Autolite/Motorcraft 2100 Carburetor Rebuild

The engine swap in the '67 F250 is essentially complete, but I have been struggling to get the timing and the vacuum advance dialed in...and the motor is running very rich. I had a friend from BAMA come by to try and help me, and it became obvious that the carburetor wasn't performing as it should and would need more than minor adjustment.

The carburetor is a Ford branded 2100 model, either Autolite or Motorcraft, and has two barrels. This is a very common carburetor and finding a rebuild kit was easy.

The first step is taking the carburetor apart so that all the parts will fit into a one (1) gallon paint can. I took a lot of photos while I was doing this...

Following disassembly, every single part, screw, nut and spring was soaked for 48 hours in the GUNK™ parts cleaner solution.

After soaking, further cleaning/scrubbing with warm soapy water, rinsing and drying with compressed air:

Ready for reassembly:

All the gaskets and other small parts are available in a kit. Even so, I was careful not to throw away any of the original parts.

I've never rebuilt a carburetor before, so I found an appropriate tutorial on youtube and followed that. Part way through I realized that my carb was missing the primary float assist spring, which does not come with the rebuild kit. The absence of this spring could well be the cause of my problem because without it the float position cannot be set, never mind set accurately. This is yet another issue with the F250 which makes my original successful journey home all the more remarkable. 

The photo below shows what a primary float assist spring looks like; this one came mail order, so the rebuild was on hold for over a week.

Autolite 2100 after rebuild: 

I'm taking the opportunity to replace the throttle linkage since the threads a stripped out on the old one. 

The replacement is adjustable - I chopped 3/4 of an inch off one end to replicate the old part:

This is after re-installation of the carburetor...

....and the new throttle linkage:

The big picture, after I installed the new blue spark plug wires:

I actually had a serious issue with the carburetor after the rebuild - while fuel was getting into the float bowl, it wasn't getting any further. The route to diagnosing this issue was starting fluid: when the fluid was squirted into the business end of the carb, the motor fired right up....but without starting fluid, well, no dice.

After some back and forth, I decided to send the carburetor away for a professional rebuild. It turned out that my carb was not ideal for the manifold/engine combination I have, so I purchased one that was. The next picture shows how the replacement carb looks after installation and connection of the fuel lines and throttle linkage etc. With the new carburetor dialed in, it was straightforward to set the engine timing and the vacuum advance. 

I have a chrome air cleaner which either came off the Mustang or came from one of the guys in BAMA and I purchased an appropriate "302" decal from NPD.  

Air cleaner installed:

This is how the engine sounds with a very dodgy exhaust. Hopefully it will get me to the muffler shop!

BAMA Trip to Arnold, CA

Round, round, get around, I get around....We were only just unpacked from the Southern States tour when it was time to head out to Arnold, CA with the folks from BAMA.

The first stop was the Angels Camp Museum & Carriage House, in Angels Camp CA.

Stevenot Winery in Murphys, CA: 

We stayed at the Black Bear Inn in Arnold, CA. BAMA booked out all the rooms so we had exclusive use of the lounge areas and patio, hot tub etc.

Day two at the Sierra Logging Museum, just up the road from Arnold, CA

The (not very) imaginatively named White Pines Lake is right next to the logging museum.

Hanging out and gambling at the Black Bear Inn:

Southern States Tour '25 week 2

The second week of our vacation was much less structured. Apart from the last three nights, we didn't book any accommodation in advance; we just had a general plan about where we were headed and a few stops we wanted to make.

Day #7....We had another great coffee shop breakfast in Memphis, and then we struck out South on Route 61, also known as the Blues Highway - so named because it travels through the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the blues, and played a significant role in the Great Migration of African Americans and the spread of blues music across the USA .

Entering Mississippi

More cottonfields

The first stop was at The Gateway to the Blues Museum and Visitors Center in Tunica, MS. Housed in a rustic former train depot, circa 1895, the museum is the first building many people see when they roll into Tunica. 

We spent couple of hours in the museum and then got lunch at the nearby Blue & White Restaurant. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with driving on to Clarksdale, MS and finding somewhere to stay. After that we headed out to the Ground Zero Blues Club in downtown Clarksdale. Apart from excellent food, we were fortunate to catch a perform from Kent Burnside, grandson of the legendary bluesman R.L. Burnside.

Ground Zero Blues club outside

Kent Burnside and his band

The toilets in the club were exactly what you would expect. This was my favorite bit of graffiti: 

On the way back to the hotel we drove by Red's Blues Club which is a couple of blocks from Ground Zero.

Day #8...After checking out of our hotel relatively early, we headed back downtown to explore in the daylight and get breakfast. I took a lot of photos of Clarkdale; you can see some of the others here.

