that the gauge was electric, so I hooked up the battery and turned on the key.  Still, nothing.  I then pulled the oil pressure switch completely out of the block, and oil was definitely pumping out the port while turning the oil pump, so its building pressure.  I just have no idea how much at this time.




Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot the switch and gauge, and determine which one is actually bad?  The pressure switch has 3 plugs on the rear of the connector.

I reinstalled the distributor, and had an odd issue.  I never could get the worm gear on the distributor to line up correctly in the same position as before.  Before I pulled it, the rotor was pointing to the 6 o'clock position.  This time, it was closer to maybe 7 o'clock.  Not sure why, my TDC mark *seemed* to be in the same place.




Once I felt good about it building oil pressure, I then tested the mechanical fuel pump.  Here's my portable fuel tank, still not ready to start pulling from the main tank yet (it really needs to be dropped and checked).




Tested the fuel pump, and its moving fuel pretty well.  Had to replace a few connector fuel lines between the hard lines, the filter, and lines going to the carb & return line to tank.  

Poured a little 2-stroke/mixed gas in the carb, and it cranked and ran better than it has since I've had it.  Idle seemed very smooth, and although it didn't run for very long, it ran longer than any previous attempts. Definitely a step in the right direction!  Cranked it a few more times to see if it would run on the temporary tank, and its leaking fuel from the carb.  A lot of fuel, from what appears to be several different areas.






Now, I have to decide if I want to try and rebuild the Carter, or possibly upgrade to a Motorcraft 2100/2150 series carb.  I know some folks like the Weber carbs, I just don't know enough about them to really make a decision either way.  I've also considered one of the import clone carbs off eBay, there are certainly the cheapest option.  I've had really good luck with import clone carbs on small 2-stroke and 4-stroke equipment, but not sure about one on an actual vehicle.  I've also never messed with a carb this size, all my experience has been with the much smaller stuff.

Brings back memories of the 79 CJ7 I had many years ago.

Alot of guys on here know more than I do,but I would rebuild the carb you have. I actually like doing those type things.

Personally, I would buy the Motorcraft unit and not dick with trying to rebuild the old one.  I haven't had a lot of good results with carbs that have sat years with today's ethanol fuels. Less headache to just buy new. Ditch the electric gauge and install an actual pressure gauge. Just be careful running the small plastic tubing supplied with the kit.  I have a small pressure gauge that screws right into the block boss so I can see what oil pressure is when I prime my AMC motors. Min pressure on the V8s is 12psi at idle and it's probably the same for the 6cyl.

I bought a Motorcraft 2150 knockoff clone from Amazon to put on my SJ for around $80.  It is about half the weight of the original unit and I figured there's no way this POS is going to work.  Got it on the engine and it fired right up and runs good.   That's the route I'd take on this thing.

Have had very good luck with Motorcraft 2bbl carbs offroad in the past.  Tricky part sometimes is getting them adapted to the manifold, and throttle linkage.  Not hard or impossible, but takes some noodling sometimes.

I'd go with the 2100.  I've had the factory BBD, a Weber 32/36, and the MC2100 over the last 25 years (I have 3 CJ's, all 85's).  The Weber was a huge performance upgrade, but required frequent re-tuning.  The BBD you have should be at least the "non feedback" model, so you COULD rebuild that.  That would be the quickest, easiest, and cheapest.

The 2100 is just stupid simple.  They used to be everywhere, and dirt cheap.  Now they're probably a bit harder to find, so your best bet would likely be to rebuild your factory carb, and keep an eye out for a 1.08 MC2100.   I would NOT get a new chinese clone.   Try to find a genuine motorcraft carb.  Any V6 or small V8 from the late 60's to the late 80's should be a 1.08.  

The first one I did came off of a 79 Mustang with V6, and the others I've bought on ebay etc over the years so no way to tell what they came off of.   You need a 1.08 though (stamped on driver's side of the bowl) and I have 47 jets in mine.   I put my first MC2100 on around 2004, and haven't touched it since (although it does need a rebuild now).   Use a factory throttle cable from a 1980 CJ7 with V8, and a Transdapt 2037 adapter plate, and it bolted on and really woke up the 258.  Again, the biggest "pro" of the MC2100 is how stupid simple they are, and mine has stayed in tune for damn near two decades before it started giving my problems.  Used to be a guy named "Gronk" who made some awesome adapter plates, but I think he's fallen off the map now with carbs getting rarer by the day.

