I have obtained a Taiwanese carb!

[Gavin]

I finally got my hands on a couple of these Taiwanese carbs and I have to admit that I am generally quite impressed with the build quality.

They appear to be the 13660 design, except that they have mixture screws.

The only significant difference that I am finding is the thickness of the casting around the air cleaner hose intake.

Having spoken with the muttguru, I understand that they run well as long as they are set up again from scratch.

Anyone have direct experience of running one and did you make any adjustments?

[rickf]

I have several of these and have been running one for many years. As I rebuild these carbs as a side business I get to see a lot of the different carbs, at least as different as they are. These are exactly the same as the 13660, they were built to Zenith specs as replacements for the military so they had to be exactly the same. So they are nothing more than a 13660 with a different nomenclature on them.

[Gavin]

Thanks Rick, much appreciated.

Did you have to set them up from scratch?

[rickf]

No, Bolt it on and run it. With that said remember that these carbs are 30 years old. Depending on how they were stored the rubber seals may be gone and the diaphragm may be brittle or cracked.

[Gavin]

These two were kept in sealed plastic bags, which I opened last week for the purpose of inspection.

Which dealers carry them Stateside, rickf?

[rickf]

I don't know of anybody that has them anymore. Murray had them years ago but just like NOS carbs they dried up.

[Gavin]

From the pic currently on the Murray site, I'd say it was a Taiwan Zenith.
The single line part number is clearly visible on a plain flat boss.

[Bonica]

Does Norfar have any?

[rickf]

The last time I talked to the people at Zenith they told me they were stopping production on the 13660. That was over a year ago. Whether they have changed their minds I don't know. I know they have more than doubled the price of the rebuild kits since then. I had a running battle going with them to get them to include the emulsion jet gasket at the bottom of the bowl and they finally provided me with five kits with that gasket in them. I do not know if they now have that gasket in all the kits or not. I have not had any calls for rebuilds and at the kit prices now I am not going to buy kits for stock. My main contact person at Norfar passed away so it has been harder to get good info. John had forgotten more about Zeniths than most people ever knew! He was also the one that put me directly in contact with Zenith.

[rickf]

By the way, the last price I saw at Norfar on the carb was over 600.00!!!!!

[rickf]

Apparently they do have them and the price has actually come down! ONLY 549.53.

https://norfar.com/products/zenith-1366 ... 7c82&_ss=r