My wife has a 64 Valiant 'vert, 225/pushbutton/no ac. The Holley 1bbl crapped out, and is not worth rebuilding according to my friend who rebuilt it 2 years ago. He had to cobble it together back then. I have several questions, and any help is very much appreciated. Note that my plan was, in a few years when we restore the car, to put an Offenhauser intake and a Holley 390 carb on the car, but I don't really have the funds to do that right now.

1) Is the carb a Holley 1920...or at least, should it be?

2) What other year Holleys will interchange with my existing linkage?

3) Should I find a rebuildable Holley and install it, or should I put a different carb on it?

4) If I should put a different carb on it, what carb should I use, and what else would I have to change?

One other thing...I've got to get this thing up and running ASAP. If I switch to a Super Six setup, the Offy/390 plans are over and done with, but if that's how it's gotta be, then that's how it's gotta be. I can't afford to do both, which is why I'd like to just throw another 1bbl on there, but I also want to be smart about this.

Again, thanks to anyone who can help me.

Mike

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1964 Plymouth Valiant V200 convertible, 225/pushbutton.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, W72, WS6, 4 speed, t-tops.

Bump.

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1964 Plymouth Valiant V200 convertible, 225/pushbutton.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, W72, WS6, 4 speed, t-tops.

1. Or a Carter BBS

2. A-body /6 up to -66

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Lasse

Signet -66 225
Holley 600 Offy-5270 Dutra Dual,regrind. cam 272 0,420 110, head shaved 0.100 slight.ported
MSD6A
A904
7 1/4 3.23

Thanks. That'll get me pointed in the right direction. Anyone else have any input? Pretty please? Anyone have a 66 or older Holley 1bbl for sale? Ready to bolt on and go would be great, but a GOOD core would be fine, too.

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1964 Plymouth Valiant V200 convertible, 225/pushbutton.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, W72, WS6, 4 speed, t-tops.

My '64 came with a Carter BBS, which seems to be a decent carb for the engine. Does your car still have the rod-operated throttle?

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

It has the rod style linkage. Will the Carter interchange?

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1964 Plymouth Valiant V200 convertible, 225/pushbutton.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, W72, WS6, 4 speed, t-tops.

The Carter will interchange, yes. The critical bit is the throttle linkage; you need that U-shaped piece that holds the rubber grommet into which fits the throttle rod. There's a bolt-on linkage adaptor that allows some of the cable-type carburetors to be used on a car with rod-operated throttle. If you have the luxury of choice, a new Carter BBS is the best way to go, followed by a new Holley 1920. If you must start with a used carburetor and refurbish it, pick a Carter BBS. Don't be tempted to take the easy way out and get a "remanufactured" carburetor from the parts store; they are most often junk, as described in this thread. Lemme take a look on my shelf and see what I might have.

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

Just got home from work and checked. I've got the U-shaped piece with the rubber grommet, and it seems to be just fine. The linkage is intact and works fine, too.

If I end up with a Carter, what do I need to do? Swap the U-shaped piece onto the Carter? Reroute any vacuum hoses or anything like that? Or is it a bolt-on swap?

From some of the info I've found, it sounds like there's different shaped throttle arms, too...is that a year-specific thing, or a car-truck specific thing, or both, or neither?

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1964 Plymouth Valiant V200 convertible, 225/pushbutton.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, W72, WS6, 4 speed, t-tops.

The original-equipment carburetors (Carter and Holley) on '60-'66 A-bodies with slant-6 engines (except '65-'66 with factory A/C) have the U-shaped piece as a permanent part of the throttle lever, which in turn is permanently attached to the throttle shaft.

The '65-'66 A-bodies with slant-6 and factory A/C, the '62-up B- and C-bodies (bigger cars) with slant-6, and the '67-up A-bodies all used a cable-type throttle control without the U-shaped piece. The portion of the throttle lever where the cable attaches is flat on carburetors up through '67, like this (look at the part indicated as "Throttle lever"):



In order to reduce the number of manufacturing variations, Holley released the U-shaped piece as a separate part that could be bolted onto this flat part of the throttle lever. That bolt-on U-shaped piece is now discontinued, but can still be found used if you check with people who've been collecting these carbs for awhile, such as Doctor Dodge on here.

Starting in '68, the throttle lever was reworked so as to have a sort of "Z" bend in it, making it impossible to use that bolt-on U-piece without extensive modification.

Trucks and vans mostly used cable type accelerators right from the start, but the throttle lever was angled differently, so while the U-piece would bolt onto some of them, it would be way out of position for mating up with the rotating rod you've got in your car.

I do have a few new 1bbl carburetors that would fit and work in your car with various relatively minor modifications. I have a new Holley that has the wrong style of throttle lever on it, so you'd need to swap in the throttle shaft & lever assembly from your old Holley. This would involve using a scratch awl to scribe the location of the throttle plate relative to the shaft and throttle body, carefully removing the two screws holding the throttle plate to the throttle shaft (filing their ends first if they are staked), removing the shafts from the carburetors and swapping them (use the new carb's throttle plate), applying high-strength Loctite (threadlocker) to the screws and taking care to get the throttle plate just exactly where it was before. You would also need to drill open a blocked-off passage and add a short length of metal pipe to enable the crankcase ventilation (there's a dimple showing exactly where to drill, this isn't hard). Then there's a Carter that already has the U-shaped throttle lever, but would need the crankcase ventilation passage drilled and tube added. Might be able to come up with a quality bench-rebuilt (not "remanufactured") Carter with the flat cable-type lever (you'd need to scare up and bolt on the U-piece). Sorry I haven't got any more new 100% drop-on units! Send me a PM if you'd like to talk about any of these.

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

A big "Thank You" to everyone who provided me such helpful input here, especially Dan. I got a carb, installed it this morning, and it fired right up. Set the idle, and that was it. My 4 year old jumped up and down yelling, "Woo Hoo, Daddy fixed Blueberry (what she calls the car)!"

This is a great site, and again, thank you very much for your help, everyone.

Mike

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1964 Plymouth Valiant V200 convertible, 225/pushbutton.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am, W72, WS6, 4 speed, t-tops.