My carb was acting up in my van.

I thought it was a choke problem caused by the choke modulator failing.

I was on the fence about getting the Carbsonly #1234 kit a few years ago, found a pile of stock choke T'stats for <$3 on rockauto, and opted to take my chances for a while with the stock setup.

The modulator seemed to be on its way out, and a replacement is most of the cost of the Carbsonly kit. I decided last week to give up on the stock chokes and order one.

I also ran out of gas last week and the accelerator pump seemed to stop working (it's hard to see the pumpshot the way the carb is positioned under the doghouse, but it was hesitating/stalling badly on acceleration). I figured it had sucked swill into the passage, or--as has happened before--the check ball got stuck in emulsified gas goo.

I decided to order the Daytona kit (per recommendations here).

The steel parts (purge valve cap, linkages, fast idle cam etc) of the carb had nearly no coating left and were rusty, and slightly pitted.

After soaking in Berryman with the aluminum and brass parts overnight, I rinsed the steel pats in hot water, soaked in Industrial Purple briefly (a little coating flaked of of a couple parts , but it was pretty evident the coating wasn't doing it any good anyway), rinsed again in hot water, and soaked in Evaporust.

What can I apply to the steel parts to keep them from rusting over again?

I had also noticed that the choke plate was bent--i.e. it looked like it had been twisted by the choke shaft. (I was able to flatten it, but replaced it with a good spare, anyway). I'm not sure how that could happen.

I was looking at the Daytona kit, and noticed that it seems identical to the Mike's Carburetor kit I had put in a couple years ago--even the needle and seat, which I though was supposed to be proprietary.

I paid 40-something % more for the Daytona kit than what Mike's is asking for theirs. Is there really a difference?

Upon disassembly, but before removing check ball and weight, I put the accelerator pump back in the well and pumped by hand. It seemed to be working ok.

I forgot to check sooner. FAIK, hand pumping made more pressure than the linkage could and blew it out a clog, soaking in fresh gas in the fuel bowl since I last ran it dissolved the offending condition, or inverting the carb dislodged the semi-stuck check ball. No way to know now.

Any thoughts on any of this are greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you are doing good, so far. If you are experiencing a hesitation on acceleration, check the vacuum choke pulloff diaphragm and the distributor vacuum advance diaphragm for integrity.

Evaporusted parts came out good.

I was able to soak nonferrous parts for days at a time. Those parts are cleaner than I have seen them (rebuilder-supplied core from 50 gal drum of 1bbls they expected to scrap).

During assembly I cross threaded the main jet, and had to wait for a Holley tap to come in the mail to complete reassembly.

Something soluble must have been used to repair threads on one air horn to fuel bowl screw hole. When I went to reassemble it was totally stripped. (It was not, prior).

I bought a small set of machine screw taps and bits, tapped the hole, filled it with JB Kwik, let dry, drilled and re-tapped.

This did not work at all. All JB ended up stuck to tap.

I tried again by only drilling 3/4 through, and installing screw without tapping.

I made all the out of vehicle adjustments, installed the carb, and adjusted fast ide, curb idle (600 RPM) and preliminarily set mixture to pull 20" @ idle, roughly halfway between lean stall and rich flatline RPM (late non-Lean Burn carb. Only goes so rich.)

The choke did not seem to move from where I would adjust it the whole time it was running.

I quit for the day and ran some errands.

While waiting for Holley tap, I had installed a new alternator and carbsonly choke.

I had forgotten that I had pulled the 3-terminal oil pressure switch connector to i.d. the choke wire to splice in the supplied lead.

The next day I started the motor, remembered, and plugged in the oil pressure switch connector.

While on that side of the motor I looked over and saw gas leaking from the stripped screw hole area.

I turned off the engine, re-torqued all air horn screws, and tried to restart.

It would not start, and hasn't since. (fuel seems to dump internally over the wall of the venturi bypassing the gasket near where the screw is, and floods it).

I was going to heli-coil the hole, but found that no local stores have them smaller than 1/4"

I was considering making my own threaded insert by drilling and tapping a 1/4-20 SS screw, cutting it to length and installing with Indian Head Shellac as thread locker.

Poking around the internet today, I found that the outside of a 10-32 heli coil is 0.251+"

That is bigger than 1/4", and I expect the heli coil is much sturdier than what would be left of a 1/4 screw with 10-32 drilled and tapped into it.

McMaster Carr has 10-32 inserts that fit 5/16 (course, I think) standard threaded holes, but I don't think there is enough fuel bowl meat for that.

I have some aluminum MIG wire that came with my welder, but am loathe to attempt to try to fill a carb screw hole. (I'm picturing lots of burn through and warping).

I wonder if I started the 10-32 tap hole on a 1/4" screw in a vice, but only drilled enough to prevent wobble, cut it to length, Indian Head'ed it in place, let it set, and drilled in place, maybe that would leave enough metal behind to catch the screw.

I really don't want to have to wait for a heli coil set to be mailed.

I'd rather just go to a store, do some questionable hackery, and be done with it.

I found a Lean Burn fuel bowl with all good screw holes in my carb junk bin.

It seems the only real difference is the hole for curb idle screw through a thick extrusion in the casting (LB carb had curb idle screw in idle solenoid).

I guess I could drill and tap that hole, myself.

On a side note, it occurs to me that anybody doing a Lean Burn removal, only really needs an earlier throttle body. The ported vacuum is entirely contained therein, from what I can gather. If I am correct, maybe people looking to toss an unusable 1945 should save the throttle bodies for others who could use them. (Might have to punch a hole in the gasket, or something--worth looking into).

I ended up ordering a 10-32 heli-coil kit and repairing the threads, and put it together without incident.

I made one run to my rented garage across town.

Ran great on the way (save for irregular shifting as I never adjusted the downshift linkage and I guess carb did not go in exactly as it was before. This happens every time I have the carb off.)

On the way back it had some pops etc.

Yesterday I pulled out on to street after shoveling driveway to park facing out (easier to pull out that way with ice and snow).

It would not rev high enough in reverse for TC to engage.

I kept having to drive progressively downhill to get out of other cars' way.

By the time I was done, I was 3 blocks away, and much further downhill.

I let it warm up fully and limped home backfiring all the way.

When I got home I noticed the vac advance hose was gone.

I had driven uphill 3 blocks with the port open, and no vacuum signal to distributor.

Is there anything I could have damaged on the carb by backfiring so much?

What size is that hose? (not getting any hits on search engine. I can dig out Valiant to open hood and look, but if anybody sees this first, please advise. Thank you).