Piston Lifters.

When I had the carbs off the car to fix the choke boss, I discovered that the piston lifting pins were missing. Apparently, the carbs run just fine without them, but the idea of a missing part (not to mention unfiltered air entering the carbs) was driving me nuts.

Conveniently, while I was digging around inside the car last weekend, I found one of them and was able to use it as a model to make two new ones.



I started with a 1.5" length of 1/8" diameter brass rod, soldered a 0.54" length of 5/32" brass tube over it, then soldered another 0.54" length of 3/16" tubing over that to get the correct diameter "shoulder." I used K&S Engineering's rod/tube, each size of which conveniently nests inside the next successively larger size. It's available at most hobby shops and many hardware stores.


K&S tubing/rod nests neatly inside itself

I don't have a lathe, so I chucked the tube/rod assembly in a drill mounted on the handy Crafstman drill stand I got for my birthday this year, and worked it with various files. I used the tip of a needle file to machine the groove for the e-clip (located 0.20" from the end of the pin).


ghetto lathe



I got a couple of 1/8" brass washers, o-rings, and springs from the hardware store. I couldn't find any small e-clips, so I had to buy a 20-piece e-clip assortment from Kragen.



Everything fit as planned. Now, if I could just figure out how to properly tune these darn SUs...