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Anyone have a good recommendation for a vendor that can supply a carb rebuild kit for my '28 5-26? I checked Daytona Parts, but they only go back to '32. I then ordered a kit from Kanter, who apparently sourced it from The Carburetor Shop.

After receiving their strong admonition that the kit could not be returned, I now believe I understand why. It is not a quality product (ill fitting and numerous wrong gaskets, coarsely ground needle valve, etc.).

So... I either need to make do with the usable bits I received and create the rest, or find a better kit. Before spending more money and time though, I'm hoping someone else has already encountered and solved this problem :)

Hi 526:

There isn't much to the Packard carburetor besides the throttle rod and the float needle and seat. It's made out of bronze and virtually indestructible.

One place that does those older jobs is Classic Carburetors in Arizona. They might be willing to sell a needle and seat. With a little practice making gaskets yourself from paper stock will work as well. However, for the carburetor intake you need to special order FelPro flame proof materials from NAPA.

The biggest problem I've run into on those units is flooding because the needle and seat is shot. The next is intake gaskets made out of paper that blows out.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advise Tim. After grumbling a bit, I just bit the bullet and did as you suggested. I was able to polish the rough float valve on my lathe (although I didn't actually use it) and cut out the necessary missing gaskets easily enough.

These carbs are indeed simple, but there are a few undocumented gotchas that clearly escaped the previous rebuilder. Specifically, the choke butterfly linkage can be connected backwards so that the secondary airvalve lockout cam doesn't engage properly. Aside from the benefits of a thorough cleaning and new gaskets, I believe that was really all that was wrong with mine. In order to correct for that oversight, they had the airvalve spring tension setup wrong, and the idle set way too high to compensate. It ran okay, but overly rich and required partial choking at all times. Runs beautifully now though :)

Having it to do over again though, unless your float valve or air valve springs aren't salvageable, I'd just make my own rebuild kit to begin with. I can understand that kits are often generalized, that there's variation between carbs one year to the next, and for all I know someone may have replaced certain components on my carb over the years. That said, the kit wasn't cheap and about the only parts I ended up using were the replacement air valve springs and the float cover gasket. I'd at least expected the intake gasket to be correct, since I'm certain that at least is a stock configuration and it's the hardest to reproduce (noting the required flame proof material).

Right, when the choke is closed the auxiliary air valve is also held up closed for a rich mixture.

I never ran into the problem you describe. I've only had worn out needles, seats, and paper gaskets being blown out.