1963 AFB 3461S carburetor opinion

[Rick H.]

The ‘63 I bought last October has a service replacement 3721SB on it now. I found and bought a 3461S recently and wanted to get opinions about the carb from those of you that are more knowledgeable than I with regard missing parts and incorrect parts. The carb is dated J2, which is before my early Feb car, but wonder if it might be too early for my car to be correct. There is no metal tag affixed to the cab and the hot idle compensator was removed (and the hole plugged). This seller said the carb was removed from a running/driving car a few weeks ago and therefore considering installing it on my car without rebuilding it first. I ask that the AFB experts take a look and post any other abnormalities present or should be concerned with.


Thanks,
Rick

[Arland D.]

Re: 1963 AFB 3461S carburetor opinion

Rick,

Here's a few shots of a newly restored 3461S if you want to do some comparisons. Can you post a shot of the 3461S and date stamp or describe all the characters shown for the date code.

[Rick H.]

Re: 1963 AFB 3461S carburetor opinion

Rick,

Here's a few shots of a newly restored 3461S if you want to do some comparisons. Can you post a shot of the 3461S and date stamp or describe all the characters shown for the date code.

Your 3461S certainly looks nice. Here is a pic of the date code on my carb.
date code.jpg

[Thomas S.]

Re: 1963 AFB 3461S carburetor opinion

Whoever did the rebuild did a great job.

You can get tags from Paragon. That’s the easy part. There are a lot of mis-matched screws on the one you just bought. In particular, the ones holding the primary throttle plate onto the shaft. That brass screw is correct. There also appears to have been some metal work on the bottom of the carb where the shaft is. Looks epoxy or some material. The throttle plate alignment is extremely important.

I had my original rebuilt and also bought a 2nd rebuilt so I could continue to use the car. In my opinion, there are likely other things internally incorrect and I’m basing that on what the outside looks like. Jets and rods need to be verified. Most professional rebuilders will know when a carb is beyond repair and will be able to fix defects and replace parts with the correct original.

I can point you to a rebuilder that I used and also tell you who not to use based on a bad experience I had. Private message me through this site.

[Timothy B.]

Re: 1963 AFB 3461S carburetor opinion

Rick

I would not put it on the engine until it's overhauled properly. I can tell you right away the top (lid) portion is from a 3721 SB because of differences in the bowl vents and raised castings around the lid where the air cleaned rests. No telling what venturi clusters and jetting are in there plus the main thing is the screws that attach the throttle plates to the main shaft. If one of them comes loose and falls you will for sure have more to worry about than a carburetor.

If you can find a source for those screws you can overhaul it yourself because these Carters are great carburetors, not hard to work on. Plugging the hot idle compensator is what I have seen done because if they leak you will have a vacuum leak.

[Rick H.]

Re: 1963 AFB 3461S carburetor opinion

Thanks to all that replied. I appreciate your advice and pointing out things that I had not noticed.