Ok so Im rebuilding my carb next week...got my hygrade kit enroute, and I have pulled my carb, and read over Sterling's words of wisdom on what to look for and basic ideas on how to rebuild the nikki. But I have one question. there is so much extra emissions crap that is on the carb. I already pulled the rats nest. What all can I leave off the carb? I never use my cruise so i figure i can pull that stuff too. I couldnt find anything specific along these lines, any help would be appreciated. THanks!
its quite dirty!

that and my secondaries haven't opened for ohhhh id say 2 years. uugghh.

 

Can anyone point out what I can leave off the carb when I rebuild it? I mean, all those little pump things and stuff, there has got to be some things that I can take off, to clean up the engine bay.

 

This is in the 1st gen archive: LITTLE CAT's MAZDA MANUALS It won't tell you what to pull specificly emissions wise but it helped me IMMENSLY doing my carb over. Maybe u can figure it out yourself if you have the time to sit down and read everything over since it does go over theory and how each component works...

 

You can remove everything that goes into the carb except:

oil metering lines
fuel lines
and vacuum advance that goes into the carb plate (you really can remove this too but not neceessary)

Then just plug, cap, seal everything else that goes into the carb. make the carb vacuum tight. no leaks

doesn't templeton require smog check too?

 

Also don't remove the choke if you see colder temperatures... What a biatch' to get started without one in the cold.

 

Take pictures and write notes per every 4 or 5 steps. You'll be glad you did.

I photocopied the Nikki assembly drawings, and used large zip lock bags, placing an assembly / dissassemby drawing in each bag. As I disassembled, I placed the components into the ziplock bags and used a high-lighter pen to identify each component on the drawing per each ziplock bag. Basically, each ziplock bag = specific steps as identified in the Nikki Carb Manual. Keep all the bags in order as you disassemble; then, you can simply use the bag-system in reverse to reassemble; each bag with the component and assembly drawing being "highlighted" on the assembly drawing to show you how it fits back.

I used a $20 card table, in my garage, with a new white tablecloth to disassemble so as not to lose anything.

Some may think this to be extreme, but keeping organized will greatly help.

 

and when re-assembling: the gasket between the throttle body and the venturi body is ALMOST PERFECTLY symmetrical, except for a little extrusion that seals the vac line to the secondary actuator. install this gasket upside down and the secondaries wont work. the good news is that if you **** it up, its an easy fix (about an hour)

 

Gawd, do I have to answer this question EVERY WEEK?

*sigh*

- Dashpot
- Throttle Position Sensor
- Choke Assembly (leave the fast idle rod and the part that connects to the cable, chuck everything else)
- Throttle Opener (I don't even know why 90% of FBs have them when they don't have A/C or cruise)
- Anti-Afterburn Valve
- You can remove Vac Secondaries box if you're doing the mechanical secondaries mod that sterling wrote up. Otherwise leave it intact
- You can remoive the Altitude Compensator if you can find a way to properly block the holes and you don't drive at many different altitudes

Should be it.

Jon

 

As for assembly tips:

I do my assembly/dissasembly on a giant piece of white bristol-board. Using the carb manual posted at the link above as a guide, I do each step one at a time. As I remove something, I write on the bristol board with a pen and lay the parts next to what I wrote.

So as I continue, the board looks like a display poster of nikki parts, all labled with their step and description. I take lots of pictures.

I keep printed copies of all three parts-layout diagrams with their associated lists in plastic sleeves nearby so I can identify parts that I don't know.

A container of cleaning solution is manditory. Make sure there's good ventilation but not good enough that there's wind to blow stuff around.

Patience. The round-headed screws that use a phillips screw driver are sometimes stuck in there really well. If Liquid Wrench doesn't work (which you should always have) then I found that a pair of vice grips usually can grip the head of the screw and get it out. Be forceful but gentle, you don't want to break anything.

Have the carb sitting on a brick, with a couple of shop towels to keep the bottom from getting scratched. You want it on the brick so that the linkages aren't resting on anything when you put force downwards with your screwdriver.

The manual steps aren't perfect. For example, they never tell you to take that stud out of the middle of the carburetor. It's kinda obvious when you have to do it, but I just thought I'd warn you that a few small things are either missing or in an order that doesn't make as much sense.

The jets and air bleeds can be killer, but easy enough if you take the right approach. I printed out the page that has the top-view of the carb listing all the jets and placed each on onto the sheet as I took them out.

There are only two checkballs. People often think they've misplaced one. There are three weights though. I *did* misplace one of those. Imagine my surprise when I had the whole thing reassembled and found a weight just sitting on the table. It was still beside it's step number, so I knew where it went back but still!

Strip the un-necessary crap off first, then ignore the steps that refer to them later. It makes it much easier to look at the carb as being three big pieces, a few screws and nicknacks rather than a bagfull of useless emissions crap with a carb in there somewhere.

If you need any help, post.

Jon

 

Yyou should begin to whittle down all the extranious vacuum driven components while it's on the car and running. When everything is blocked off, and you know you have nothing leaking, then yank it & rebuild it. When you reinstall after a rebuild, by my estimation, there's a 90% that it won't run very well (if at all) right away.
Why give yourself ten more variables of uncertainty while you are troubleshooting reinstallation poor-idle blues?

 

Thanks for all the advice, got the kit today and so far I have all the 3 peices apart, and all the old gasket material off. I cleaned off all the linkages, the butterflys, everything. Im getting ready to start pulling the internals out (jets, etc). If I run into any problems I will let you know. Everything so far has been VERY straighforward, so I'm not as worried as when I first pulled the carb from the car. BTW I decided to do this just the other day when I noticed that my secondaries were not opening...upon cleaning them I removed more junk than I've seen on an engine part in a LONG time!

 

I think I will put it back together as it came out. Once it is rebuilt and running, then I will yank off the remnants of the vacuum stuff.

 

The secondaries are vacuum operated and won't open while you are fooling with the carb in your driveway.

 

I know that, I tried moving them by hand-once the carb was off the car, and they were gummed shut...anyways, I finished the rebuilt yesterday afternoon. Checked everything, then double checked everything, triple checked everything, converted to mechanical secondaries (Thanks Sterling!) put the carb on the car, hooked up everything, crossed my fingers and voila! started right up! It idled abit rough, at about 550 rpms, so after a little adjusting back in forth between the fuel idle mixture and the idle speed screw, it idles wonderfully at 750 rpms! Runs better than ever and should last me til I do my engine swap, or overhaul the 12a and turbo it later this year or early next year.