Stag Webbers

[Leedham75]

Hi All,
I am thinking of putting the Stag Webbers on. Has anyone in the group changed to the Webbers and has it made much difference?
I would appreciate your feedback.
Thanks
Marc

[DJT]

3-2-1-Go


This subject can be quite contentious. Some have fitted them and swear by them. Some have fitted them and gone back to Strombergs. Personally I have stuck with Strombergs for over 30 years and 115,000 miles and am happy with them. I am currently touring the Lake District having driven 300 miles to get here, all on motorways at 70mph and achieved 32 mpg on supermarket E10 unleaded. Car starts and runs fine.

[KOY 23]

The Strombergs are very good at handling the engine breathing, particularly relevant as the engines are 50 years old and entitled to heavy breathing unless recently rebuilt. Aftermarket fuel systems cannot handle this without time and money consuming modifications to avoid oil being blown out of every orifice.You may be lucky but you won’t know until you’ve tried it.

What’s wrong with your Strombergs?

[Jeff]

Lots of posts on here about Weber carbs, try a search, lots of reading.

[Symmo]

had a stagweber kit withthe breather kit on mine for over a year now and very happy witth it. simple to fit andworks well

[MikeParker]

I have never tried Webers, but I have used the Stromberg carbs for 100K miles over 40 years and found them to be reliable and very economical. Well over 30mpg on long runs and now, with an AFR gauge fitted, I can see they produce good mixture control over the power range. They are inherently more mechanically complicated than a fixed jet carb, like a Weber, and I guess the designers went to that level of complexity and expense because they thought it would do a better job. EFI is the way to go if you want to get significantly better control of mixture and more power. That is where I will go, when I get the time..

[Goldstar]

I bought a car that had one fitted with a catch can for excess oil but no breather system. I took it off and put the strombergs back on.

Why did I do that? Several reasons. Triumph chose them for a reason and as long as you service them like most other components they are easy to get along with. The Weber had a massive flat spot in the 1200-1800 rpm range which I really couldn’t get along with. My engine leaked oil quite badly. The catch can was full when I got the car. On the run from Cornwall when I bought it the Weber returned 27mpg so it ran pretty well in that regard but I have no idea how it was jetted so don’t know why the flat spot was there. Biggest reason eventually was the poor throttle cable set up. Mine kept catching at open throttle meaning the car would Rev up to 3500 rpm at idle occasionally. I couldn’t get it to stop doing it intermittently so that was the straw…

I know some owners get on with them ok but I didn’t so went back to the proper set up.

[jbuckl]

strombergs are getting more expensive to buy the parts for now £175 for a kit without the main metering needles iirc.
no experience of a Weber carb on a stag though.

seems as if the Weber does require a few extra parts though…. Eg breather system parts & a new cold air filter too. Don’t know if the total cost of going Weber is worth it … could be a few hundred more to go full Weber it seems, compared to full stromberg rebuild.

count myself lucky to have got a pair of nos strombergs for a few hundred on eBay though.

imho modern pump fuels are a bit bigger issue than carburettor choice.

especially the low boiling point of pump fuel…. Which only really suits fuel injection.

[richardthestag]

strombergs are getting more expensive to buy the parts for now £175 for a kit without the main metering needles iirc.
no experience of a Weber carb on a stag though.

seems as if the Weber does require a few extra parts though…. Eg breather system parts & a new cold air filter too. Don’t know if the total cost of going Weber is worth it … could be a few hundred more to go full Weber it seems, compared to full stromberg rebuild.

count myself lucky to have got a pair of nos strombergs for a few hundred on eBay though.

imho modern pump fuels are a bit bigger issue than carburettor choice.

especially the low boiling point of pump fuel…. Which only really suits fuel injection.

100% on the fuel pump output, some are pushing 5.5-6psi any carb will struggle with that unless there is a fuel return pipe to the tank.

Malpassi filter king is the fix there regardless of the carb offering that you go for.

You don't always need a full rebuild kit though, in fact it is quite rare to be honest.

Burlen sell the rebuild kit CDRK 4 at £157.86 + delivery so I will let you have the £175

The service kit CDSK 6 however comes in at a smidge under £100 + delivery but even that is not always required

My best bet would be that most stromberg installations, if running but badly, just need the gasket pack GP235 at £30 + delivery

Would also recommend a pair of new diaphragms B19420 at a smidge over £20 + delivery

So really all you might need is gaskets and diaphragms at £50 + an Ayrton for the delivery, should be done and dusted at £60 for the lot.

couple of hours to install and baseline the carbs and you should at least see a monster improvement in them without even tuning them up

[richardthestag]

I bought a car that had one fitted with a catch can for excess oil but no breather system. I took it off and put the strombergs back on.

