Why did the Previous Owner put bondo on my carburetor?

[AaronB31]

A few months ago I picked up an 89 Mighty Max. She ran great for a while and is now showing telltale signs of carb trouble. I'm taking it off the engine to rebuild it and I notice a huge pile of what seemed to be bondo on the back side of the top layer of the carb. As it was coming off anyways, I scraped it off to find that it covered a few oem holes. Attached is a picture before and after I scraped the stuff off.

My question is this: Do any of you have any clue why someone would put all this on here, over these holes? According to my carb rebuild diagram (which admittedly isn't very detailed), it doesn't look like those holes are supposed to be covered. Even if they are, theres more effective ways to plug a hole like that than slapping bondo all over the side of the carb :l Any advice you guys might have would be greatly appreciated.

[geezer101]

Welcome to mightyram. To me it appears that someone has attempted to delete the auto choke mechanism from the carb (the auto chokes on these fail when there's either a coolant leak and the engine overheats or just from age/wear and tear). There are a couple of vacuum galleries and the choke butterfly shaft that are left behind when the water choke is removed and they will cause huge air leaks into the carb if not sealed up. This has to be the ugliest delete I've seen so far. Get another carb so you can have a working choke. You have the option of using a 32/36 Weber carb on your engine but it does require an adapter to seat it to your manifold. It is by far the most popular modification to these trucks and will make a world of difference to performance and fuel economy - http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin/showthread.php/210-Weber-32-36

[rpyn]

I know this is not the place, how do I post a new thread, I am looking for bed sides and rockers for my Mighty Max. Hoping someone here can help

[royster]

Down in the Parts Wanted section, although now you've already posted here, so you might get some responses on this thread.

Click the + Post New Thread icon, lower left-hand side. http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php/33-Wanted-Parts

[AaronB31]

Welcome to mightyram. To me it appears that someone has attempted to delete the auto choke mechanism from the carb (the auto chokes on these fail when there's either a coolant leak and the engine overheats or just from age/wear and tear). There are a couple of vacuum galleries and the choke butterfly shaft that are left behind when the water choke is removed and they will cause huge air leaks into the carb if not sealed up. This has to be the ugliest delete I've seen so far. Get another carb so you can have a working choke. You have the option of using a 32/36 Weber carb on your engine but it does require an adapter to seat it to your manifold. It is by far the most popular modification to these trucks and will make a world of difference to performance and fuel economy - http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin/showthread.php/210-Weber-32-36

Ah an automatic choke. While I was waiting, I finished the rebuild and installed the carb looking like it does on the left (bondo scraped away, but still present inside the holes. The rebuild has left it running better than it has since I've owned it and the truck starts and warms up just fine without the choke, so I think I'm going to hold on to the mikuni for now and keep an eye out for a deal on the holley carb and adapter. I wish I had the budget to do that now but a $20 rebuild kit was much more in my price range. Thanks so much for the help, and for the warm welcome to the forum!