Hi Guys, I'm thinking of re-producing the Phenolic material spacers between the carbs and the manifolds. Mine have several cracks near the water holes, I'm sure they will leak if I put them back on as they are.I asked Bruce at ZTherapy when I ordered my rebuild kit for my carbs if he sold them and he said no one does. He recommended filling the water holes with epoxy because I really don't need water going into the carbs. Since I have access to a CNC Milling machine I was thinking of machining up a few sets and see if there is any interest. Several factors would come into play.

#1 If I could use a less expensive material than phenolic I could charge less. Any suggestions?

#2 How many versions were there between 70-72? Mine are 15MM thick, was there a thinner version?

#3 Water holes, are they needed or just leave them as blanks?

#4 How strong is the interest?

#5 How much to charge for a pair? Any idea what they go for now if you could find a brand new set?

The HS6 sizes would work in a pinch for 4 screw carbs, bit wouldn't look original.

Would any remanufactured spacers look original? I'm guessing not.

My local Napa guy looked at my spacers to get me gaskets and the first thing that came out of his mouth was "Bakelite". I asked him what he was talking about and he said they were made of Bakelite. What is Bakelite? He compared it to the material that used to be used on pots and pan handles that were oven safe. Maybe your old dutch oven has Bakelite on it.

I dont know but if the fit is correct for 10.99 I'd go that route if you werent stuck on all original. You might even be able to curve the flat sides with a grinding wheel to make it look closer to correct.

John

Edited March 8, 200915 yr by JohnnyO

Problem is that the spacers for the 4 screw carbs seldom go bad, and so replacements are not generally necessary. The later 3 screw carbs are far more likely to need them, and the brit-parts won't work for them.

Would any remanufactured spacers look original? I'm guessing not.

My local Napa guy looked at my spacers to get me gaskets and the first thing that came out of his mouth was "Bakelite". I asked him what he was talking about and he said they were made of Bakelite. What is Bakelite? He compared it to the material that used to be used on pots and pan handles that were oven safe. Maybe your old dutch oven has Bakelite on it.

I dont know but if the fit is correct for 10.99 I'd go that route if you werent stuck on all original. You might even be able to curve the flat sides with a grinding wheel to make it look closer to correct.

John

Bakelite' date=' kind of like an old time plastic -- used in those old black dial phones people used to have, pot and lid handles, insulating material for electrical parts, lots of different things modern plastics are used for nowadays.Bakelite, Wikipedia

Thanks for the tip John, But as Arne stated they don't seem to carry the 3 screw style.

Good prices too. If I go through with this I will mainly be looking to recoup my stock/shipping costs. we all would love to get paid for the hours of labor we put into these "toys", never going to happen. I'm not looking to make a ton of money, as long as I have to make a set for myself I may as well make a few spares and see what I can get for them. I may throw a set on ebay to see what happens then set a lower price here to return the favor of all the help I have gotten on this site.