Why did I do that? Several reasons. Triumph chose them for a reason and as long as you service them like most other components they are easy to get along with. The Weber had a massive flat spot in the 1200-1800 rpm range which I really couldn’t get along with. My engine leaked oil quite badly. The catch can was full when I got the car. On the run from Cornwall when I bought it the Weber returned 27mpg so it ran pretty well in that regard but I have no idea how it was jetted so don’t know why the flat spot was there. Biggest reason eventually was the poor throttle cable set up. Mine kept catching at open throttle meaning the car would Rev up to 3500 rpm at idle occasionally. I couldn’t get it to stop doing it intermittently so that was the straw…

I know some owners get on with them ok but I didn’t so went back to the proper set up.

what was odd about this was that I worked with Paul to rebuild the original carbs that came off this car. We found a world of tiny issues that were easily and cheaply fixed, temp compensators miss matched and wide open, throttle discs not aligned, leaking 50 year old shaft seals etc All would have contributed to a set of carbs that would not have worked nicely.

2 hours and a handful of gaskets had them running sweet as a nut. still need to come over Paul so I can show you how to tune them

[JeffW]

I bought a car that had one fitted with a catch can for excess oil but no breather system. I took it off and put the strombergs back on.

Why did I do that? Several reasons. Triumph chose them for a reason and as long as you service them like most other components they are easy to get along with. The Weber had a massive flat spot in the 1200-1800 rpm range which I really couldn’t get along with. My engine leaked oil quite badly. The catch can was full when I got the car. On the run from Cornwall when I bought it the Weber returned 27mpg so it ran pretty well in that regard but I have no idea how it was jetted so don’t know why the flat spot was there. Biggest reason eventually was the poor throttle cable set up. Mine kept catching at open throttle meaning the car would Rev up to 3500 rpm at idle occasionally. I couldn’t get it to stop doing it intermittently so that was the straw…

I know some owners get on with them ok but I didn’t so went back to the proper set up.

+1.

I bought a car with the Weber installed after having two previous Stags with Strombergs. Personally I really did not like the flat spot and sudden acceleration with the Weber, and as I had a good set of rebuilt Strommies on the shelf, I swapped it out. I find the car runs much better with them, but again, just personal experience.

Jeff

[Wheelz]

Hi All,
I am thinking of putting the Stag Webbers on. Has anyone in the group changed to the Webbers and has it made much difference?
I would appreciate your feedback.
Thanks
Marc

Difference to what? If your Strombergs are working OK then why bother to change?

But if you are having problems with them, and can't easily resolve them, without a lot of expense and hassle, then the Weber is a better bet as it will be brand new and guaranteed.

Well over 1000 sold (1 in 10 Stags?) and still going strong. All the testimonials on the stagweber website are genuine unsolicited and un edited.

Ask this question on Facebook (Stag Fan Club etc) and you will get a much more positive response for the Weber.

[rwdstag]

Had a stag Webber for 2 years and think it is absolutely awesome no flat spots good fuel economy and simple fit and forget
this was fitted to a completely rebuilt engine

[marshman]

Difference to what? If your Strombergs are working OK then why bother to change?

But if you are having problems with them, and can't easily resolve them, without a lot of expense and hassle, then the Weber is a better bet as it will be brand new and guaranteed.

Well over 1000 sold (1 in 10 Stags?) and still going strong. All the testimonials on the stagweber website are genuine unsolicited and un edited.

Ask this question on Facebook (Stag Fan Club etc) and you will get a much more positive response for the Weber.

Can't argue with that in my opinion. Firstly I must state I much prefer my classic cars - I have several - to be pretty much as they left the factory, don't see the point of mods or bling, just get it all working as intended and it'll be fine BUT, and it is a big BUT, when components are 50 years old, and new ones are not available then if they don't work right then you have a choice, either try to rebuild/repair/recondition your original part (not just talking carbs here!) or replace with an alternative solution - could be another recon used part (frying pan/fire springs to mind) - or replace with a new "out of the box " solution. Now specifically talking about Strombergs here, yes they can be rebuilt - new gaskets, jets, needles, springs, seals etc. BUT if there is 50 years of excessive wear on some parts - pistons/dash pots, choke discs, or mounting faces are distorted making it hard to stop air leaks - all of which I have seen, you cannot always get them working right, so you end up hunting down the problem and trying to find a a used replacement part (if you are lucky you will find a new old stock part but getting increasingly rare). If you don't have the requisite skills or stock of spares to go through then it can get expensive and disheartening to be throwing good money after bad. At that point a switch to the "dark side" of an alternative such as the Weber (or Holley for that matter) can make a deal of sense. Of course if you do that and try to stick it on a worn engine that is "breathing" like an A4 Pacific steam loco on a cold morning then there will be issues that were masked by the good old Stromberg and you end up with sticking plasters on top of other sticking plasters and will get no where. Stick them on an otherwise healthy engine and they can be a cost effective out of the box solution if the original carbs are worn beyond economical reconditioning/repair.

Any thing can be reconditioned if enough time and money is thrown at it but there comes a time when enough is enough. A change to an alternative is not the end of the world as it is a "bolt on" mod. As Wheelz has said there are a significant proportion of Stags running around with alternatives now and one assumes their owners are mostly happy. Issues with incorrect jets, flat spots etc. should all be in the past, they were talked about on this forum over 10 years ago - things have moved on.

Me, I'll stick with my Strombergs, but then they are nice early ones with no temp compensators, vent valves etc. to complicate life , and I do have a shelf full of Stromberg spares to keep them going should they ever give me problems.

And as always - your car your choice!