Crazy Idea - Carb Swap - Would it work ????

Greetings,

I'm having carburetor issues with my old 1978 V1500 Black Max and most of the parts are discontinued. Well, I have a set of Carburetors off of a 1990 Black Max that appear to have the exact same mounting holes. In fact everything appears to match up visually, (Throttle linkage and vacuum lines).

1978 Carb = 1382-6425 WH2-1
1990 Carb = 3308-9672C WMH 1

It looks like i can get complete rebuild kits for $99 bucks for the WMH-1's

So am I crazy, Is this swap actually feasible? (BTW I actually used the lower unit and most of the electrical parts from the 90's engine to repair the 1978 engine.)

Never done it, nor heard of someone doing it but have fitted "other" carbs onto motors.

Sometimes it has gone smooth other times have had to piddle around with jet sizes to get it to work (even if replacing the carb on a 20 horse with the carb from a newer 20 horse - it's next to impossible to get parts for some older Tillotson carbs and I have got Walbro's to work in some limited circumstances - even fashioned a plate to allow one to mount in one case).

Of course, Merc did the same experimenting themselves with the Force line. Some model years had numerous different components resulting in dozens of sub-models of the same horsepower and year, so it is possible, but unless you can find someone who has already had success it would be a trial/error on your part.

They can be bolted on but you will need to modify you front air box to mount to them or cowling cannot latch. Also you will need the newer spark arm,rod and cam. If the 90 model had horizontal reed you will need the part off a vertical reed model to make it work. You will need to reblumb fuel lines and add enrichner and dont plug off the air elbows or it will run rich all the time

faztbullet,

I do have the airbox and all of the interconnecting throttle linkage from the 90's engine. Although I have not yet looked to see if the cowling would close if I changed the carbs and the airbox. What modifications do you suggest? The reeds appear to be the same orientation. (Although these two engines have 10 years between them, they are very similar)

The plastic airbox off newer motor is too wide and doesnt have supports for upper and lower cowling guide and latch to hold front faceplate on. You will have to modify your existing

Ah, I hadn't thought that far ahead.........