hey all - i'll try and keep it short. i just recently rebuilt the Carter BBD on my '87 YJ 4.2L and am now discovering my mileage has been cut in HALF! i was getting about 20mpg and am now lucky to get 10! without going into too much detail, i rebuilt everything according to the specifications that came with the kit and experienced no problems except for one... the stepper motor shaft was pretty well frozen up, i used a little spray lithium grease on it and got it moving again but it was pretty damn stiff. most likely i suspect because it appears that at least some of the control circuit for the carb is not functional. specifically, the CTO valve is broken off (plug still in manifold but vacuum assembly hanging), and the O2 sensor wire is disconnected (sensor is still in manifold)... in this case i assume the stepper motor would not function - correct? thing is, she's apparently been like this for as long as i've owned her (about 4 months) and was running acceptably well without any of this stuff... so i'm assuming something i did in the rebuild is causing the fuel suck. no clouds of black smoke or anything - just very very bad mileage. here's part 2 of the question - i've heard about people bypassing the ICU completely - is that happening here? would i benefit from such a procedure? here's part 3 - any leads on a decent cheap rebuilt Weber or Holly or anything else i can put on her? i've had nothing but frustration after frustration with this Carter and its 'control circuit'... probably my fault i know but i'd love to dump it. preferably on the head of the guy who owned this thing for almost 20 years and apparently never took 5 minutes or $5 to see that she was taken care of... oh well.
thanks in advance - sorry for the long post. cheers, bennett