Carb slides

[mack]

I have a set slides here in which the diaphrams are sound but the slides have a lot of the teflon eaten off them. Not too sure what was in the carbs and for how long but you can clearly see the outline of the arches. There was a very fine layer of what looked like powder so I soaked them in pinsol for a couple days. I rinsed and dryed them off and the powder was slill there, so I tried to polish it off and thats when I realized the powder was actually the teflon coating. I buffed them off and you can clearly see that inside the arch lines no coating remains.
My question is this, is there an application that can be painted on to maintain the smooth action or are the slides and diaphrams toast?
I've never seen this before. I believe these carbs were from California, you guys burning toxic waste in the gas down there?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Mack,

I'll bite seeing how you've had 39 views and no responses!

I've been on this site for some 12 years, and this is the first time anybody has said that the vacuum slides had TEFLON coating!?

They seemed quite well polished brass, but I don't think they actually have teflon on them?? So...perhaps what you're seeing is corrosion onto/into the brass from where they were exposed to the carb throat via the arch.

So...anyways, I would clean and polish them as best as you can, I think they would be okay.

T.C.

[mack]

Thanx TC

I am cleaning them up for someone else living in Florida. They were in rough shape so I'm making them right for him. I won't take the chance that they fail on him and I get called a bum on this forum. I'll pull a set of known good ones from on of my 81 set of carbs and install them in his. I'll throw these ones in my LH carbs and see what happens. I'll let you know in the future how they work.
Thanx for the response TC.

[TomB]

I've noticed they have a kinda "glaze" on them (for want of a better word)

I didn't know it was teflon.

They aren't brass slides, they're aluminium with a gold looking anodising with the coating on top.

[mack]

Teflon

Well, I can't say for sure if it is teflon or not. There is definately a baked on coating over the aluminium of some description. My fear is that once used, then left to sit for any length of time the bare aluminum will crust up and prevent the slides from rising and falling as they should. Someone not knowing about this might look for a long time before making a proper diagnosis. So I'll keep them here. If my LH develops some symptoms similar to a p/u coil issue, I'll know exactly where to look and why.

[natemoen]

I too would say it is just an anodized coating. You see it every now and then where the slides rub a bit more on the carbs and the coating wears off.

[crazy steve]

I too would say it is just an anodized coating. You see it every now and then where the slides rub a bit more on the carbs and the coating wears off.

Winner! Anodizing will get that 'powder' look if it wears. It's a harder surface than bare aluminum and is done to prevent wear as well as preventing corrosion. I'd check them to see if they still slide easily in the carb bores and if they do they're probably still good as long as they're not 'sloppy' in the bores.

You could have them reanodized too, as there are places that can do it.