New Owner of a 1974 Brave: 15 year olf Carb problems: No fuel

[TJBones]

New member here, I just got a free 1974 Winnebago Brave from craigslist. Its complete and has been sitting for 15 years. I pulled the plugs and put some MMO in each cylinder. Cranked it with no spark a dozen or so times then put the plugs back in. Little hot shot and it fired up, put 5 gallons in the tank(which is like peeing in the grand canyon) could not get fuel to the carb. Dumped another 5 gallons in and changed the filter and she started up ran for about a minute and died. I cranked it again and I heard fluid running in the carb when i stopped cranking it, stuck float would be my guess. my question is what type of carb did they use on these i think its a 440 engine are these quadrajet carbs. If so are they the ones with the plastic foam filled floats(that was a great idea huh) if so are there replacement floats for these that are brass? Any help would be great ............Thanks Tim

[Oz]

You can pretty much bet your carb is shot from sitting so long.  Yes, Thermoquad.  Yes, they did have plastic floats.  Yes, there are brass replacements.  Best to either rebuild the carb or just replace it entirely.  May want to replace mechanical fuel pump too, likely has a bad seal and sucks air. 

Once you get it runnng, you'll find that the engine will start "bleeding" to death:  oil leaks from hardened seals.  Go ahead and engine oil and transmission pan gaskets and valve cover gaskets and sealant now in preparation for it.  Check your belts as well.  It will save you some trips to the parts store after you get the carb problem fixed.

[TJBones]

Thanks for the info. For sure all the fluids, gaskets, belts, thermostat, radiator flushed and or re-cored etc will get done. just doing alittle CPR on it to bring it back to life for now. What would be the best (in your opinion) replacement carb to put on?? I'm more concerned about MPG,s then I am about power(after all these are very aerodynamic rv,s .......LOL) any ideas???

[Oz]

Replacement carb advice:  Use the Message Search.  Plenty of info on it.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

When searching, It's Carter Thermoquad, not Rochester Quadrajet

Dave