I've been thinking of this a bit lately and trying to figure it all out.

Is there a reason why the Holley/Weber on my '73 2.0 uses air cleaner studs that are not press fitted into the carburetor top like my '78 2.3 Holley/Weber?

From what I can tell based on three different '73 Pinto Holley/Weber carburetors (5200s or 5210s, something similar), they seem to use this goofy rod with threads on each end, and two nuts on the bottom of it that lock against each other, then the wing nut screws down on the other end when the air cleaner is in place.

From every other Holley/Weber 5200 design that I have seen, they use a similar rod, but it has a flat nail-like head on the bottom end, and it has "teeth" on the shaft which keep it in the top half of the carburetor while removing the air cleaner.

The problem I have had with the "threaded rod with nut" design, is that when removing the wing nuts to take the air cleaner off, the threaded rod falls through the holes of the carburetor top. When putting the air cleaner back on, you have to push up on the threaded rod up from beneath the air cleaner while, at the same time, screwing the wing nut down. Once the wing nut starts to get tight, the rod starts to spin, so you have to hold on very tightly to the nut on the end of the threaded rod and destroy your fingers while trying to keep it from spinning.


I found the threaded rod and nut design so annoying that I pulled the nail-head type studs from a late model 5200 and hammered them into the top half of the 73's Holley/Weber, so that I can now re-assemble the air cleaner without chewing up my fingers and getting frustrated with it all.


Soo......Anyon e else find the early style carburetor air cleaner studs annoying? Or does anyone else know why they didn't use the nail head type studs from the beginning?

I just can't seem to figure out exactly how Ford expected someone to tighten down the air cleaner with two hands and keep from mangling their fingers in the process!