Simmons vs. Zenith carburetors

[Jeff/Illinois]

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[Purdy Swoft]

I am running a cast iron Simmons on my Sept. 29 strip down. I posted a picture to Bill Willamson on the Garage thread that you can see. The Simmons carburetors had a high speed or power jet similiar to the model B carburetors. The throat size was the same as the model A Zenith. Simmons carburetors were advertised as a performance carburetor, they were also sold by Western Auto under the Wizard Improved name There was a model that was made to get better gas mileage. I don't know anything about that model. Simmons made cast iron and alloy versions. They also made a cast iron side bowl version for the late 31 models. I have a small collection of both the cast iron and the alloy versions. I have only run the cast iron version and to me there is a noticeable performance boost similiar to the model B carb. The cast iron version is heavier than the model A or B Zenith and that is the only reason that I haven't used them in my dual updraft setups. I once planned to run a couple of the alloy versions on one of the Charlie Yapp aluminum dual updraft manifolds, untill I read an artical by Richard Lorenze in the Fast news letter. Richard tested the alloy version and it flowed less cfm than some of the other carburetors tested . My alloy Simmons and Wizard Improved carbs are resting in coffee cans on the shelf for that reason. I suspect that the alloy version was made for economy instead of power. All of these carbs had a brass name plate riveted to the upper casting. The fittings such as throttle shaft, needle driver and choke lever were made of brass. Some Zenith parts can be used with these carbs. No Simmons parts are now produced as far as I know. There use to be pictures and info on model A org about these carbs but is no longer there. I have included a picture of one of the Alloy version. I have noticed that the cast iron versions sometimes go for over two hundred dollars at swap meets. xyz

[Big Al]

Hi,
i have a total of seven simmons carbs., and all but two are slightly diferent
some are made for model a ,s so says the brass data plate othere have the mounting flange modified . I assume to fit a b intake manifould. I have never seen a simmons that wasnt cast iron. Do the cast iron ones have a brass dataplate?
I would like to find out just which simmons preform better than the zenith. I just might try one on my a.
I am not sure on this, but i think simmons made parts for model t,s too.
Take care.

Al

[Purdy Swoft]

Here is a cast iron Smmons, on my 29 strip down. You can notice the difference in the angle of the Idle air adjust screw . The Brass tag needs cleaning and doesn 't show up in this pic.

[Purdy Swoft]

Here is a view of one of my cast iron Simmons carburetors. This pic shows the brass throttle arm, choke lever, needle driver, and the long brass drain plug under the float bowl.

[Benson]

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I ran across this info today ... may be helpful:

• "Restorer" magazine, Nov/Dec 1995, Page 15, "Simmons Carburetors for the Model A"
• "Restorer" magazine, Mar/Apr 1996, Page 10, "Model A Era Carburetors"

[TinCup]

Hey Purdy when you scan your pictures you can resize them before you save it to your computer. Using your mouse just drag the line around the scan until its just around the picture.

[Purdy Swoft]

Thanks, TinCup, I'm not too swoft when it comes to computors or posting pictures. I notice that most of the pictures that I have on photo bucket, when posted leaves a large gap with nothing under the picture. The pictures that I have stored at blue melon usually don't leave the gap. This is probably just the best that I can do.