Red's Blues Club in daylight

Looking west on Third Street at Delta

Third and Delta, SW corner

Third and Delta, NW corner

E 2nd Street at Delta

Delta Street

E 2nd Street at Delta

Alley way between Delta and Yazoo

Alley between Delta and Yazoo

The last thing we did in Clarksdale was stop at the famous Crossroads where Highways 61 and 49 meet. Highway 61 is known as the "blues highway" and Highway 49 is the road to Parchman Prison, also known as Parchman Farm, inspiration for many blues songs. It was here that Robert Johnson, allegedly, encountered the devil.

The rest of day was spent driving South to Vicksburg, MS, finding somewhere to stay, exploring downtown - which was mostly closed - and getting dinner.

Day #9....We got breakfast at the hotel today, and then we headed east to highway 20, destination Jackson, MS.

More fields

State Capitol Buildings, Jackson, MS:

We went to lunch at Brent's Drugs which is another old fashioned pharmacy/soda fountain that is just a café/diner these days. The interior retains the original bar counter and stools which date from 1946.

Brent's "PB&J" milkshake

After lunch we went to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson which was an altogether sobering experience. Entry to the museum is free on Sundays, which was a nice surprise.

We considered spending the night in Jackson, but instead we drove another hour or so South and found a hotel in McComb, MS. By this point we had tried a lot of different southern-style food, and we were ready for a change...so we went to a Mexican place a couple of miles from the hotel. 

Fajitas southern style

Day #10....We had breakfast at the hotel again and then continued our journey South.

crossing into Louisiana

approaching the Veterans Memorial Bridge, Edgard, LA

crossing the Mississippi River

Our first stop was just across the river at the Whitney Plantation in Edgard, LA. Today the plantation is a non-profit museum dedicated to the history of slavery, situated on a historical sugar, indigo and rice plantation which operated from 1752-1975. More photos of the plantation can be viewed here.

the Big House

Slaves cabin

Bowls for processing sugar cane

Plantation Church

Memorial to victims of slavery

Following the plantation tour, we got back on the road towards New Orleans. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Yaba's Cafe in Reserve and then powered onwards. We got to our AirBnB in the French Quarter of the city in the late afternoon. 

The house was located just one block from the legendary Bourbon Street, so we dropped our bags and the car and headed out to explore. I was lucky enough to spend Labor Day weekend in 1999 on Bourbon Street, so I was keen to see if I could find anything familiar. 

The first port of call was Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, an historic structure at the corner of Bourbon and St. Philip. Most likely built as a house in the 1770s during the Spanish colonial period, it is one of the oldest surviving structures in New Orleans and clams to be the oldest building operating as a bar in the USA. 

Versions of this sign were everywhere in the south

Bourbon Street, 2025 (on a Monday)

Bourbon Street, 1999 (on Labor Day)

Bourbon Street, 1999 (on Labor Day)

Bourbon Street, 2025

Bourbon Street, 1999

Amy Sheep outside Maison Bourbon, 2025

Jono Boro outside Maison Bourbon, 1999 

Me on Canal Street with a statue, 2025

Me with the same statue, 1999

Later on we went for dinner at Paladar 511 and then we got a (relatively) early night. 

Day #11....Ahhh....another lie in and then we set out to find a latish breakfast and ended up at Café Envie a few blocks away on Decatur Street. After that we took a walk around the French Market, Jackson Square and ended up at the legendary Cafe De Monde. 

New Orleans French Market

Church in Jackson Square

Cafe De Monde, since 1862

Then we walked down to the riverside:

Me at the riverside, 1999

Love locks at the riverside, 2025

Steamboat, 1999

They still have operational steamboats in 2025, although they are powered by diesel. They were probably powered by diesel in 1999 come to think of it. The real difference is that in 2025 I can afford to buy a ticket two tickets to take a cruise on one.

After the cruise we loafed back at the house for a bit and then went to Thailey Nola for dinner. We were lucky that the same friend that loaned us the AirBnB also recommended restaurants for us to go to each night and Amy Sheep made reservations a few weeks in advance.

Amy Sheep outside Thailey Nola

Day #12....We went back to Café Envie for breakfast again today. Post consumption we drove over to the National WWII Museum. When we were done nosing around the museum we drove back to the house and dropped off the car and then headed back out to Bourbon Street for some oysters and a few beers/diet cokes. None of this really generated any photographs. We went to dinner at Pesch on Magazine Street. This was probably the nicest restaurant we went to, but it was a packed field.

Amy Sheep at Pesch

Day #13...Travel Day...we were up early but still had a mad rush returning our rental car and getting checked in for our flight. We made it back to the ranch in daylight though, thanks to the time difference.

New Orleans airport