Need BDC23 carb parts for Sandy Hook

[Tom Day]

Bill, at least at present, there's no problem with parts availability for BDC's*, from the sources mentioned above (and a few others).

[The duckbill has always been a nuisance, because rubber degrades with time.  Most rubber compounds are attacked by methanol.  Roughly six years ago, Scott Kneisel ran some tests and I recall that he found that Elder Rubber was able to mold duckbills in a very satisfactory compound.  You can swap out a duckbill in a few minutes.]

Now, finding a BDC that hasn't been monkeyed-with, and/or has survived without internal corrosion, can be a challenge.

Some guys have BDC's that work great, and wonder what the fuss is.  And whenever they change engines, you'll notice that they keep that same carb and slide a different motor underneath it.  Hence Gary's point.  If you DON'T happen to already have a well-behaved BDC, then a brand new pair of tried-n-true Tillotsons looks VERY attractive.  (Bill McCornak is setting up a pair for me now.)

* The one BDC part I haven't been able to find is a rubber-tipped inlet needle for my BDC-16 (originals were brass or aluminum).  I bought a rubber-tipped needle about 4 years ago from Perry Blair (MarMax) but he doesn't have anymore.  It's on my list to call and cajole him into making another batch.  (Anybody know of another source?)

Doug, is the inlet needle the same as  a BDC 14 or 23? I have a couple of them that I wasn't going to use because of the ethanol in the gas these days.

The first time I tried to run methanol back in the '70s, the engine just shut off after a couple of laps. I assumed it was because the rubber inlet needle swelled up and shut off the fuel. I changed to a plastic needle and it ran fine after that. So, even though I'm going to run gas for Sandy Hook, I put a plastic needle in (just in case).

Still waiting for my care package of carb parts, but I'm also waiting on battery cables for my starter. Everything else is done. With a little luck I should be ready to fire it up this week!

Back in the 70's we had to keep the inlet in alky or soak it long enough to swell it up to maintain the fulcrum arm setting.As I remember it you pretty much had alky running thru the carb all the time and had to pinch off the line or hold your finger over the dump tube on the lineup before the race started.

Plastic needles don't seal well so keep your rubber tipped one handy. We run gas with no ethanol in ours.