I've since put a 2100 on my other CJ7, and tossed the weber and Jacob's ignition, replacing the Jacobs with the "TFI upgrade" also known as the "Team Rush" on the ignition.  Basically just a bigger cap, rotor, wires, and I use an MSD blaster 2 coil.

https://www.jeepz.com/forum/threads/tfi-ignition-upgrade.16904/

Still have the stock carb and ignition on the Scrambler, but it only has a hair over 5K miles on it, so I don't want to start pulling original parts off of it.  I do have a MC2100 and TFI ignition bits for it for when the factory stuff starts giving me problems.

The 2100 and "TFI" ignition both offer commonly available parts at your local auto parts place, which is something you don't get with fancier options.   The 2100/TFI combo has no perceivable loss in power compared to my Jacobs/ Weber equipped CJ, and the Jacob's/ Weber setup cost me about $800 back in the early 90's (I don't even want to do the inflation calc on that expense).

Ha, 258's usually barely move the needle at idle.

I *think* I'm going to try and rebuild the Carter, at least once I figure out exactly which model I have...seems there are quite a few different versions.

I have a FSM for my 82 and its very helpful.

On the oil pressure gauge, go with a mechanical gauge. If you don't like the plastic line that comes in the kit, you can replace it with 1/8 copper line.

I downloaded/printed one for an '81, but I'm not sure how much I will help with this particular carb....seems like it may have come off an early 70s Chrysler.

I was in the rebuild the Carter camp. Carter's have always been my favorite.

In my experience aftermarket kits are pretty genaric. There are a ton of models out there so a lot of companies will throw in extra parts. That way 1 kit fits a range of carb models. I'd take it apart so you know what it looks like and Google, "Carter 2 barrel rebuild kit". Find one that looks close and you should be fine. I have had a hard time ordering them by model.

I just don't want to end up with the wrong (or even incomplete) kit...and I'm not sure i would even realize until it until I was too far involved.

This is an automotive version of a safe thread. All that work on it still doesn't run?

Not sure which thread you're reading, but it does run (somewhat) now....just limited because of carb issues.  A lot of the work I've done was ultimately unnecessary, just sort of stuff that got in the way.

Any tag on the carb?   Most of the time, there will be an identifying tag somewhere on there that will determine the proper kit.

There usually isn't much to them.  

If the tag is missing, I'd get one for an 81 CJ7 and compare the bits in the kit to what you take off of the carb.  They usually come with gaskets for about 1/2 dozen different variations of a particular carb, so you'll have lots of extra parts in a carb kit.

Have anything positve to add to the thread?

There's some writing on the front, but I honestly never noticed it until looking at one of the pics...I'll have to look at it a little more closely next time I'm home.  Supposedly, this is the carb...

Carter Carb

@jason280  I haven’t kept completely up with this thread but I picked you up a little present today if you still need it.  Installed but never ran.  Hit me up if you want it.

Holy hell, that's awesome...I'll send you a PM shortly!

I have little to add to this thread other than:

1. Single barrel automotive carbs are (imo) pretty simple and almost fun to rebuild. I'd rather rebuild carbs than replace oil pans, fight motor mounts, or chase 1980s electrical gremlins. This might be a time for a genuine trip to a good NAPA for a rebuild kit.

2. I'm invested in this thread!

Oh boy! I'd be on this like stink on shit! Awesome!

No update, but I did finally get a pic of the numbers on the side of the carb...

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Here's a similar with tag intact, if you need to cross reference.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/387123108557

I sent an email to Mike's Carbs in Washington, they have a carb rebuild kit...just ordered it, hopefully it will be here Monday or Tuesday.

Haven't made any progress lately, been stuck on other projects....but I did get the carb rebuild kit a couple days ago.  

I am looking at a few ultrasonic cleaners, anyone use them for carb cleaning?  How do you like them vs just dropping in carb cleaner solution?

I'm guessing that you can pick up a decent size ultrasonic cleaner for about a third the cost of a bucket of carb dip nowadays.

I think Berryman's has largely been rendered useless from EPA making them change their formula.

I have two gallons I've had for years that I guard zealously

HF had a sale on their 6L ultrasonic cleaners the other day, but none in stock....may just order a Vevor chinese special.

