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Where do I find ported vacuum on SU HS2 carburators?

Last post 09-04-2007, 7:11 PM by calvinjk. 2 replies.
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  •  09-01-2007, 9:15 PM 9305

    Where do I find ported vacuum on SU HS2 carburators?

    I recently purchased a "Flame Thrower" electronic distributor for my 74 Midget thinking I would be able to hook into manifold vacuum like the old distributor did, but in the installation instructions, it says to hook up to ported vacume only. I've looked all over the SU carbs and can't find any ported vacuum ports. Any suggestions what to do?

  •  09-03-2007, 7:10 AM 9320 in reply to 9305

    Re: Where do I find ported vacuum on SU HS2 carburators?

    Calvin,

    The quick answer is that the HS2 carbs that originally came on your Midget do NOT have ported vacuum. On HS2 carbs that DO have ported vacuum, it is on the front carb near the top of the throttle plate horizontally pointing forwards. These were present through the late 60's, but, since US emissions were mandated at idle (sorta made sense if you look at Chicago "traffic"), they needed a way to effectively tell the distributor that the engine was idling. Manifold vacuum does this much better than ported vacuum, but at a cost of not telling the distributor much of anything else. The bad news is that it is beyond most home mechanics to add ported vacuum to a carb, because it involves a precise hole or slot that is gradually exposed to manifold vacuum as the throttle butterfly opens. The good news is that you can rebuild a late-60's HS2 set (with solid butterflies even) and use your swung needles if you hate the centering process and get the ported vacuum. Just make sure that you keep the domes and pistons together as a matched set.


    David Lieb
  •  09-04-2007, 7:11 PM 9339 in reply to 9320

    Re: Where do I find ported vacuum on SU HS2 carburators?

    Thanks for the info Dave. I'm not sure which route I'll take though.

     Calvin