Has anyone purchased a new Edelbrock Carb lately? I have purcahsed two in the last 18 months and both had troubles right out of the box. The first one was the Performer series. I bought as a factory remanufacture from Edelbrock. Neither of the vacuum ports worked on it. I blamed it on being a reman. even though it was built by Edelbrock, anybody can make a mistake. I recently purchased a Thunder Series AVS which appears to be nearly identical to the Performer inside and out with the exception of being able to adjust the secondaries with a screw. This one was brand new. The choke worked sporadically at first then finally quit all together and the idle mixture adjustment screws don't do anything. I can tighten them all the way down or loosen them up and the engine never changes. The motor coughs, and sputters down the road at cruising speed and the same happens on acceleration. My old Carter from the 90's I never had a problem with. I upgraded due to adding headers intake and cam and jumped from a 600 to a 650. Anybody else had trouble with Edelbrock or did I just happen too receive two lemons in 18 months?

 

I really can't say anything bad about my Edelbrock carb. A buddy of mine gave me his old one off his 66 Mustang when he swapped out to a tri power setup. I rebuilt it and tuned it to work on my 302 and have been driving it everyday for the past 3 years. It fires up instantly, accelerates nicely and gets decent gas mileage.
The first carb you had with no vacuum from the ports, did you try to blow them out with an air nozzle? I agree it should work correctly from the factory, but it would be worth a try.
On the second carb that offers no response from the mixture screws, if it wouldn't void a warranty, I would verify the float level is set to specs. For that matter verify all the specs are set correctly for that model, jet size, metering rod size, choke adjustment. Do you have a constant 12v to the choke coil? Have you checked the ignition timing recently?
Edelbrocks website has some great troubleshooting videos. Might be a good idea to give them a call and chat with them on the tech line.

 

I didn't try blowing out the air nozzle, that would have been a good idea to try. I haven't checked the float levels, but I will talk to Edelbrock about that and the other specs. I do have a constant 12V to the choke with the key on so I am good there. The timimg is at 14 degrees initial and 33 with advance. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Ya know, Edelbrock IMHO went into the gutter in the 80's when they shipped 100% of all mfg to mexico......their newest maniforlds at the time when dyno'd were putting out less hp/tq than the oem! Then Vic Jr's kids kinda began taking over, eventually building the new Mfg facility in Riverside Calif...QA by appearance seemed to be going up, but they still have issues which they have not addressed, such as the water pumps for the SBF's....the ports do not & have never lined up- and these have been produced since the late 70's IIRR!

The edelbrock carb as you know is just the Carter carb that GM used for decades....I personally have a "kink" about paying edelbrock prices on a product that, well, any carb shop has sitting on the shelf at a much lower price.

just my HO....