Well.....we're waiting.

Waiting on pics of that fancy dizzy stuck in that thing!

Lol, I'm worthless.  The CJ has been on the backburner the last few weeks, been too busy with actual work, getting food plots ready for deer season, and working on the old dump truck.

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If it makes you feel better, I pulled my tan CJ7 up to the house about 3-4 weeks ago to put a PS pump on it.  My 5 year old said "Daddy, did you get another Jeep?"  

She'd never seen it before.  That's how long it's been since I've driven it.

Lol, I hope to get back on this one soon...

Update 9/15

Still tied up with other projects, but I took a little time to pull the carb off today.  Wanted to disassemble it a bit just to see what it looked like inside, I've never really taken a carb this large apart before.  I t was actually a lot simpler than I expected, seems fairly straightforward.  It was also very clean, not sure exactly why it didn't seem to want to stay running (other than leaking fuel everywhere).




That being said, I have run into a potential issue.  You can tell someone has been in it before, there are some damaged screw heads.  Looking at the pics below, the assembly directly in the middle is some sort of plunger that has two thin pieces of wire on either side (needles?).  The plunger is spring loaded, and the two pieces of wire ride in two brass fittings fit at the bottom of the bowl. I'm assuming fuel is metered out based on how high the plunger rides and how much wire is pulled out of the brass pieces.




There are two of these total, one on either side, this is one from the right side...






It came out easily, but the other one is a different story.  It was already slightly damaged, and I only made it worse...its 100% stuck.




Its not moving, but I am not sure there is really any reason to try and remove it further.  The needles still slide up and down, and its cleaned out, but not sure my OCD will just let me leave it like that.  What exactly do these do?

Other issue I noticed, one of the screws is gone holding one of the butterfly valves....not sure it needs to be addressed or not.






Other than that, there are a couple things I'm not really sure about...here are a few more pics.  I'm not real sure what the other plunger looking thing is, but it does look important!  

Those are your metering rods. I wouldn't worry about getting the stuck main jet out.

Make sure your needle and seat are super clean and not pitted. You want to make sure your floats aren't full of fuel. You can submerge them in water and check for bubbles.

ETA: plunger thingy is your accelerator pump. Soak it in gas before reassembly.

OP, you fat fingered the date update in your thread title.

Lol, that must have been future Jason....

Everything looks pretty good, it was actually much cleaner than I expected.

Update 9/16


IT LIVES!!!

Cleaned the carb out, replaced a couple gaskets, and reassembled everything.  I had to use the old accelerator pump, the replacement in the kit uses different style linkage.  

Hooked it back up to my portable external tank, poured a little 2 stroke mix into the carb, and it cranked almost immediately.  Idled and sounded great, and was able to rev up without any dead spots/hesitation.  Only problem, the bowl is flooding....so the needle/seat isn't shutting off fuel with the float all the way up.  I replaced the needle/seat assembly, does the same thing.  I even tried adjusting the tab on the float, still flooding.

I *believe* I have too much fuel pressure at the inlet to the carb, so I need to figure out how to get it down to spec.  I really need a gauge to test it as is, but it def feels like too much pressure.  

Suggestions?

Did you check the floats? If you shake it and theirs sloshing, they're no good. They need to be replaced or patched up with epoxy.

They need to be adjusted properly as well. The rebuild kit usually comes with a little card to set the height. Both need to be even. I usually flip it upside down to measure.

Also, it doesn't take much debris to stick the needle open. With your boat tank, you should be able to rig it on the bench and check everything before reassembly.

Are you using an electric pump? These things only need a few lbs of pressure, like 3-5. You could run that thing with just a gravity feed. Elevate the tank and syphon the fuel. That would rule out too much pressure.

You are using the correct fuel filter, one inlet, two outlets, correct?   One of which goes to the return line going back to the gas tank.

second the dual return port filter. that was factory, on my the 80s models. the smaller return port should have a little "orifice" in it, or, if still present, the reurn line on the driver fender (down low) will be a very small diameter. this is how the fuel pressure AND vapor lock were addressed.
by having a retuen line, the fuel gets less heat introduced while the engine is running, but the fuel level in the carb doesn't drop fast enough to allow the bowl to refill. fuel pump cavititation is a thing on mech. pumps.

Yes.