Shaker455 kept me from selling my car.
 

Hello All,

I don't post here near as much as I used to. Family life, work etc. has kept me busy the last few years. Those things mixed with a continued string of mechanical woes with my 68' LeMans had me contemplating selling the car last summer. I was way in over my head with some issues with my carb and finding truly knowledgeable Pontiac guys in this area is tough. I had about given up hope when I contacted Jeff (Shaker455) last July about reworking my Quadrajet carb. My spark plugs were constantly black, poor idle, lazy secondaries, and just a lack of general knowledge on tuning it. I pulled the carb at the end of July last year and sent it to Jeff along with my distributor. Jeff worked all winter on my carb, and made something that should have gone into the junk pile into a reliable piece of equipment. He went as far as to machine in an ATP adjustment screw into the body along with live testing the carb on his setup until he knew it was right. Not only that, but he suggested adding an air / fuel gauge to my setup. When the carb returned about six weeks ago, I put the carb on and since that time Jeff has spent close to six hours on the phone with me helping me to tune the carb, learn to understand what everything does and how each adjustment works. I can say that with the air fuel gauge and Jeff's help I finally am learning to understand what the car is telling me it needs. The guess work is so much less now and in the last six weeks I have put more miles on the car than I have in the last three years. I am learning to trust the car again and am no longer worried about going home on a tow truck (At least due to carb issues). All this to simply say THANK YOU JEFF. Because Jeff has taken the time to share his knowledge and skill, I am finally enjoying my car again. Jeff does outstanding work, and is very reasonably price for the number of hours he spends working on the carb. Thanks again Jeff, I really appreciate all your work and help, and I think everyone else deserves to know what a great job you do.

Thanks for posting this; good to know...and glad to hear you're enjoying your car again!!!

I know Shaker455 personally and I can attest he is a class act. Don't hesitate to send your carbs over his way. As he has done a nice one up for me.

he builds badass engines also !!!!!!!!!!

The Jury,

Jeff also saved me from pulling whatever hair is left on my head, and from possibly selling my car. I also sent him my Edelbrock Q-Jet and helped me dial it in. I am happy with his work and my car. :whoo:

I need some Q-jet work done. Do you happen to have some contact information?

just send a PM

WOW! Thanks guy's :usa2:

Now that is interesting ! Shaker, would you mind telling us a little more about this ? Was it a carb that did not have any APT before ?

Yes, it's a 1975 unit that had a second power piston with a single metering rod.

They are more labor intensive to convert but once done they calibrate as well as any other later APT unit.

I had to close off passages and machine in a later type APT system.

I have one of these carbs also that goes on my very first car...my 75' Trans Am I've had since a teen.

I pretty much will work almost any unit sent including all thoses Reman units..

X 2. Jeff tweaked my second carb this spring. Can't wait to get back up and running.

Modifying a 1975 Q-jet with the aneroid located APT (even the two PP models) to the later deal is minutes work. Block off a couple of jet holes, cut/slot the partition between the PP's, tap for an APT screw, and get a later PP or put a pin in the old one. I do NOT recommend this modification, it can still come up with less than acceptable results. Not my thread, and no need to go into specifics about it. I typically stay away from these units for good reason, they can still be a real PITA to get tuned correctly. The later and very common APT castings will be a better end result every time......FWIW......Cliff

Didn't go that route you described there Cliffy boy but one thing you are right about is it was labor intensive and of course you wouldn't go there.

Shaker455 does outstanding work both on the machining and assembly side. He helped me as we put together my roller cammed 428. Recommend him highly.

Jeff has done carb and distributor work for me. Top quality workmanship, fairly priced service and timely turnaround.
I highly recommend him.

The Jury
Thanks for posting this is good info. Finding a good Q-Jet guy is hard to find and knowing who can get the job done right is valuable. Cliff Ruggles also has a good reputation but the backlog to get a carb done is quite long.

Wouldnt have been easier to find a '76--77 model carb? I know thats what i would've done... I did a '76 Carb for Pont406, went from a demon 750...Car ran within a .1 of the demon, and that was with the heavy exhaust on(Demon was ran with exhaust completely off the car), and that was on the 1st outing, havent had time to fine tune it.... Idles and sounds better than the demon , as well. His car never sounded good, with the demon, and wasnt predictable(60ft wise). I followed Cliff's advice, and used his parts...Thanks Cliff!

Thanks Brent. I didn't interject my comments above to rain on anyones parade. Just wanted to point out, that converting a 1975/early 1976 model with the aneroid located APT system will NOT get the same end result as starting with the later design in the first place. Those carbs have several differences in the basic design that will not allow the later system to work like it should. This is why I shy away from them for building our custom units, NOT because I'm lazy or don't want to spend the time getting them converted or up to par, etc.

One has to remember that the carburetor building business is a FULL TIME deal for me, and when it's what you have going to pay the bills, spending a lot of additional time trying to get something up to par is not nearly as good of an idea as starting out with something that doesn't need any additional help.

I don't have the luxury of working a good paying "day job" and pissing around with these things in my hobby/lobby time. My comments responding to all threads are to help folks out. Our backlog in the shop exceeds one year, I certainly don't do any of this to push or direct any more work in our direction.

My post was put up here to point out the difference in the two designs, and discourage the readers from going that direction, not to critisize the builder or end user of the carb in question. If you took my comments any other way I'm...........not the first bit sorry about it, pull your head out of your backside and take a couple of English grammer and composition courses!.....LOL.....Cliff

:rolleyes: http://www.youtube.com/embed/ydswJSAfmZM :rolleyes

Spell check would be a nice feature on this forum, right? :D

gramer lol
 

this is funny nacho---dont highjack someone elses thread---this is about someone being satisfy for good customer service and not how to rebuilt a Q-JET ...LOL FUNNY CHIT---VIDEO TOO