What carb to rebuild.........a theif in the neighborhood............

[bandit67]

Guys, I pulled a very worn out 360 from my 73 with plans to drop in a rebuilt 340. The 73's previous owner had installed a brand new Holley speadbore tyring to get the worn motor working better.  I live in a rural area and my car lift is outside my shop under the overhang. I had placed the removed parts on a table as I was getting the new motor ready for installing. Went to a concert out of town and forgot to move the carb inside. Got back and noticed nothing for a day or so, till I looked for the carb........GONE.  I try to help the kids in neighborhood with the cars and hate to think it was one of them.  A brand new Mopar distributor was laying next to the carb and it was not touched.  Sooooooo
           I have been searching ebay for a used carb as a new Holley is around 370-445 $.  I have some skills with Holley's but have never messed with a Carter Thermo-Quad.  To you guys that have rebuilt both , which one gave you the best results.  What year models of Thermo's will work on my engine. I am not looking for a numbers correct carb at this time.  I am also a bit leery of trying to fire up a new motor with a freshly rebuilt carb also.    I hear stories of how many of the old TQ's plastic blocks are warped and give lots of trouble.  And we all know that with an old Holley , it may or may not give good results.     Would would love to hear your input........J

[Ghoste]

A good working, well set up TQ is one of the finest carbs ever designed, however... the issues you've heard about the bodies are largely true and finding parts to get them well set up can be a pain.  A big pain.  Any year of TQ would fit your car but some of them were certainly better than others so it'd be nice if you could find one of the old aftermarket performance ones that Carter used to sell.
All that being said, and with my personal feeling being largely in support of of Carters for the street, I am going to vote for buying a Holley.  They are plentiful and cheap enough and there is no shortage of parts and assistance to make them run.  You said you are used to working on them so I am going to guess you already have a small stash of Holley parts accumulated.
Go with what you know.

[bandit67]

Thanks, Ghoste,  I have acquired a 73 TQ and began with the disassembly. I think ants were once living in it. Also bought a speadbore Holley from flea bay and will give that a go. If the TQ's are anything like the Rochester's , the TQ will be better for my use I think. I have so many cars that sometimes they sit for long periods of time.  The Rods are much better than the Holley's for this : the Holleys seem to leak more but the  OEM's seem to fill up and fire up just fine.  I have noticed that on some TQ's they have a wire coming out of the back I think.......is that  a later model electric carb........will it or any parts be useable on the early -mid seventies models......John

[Ghoste]

Is there a part number on it?