I pulled the vac chambers off my SU's this morning to pretty them up a bit. I marked each as it was removed and left the needle pistons in their respective carbs. I plugged the damper pistons threads with properly sized bolts, and used a bit of silicone to stick the base of the vac champers to a piece of scrap steel before throwing them in my media blaster. I blasted only the exterior surfaces of the vac chambers, painted them, and then cleaned them with compressed air. I was pretty careful about not getting any grit inside, and cleaned everything very well after painting before reassembly.

I'm trying to reassemble them on the car now, and the pistons are binding a bit in the chambers. It's not really a free fit that allows sliding, but I can get the pot to move within the chamber if I give it some english. I was pretty careful about cleanliness and keeping things with the proper carb. I can lift the dashpot, but it's not nice and free and dosn't drop back down. The fit seems a bit tight regardless if the parts are on the car, or on my bench, so I don't think it's the jets that need centering.

Am I overlooking something? I've only had these off the car about 3 hours, and was pretty darn careful about mixing parts, keeping things clean, and lubing things up for reassembly. It's such a nice fall day in New England I want to go drive!! Any suggestions much appreciated.