I have been reading a lot of threads from users Bashing a 1945 Holley..I have a 1986 d-150 with this carb and it gets 25mpg with a a833 4spd tranny..I can sit a glass of water on the engine at idle and wont even jiggle..My friends are amazed at how smooth and quiet this truck is and i honestly have to look at the tach at times to make sure it is in fact running..I rebuilt this one and it's so far been fantastic...Works for me

It sounds as though your truck and engine are in great running order. I've had good luck with the few 1945 carburetors I've owned as well. On the other hand I've experienced numerous junk 1920s. The grammar police want you to know there is no W in the kind of rap which refers to a reputation. http://grammarist.com/usage/bad-rap/

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Joshua

I have no problem with the 1945. It is a smidge more complicated than a 1920, but is a fine carb if in good condition and adjusted properly. The one hesitation I have when it comes to using a 1945 is that the 1945 was used when Chrysler was using the lean-burn computer systems and some 1945 carbs do not have the correct vacuum port to run a non-lean-burn distributor. One needs to know the original applicaiton of a 1945 before being confident it will work on one's vehicle.

Early 1945s (first year 1974) were calibrated very lean, in combination with other strangulation measures to squeak the new cars through their emissions type-approval tests so they'd be legal to sell. Because Chrysler (and the rest of the American auto industry) chose to try to get by on the cheap, the cars ran poorly. The 1945's basic design is better than that of the 1920 that came before it; with appropriate calibration and jetting they can run very well.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

When the Lean Bum on my truck fried, I swapped on a 1945 and it ran well until the throttle bores wore out and created a vacuum leak. I could have had the throttle shaft rebushed and gone another few years, but I swapped it out for a 2 bbl intake and a BBD. Nothing really wrong with a 1945 if the throttle bores aren't worn and it's jetted properly.

Now, the 1920 has proven to be a real POS. I used one for a summer and it never ran right no matter what I did.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

The big takeaway: all of the carb makes and models used as original equipment have benefits and drawbacks at the design/construction level. But at this late date we don't usually have the luxury of picking unless we're prepared to spend a lot of money and wait a lot of time. So the design/build drawbacks of any given kind of carburetor take a back seat to the condition of any particular, individual carburetor. A carburetor in better condition is going to run better than a carburetor in poorer condition. A carburetor with calibration more appropriate to whatever it's going on is going to run better than a carburetor with less appropriate calibration.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan pretty much nailed it...

The 70's weren't exactly a high point for mopar quality control either, so between the emissions hose routing, and calibration, jetting, etc... they didn't exactly get a good reputation -my Aunt bought a new 1976 225 Valiant, and it was in the dealership's shop 2 times because the float in the 1945 sank the first time... one of the floats was tweaked and jammed against the bowl wall the second time... not sure what happened the 3rd time, but my grandfather rebuilt it and it ran fine for a few years then my aunt traded it off "before something else went wrong...."... oddly my Dad's Feather Duster lasted longer and ran well compared to my Aunt's car...

Just a side note: the 1974's our family has owned with 1945's were horrible between cold and fully warmed up. In fact pretty dangerous in that heat curve. The 1975's & 1976's were waaaay better when properly adjusted. We are still running 4 cars with 1975 & 76 1945's. I agree, it was the first year of EPA reg's on these, and the OEM's didn't do well.

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"Louise", a 1976 Dart Custom project, (now sadly reverted to being just an "organ donor" to our other project Darts.)

Brings to mind a line in a jingle from a long forgotten big name gasoline company during the crappy drivability off the showroom floor years of 1973-4.

"A funny little let-down when you put your foot down, and that's what's drivings all about."

Add implied using there juice would prevent hesitation... Yeah, right.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Fixed it for you

My dad's Charger would ping at idle on the regular gas of the day. His trick was to add a third of a tank leaded regular to the tank.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.