Bronze Kingston L4

[Gen3AntiqueAuto]

I have completed the cleaning and reassembly video series on one of the Bronze Kingston L4 carbs.

Latest video link below, you can find links to the earlier videos in the description.

https://youtu.be/771ZLU6alcU

[Corey Walker]

Not trying to be a know it all, or maybe out of curiosity, why did you leave this part out?

[Gen3AntiqueAuto]

Not trying to be a know it all, or maybe out of curiosity, why did you leave this part out?

Well let me tell you... I couldn't get the brass screws out and didn't want to destroy it - if you watched the previous videos you know about 1/10th of the times I ran that through the ultrasonic cleaner. I did show that "tongue" a couple times and made sure it was clean. I'm planning on trying again (the screws) on the next one, the one in the box... If I can get it out I'll show it.

[VowellArt]

This is the assembly drawing of a brass bodied Kingston L-4.

My Kingston L-4....it's what started me on my project of drawing the whole bloody car, mainly because nobody has ever done it before!
The dimension for the bowl nut differences are; the top one is for the brass body and the bottom one is for the cast iron bodied carbs. The cast iron versions were cheaper to manufacture, but they suffer from the same problem as all cast iron does....it rusts and or corrodes from the condensation that builds up in a carburetor body from the constant warmer (whilst running) and cooling (when parked). All cast iron has problems with this, that's why you paint it...but you can't paint the interior of the carburetor, so once in a while you've got to clean it out, brass carbs, don't suffer from this.

The boxed item is the "Optional" Gross Jet inlet valve, but you can't use this with an under the seat fuel tank, unless you're also running a fuel pump. The under the seat tank doesn't provide enough fuel pressure to effectively make this valve seal off the fuel flow by itself, you need something to provide a constant pressure upon it and a fuel pump works just fine for that.

Not sure what you were asking about (maybe I should've watched the vid)...but these parts are absolutely essential for a Kingston L-4 to run worth a damn.

All Kingston's (with the exception of their Vaporizer carburetors), control the air/mixture flow through the carb. with some sort of air pressure/flow obstruction....the early Kingston's did it with balls, the L thru L-4 used various sizes of this flap. Even the Simmons Super Power Carburetor (which is basically a copy of a Holley Straight Thru) uses a small flap on the choke side of the carburetor to regulate the mixture flow through the carburetor at slower speeds (which for a Straight Thru is absolutely necessary to make them perform at slow speeds or idle without having to readjust or run a richer mixture).

As for not getting that screw out. It's usually the paper gasket washer that has fused to both the body and the screw a little WD-40 will also help break it loose. The gasket set from Lang's comes with a new one for this screw as well as a new one for the bumper screw on top of the body.

[Gen3AntiqueAuto]

Well if I had found that before......

[VowellArt]

They're in the Gallery, under VowellArt

They can also be found from the main page, under "Resources", "Drawings", which contains all of my drawings....so far.

[VowellArt]

One other thing, if you've never replaced the cork bumper (6171C), you should. That's what gives you the correct max opening for the low speed flap. it is under that top brass screw on the throttle side.

One thing that puzzles me though, why use a Kingston L-4 on a Speedster? One of the throatier Holley's or better still a Simmons Super Power carburetor would be better still (it has a Kingston style low speed flap on what is basically a Holley Straight Thru). The other better carb than the L-4, would be on of the Kingston versions of the Vaporizers....the B1 Gasifier and B Regenator (Kingston's vaporizers are far superior to anything Holley ever cobbled together...the only thing Holley had going for it was that is was cheap to make...., which probably why Henry preferred it to the Kingston's).

The L-4 is a great little carburetor for gas mileage. I get 21.7 MPG with mine, but you've got to keep it hot, so make sure you run a Hot Air Pipe with it otherwise it's likely to frost up a bit (and then of course it won't run for beans).

[Gen3AntiqueAuto]

Thank you again Mr. V - The cork is in there and in good shape. I still have this for sale (that was the point - to sell stuff) if anyone is interested. The plan is to go through all my parts, restoring as many as I can in how-to videos between actual customers. I'll either have a stockroom full of restored T parts ready to use or an empty container at the end!

If you didn't watch the video please do. If I make it to youtube millionaire I will just give this stuff away to help the hobby.