I got 135,000 miles out of my carter (one rebuild at 85,000 miles), but I fought it for the last year--wouldn't idle good, gas mileage around 12-14 mpg. I upgraded to a Weber about a month ago and while I don't think the performance gains are extraordinary or anything (it will still feel like a 6-cylinder despite what the ads imply), it is strong and smooth. My gas mileage is much better, in the range of 17-20 mpg. As far as being complicated, I would say it's the other way around. The weber has one mixture screw and of course your idle speed adjustment screws--that's it. No fooling around with a choke unloader or two mixture screws like on the carter. That's just my two cents--plus, the weber really cleans up the engine compartment if you combine it with the nutter bypass and eliminate all of the emission junk (it won't pass emission testing, though, so be sure you don't have to worry about that in your area). Installation of it couldn't be simpler.

 

I had a Weber 32/36 on my 258 before I did the 4.0 head and went to a bigger intake with a 4 barrel. Now I wish I had kept the stock intake and the Weber.

I will back up pretty much everything that johny1i said. No huge power gains. Maybe a little, but you also will run much smoother without idle problems and get good gas mileage. It is a set-and-forget carb that is probably already set the way you need from the factory. Most likely a bolt-on-n-go. Highly recommended.

 

Ditto on what Johnny1 said. I've been impressed with my Weber and it's easy to install and set up. Only drawback is the expense.
If you want to save some money, search for the MC2100 swap. Alot of guys on the board have done it and have had good success. If I remember right, it's a carb you can locate in the salvage yard and you just need to rebuild it an buy an adapter and you're good to go. Other's can speak to that carb better than me.

 

I put the Weber on a month or so ago. I didn't notice any power gain until I added a Flowmaster muffler. Not sure of the one that made the difference. The Weber was an easy install and I kept all of the stock goodies so I can re-install the Carter when smog time comes around. The install only took 2 hours[SMILE], not bad if your only doing it once every two years. Funny thing is, if it runs better isn't it running cleaner?

I only use it for offroad so maybe I should register it for offroad only.

Jeff

 

me, personally, the weber mod was in the top 5 best upgrades ive done to my yj. if you have to go thru smog checks, you may wanna take a look at this:
http://www.carbs.net/images/weber/K551-Si.jpg

i dont know how many or what vacuum hookups go with this, from the looks, i would guess that you keep a few of the factory hookups, including the pre-heater hose. i saw it last week, and just thought i would pass it on to the rest of you guys.

 

I have a weber with all of the install hardware for sale. The carb is in excellent shape and I would like $150 plus $10 shipping

 

I forgot to mention that I got my Weber from www.carbs.net (no, I don't work there or anything, so this isn't a plug!). I only mention it because they are on special now for about $315. Don't fool with the adapter to keep the stock air cleaner unless you need it for cold weather--I actually had equal or better performance with the weber-supplied square air cleaner.

 

How about an 80 cj carb. Its still a carter but it doesnt have all the computer $hit. It bolts rights up. No adapter, nothing. the only thing we had to change on my bro in laws was the little ball were the throttle cable hooks too. It was on the wrong side. The motor now runs much much cleaner, it actually idles, and seems to like off camber angles more. We never got a chance to really tune it since we only ran it once before we took the cj apart for a tub swap.