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Ray's 1975 CJ-5

Weber 32/36 Carburetor

(11/2004)  For your 232 or 258, your second modification should be this carb (following the Chevy HEI swap).  For my 1 barrel Carter, being put to rest was probably a good thing for the jeep and my frustration from the engine loading up.  I got the weber carb on ebay for $75.  Bought an adapter (2bbl to 1bbl) from Weber Carbs Direct.  It is a simple piece of hardware.  Also got the 2 1/2 inch air filter from them.  Made one slight mistake ($1.55) and ordered a breather elbow.  The filter kit included one already.  These two parts cost as much as the carb.  Not complaining, as I'm not having to replace the entire manifold and finding the semi-rare Holley 390 carb.  Also, the weber 32/36 costs $350-400 bare bones new.  So I'm still way ahead.

 

The only serious modification I had to make was to the throttle linkage.  And even that was not very serious.  Basically had to make a bracket to hold the sheath still for the cable to go in and out, as the linkage is turned 90 degrees (sorry, canister fuel line covers it up in this shot).  Luckily, I had the the perfect mounting spot and a left over twisted bracket that fit my needs.  I only had to drill out one end of the bracket to 1/2 inch then square it out.  Once mounted and the throttle cable looped, it  popped right through.  Only other parts needed were a slightly longer breather hose going from the valve cover to the carb and a longer fuel hose.  Nice.

The only serious modification I had to make was to the throttle linkage.  And even that was not very serious.  Basically had to make a bracket to hold the sheath still for the cable to go in and out, as the linkage is turned 90 degrees (sorry, canister fuel line covers it up in this shot).  Luckily, I had the the perfect mounting spot and a left over twisted bracket that fit my needs.  I only had to drill out one end of the bracket to 1/2 inch then square it out.  Once mounted and the throttle cable looped, it  popped right through.  Only other parts needed were a slightly longer breather hose going from the valve cover to the carb and a longer fuel hose.  Nice.

Also, I did modify the air cleaner (new breather hole, plugged old hole) to move the breather elbow to the rear of the carb, keeping the length down.

Took it out four wheeling without testing.  Rather inconsistent all the way around.  Found a fuel leak and determined that to be a bad diaphram at the accelerator pump (luckily brought the old carb "just in case" and still 'wheeled).  Looks like this was sitting on the shelf somewhere before I bought it.  Back to Weber Carbs Direct for a rebuild kit.

In all my reading, most everyone has had to re-jet their new (new-used) weber.  Grabbing some jets and will report the finals for what makes this 232 run the best.

Results:  Wow.  It's not a V-8.  But it's also not a sick straight 6 either.  Power is increased somewhat.  After all, this is just the 232 cu in rated at 100 hp coming from the factory.  Drivability at slow engine speeds over prolonged periods of time (rock crawling) have made this so worth the little effort.  Also, this carb has an electric choke.  Much better than the heat dissipated choke on the Carter, which I could never get set correctly.

Even though the carb is generally more complex, everything looks much cleaner.