Weber carburetor identification and numbering

What kind of Weber carburetor is it?

Weber has manufactured dozens of different carburetor models over the years. And unfortunately, unlike some other brands, many Weber carburetors are made up almost entirely of unique parts that are not used by any other model. Very few parts are exchanged from one model to another, and did you know that there are no Weber parts common to all the different Weber carburetor models?

This means you need to accurately identify the carburetor model you have before you can order jets or spare parts.

It's simple, mine has a metal plate (or a sticker) with a 6-digit number!

This is not a Weber model number. Plates and stickers are generally used by OEM car manufacturers and aftermarket parts companies to affix their own part number to the carburetor, and in some cases we have no way of matching your number to a Weber model.

In the photo below, the carburetor comes from a Ford Escort and bears a metal plate with the Ford part number 76HF ABA.

Weber model numbers are always engraved on the carburetor. They always begin with a two-digit number (or a pair of two-digit numbers separated by a slash) followed by three or four letters. There may or may not be any further numbers and/or letters after that.

Where is the model number located on my Weber carburetor?

On vertical carburetors, Weber stamps the carburetor model number on one side of the base. Horizontal carburetors have the model number stamped on the top, outside the jet cover.

Weber Vertical 32/36 DGAV	Weber Horizontal 40 DCOE 138

Note that the stamp on the vertical parts may face the engine. You might need a flashlight and a mirror to see it. Click on either photo to enlarge it.

Weber Model Nomenclature

The model number prefix is ​​a 2-digit number that refers to the diameter of the throttle body(ies) in millimeters (if the prefix is ​​a pair of 2-digit numbers separated by a slash, the first digit refers to the main body and the second digit to the secondary body).
But this number alone will not tell us which carburetor you have.

The main part of the model number is a 3 or 4 letter code that indicates the carburetor design.

This is where things get complicated. Each letter is an abbreviation of a letter for a word, but the words are all Italian. Even worse, Weber sometimes used the same letter abbreviation for two different words. And just to make matters worse, they never published an index to decode these abbreviations!

Here are the most common ones:

D
D here means Doppio - or twin in English - probably referring to the two bodies.

G or F
The second letter indicates whether it's a right-hand or left-hand carburetor – they are mirror images of each other. G is the variant for right, F for left. A DF carburetor has its throttle plate rotating clockwise, while the DG rotates counterclockwise, and the positions of the primary and secondary throttle bodies are, of course, reversed (since they are mirror images).

A, E, or nothing
The third letter refers to the type of starter - A for aquatic (water) starter, E for electric starter and no letter for manual starter.

V
V means (depending on who you ask!) either vertical or equipped with an enrichment valve.

The good news is that the meaning of the letters doesn't really matter, as the unique combination of numbers and letters will positively identify the carburetor:

32/36 DGV - 32/36 Right manual starter
32/36 DGAV - 32/36 Right-hand water starter
32/36 DFEV - 32/36 Left electric starter

Optional suffixes take the form of numbers or numbers and letters. This usually indicates a "variant," such as a carburetor configured for a specific application. The factory calibration may be different, or a lever may be swapped from one side to the other (the Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce came with a pair of "40 DCOE 2" model carburetors, but the Spider Veloce had two "40 DCOE 32" model carburetors. The difference in this case lies in the factory calibration).

A notable exception to the suffix rule is the IDA family. The 46 IDA is a 2-barrel vertical carburetor, but add a suffix "3" (46 IDA 3) and you get a 3-barrel vertical carburetor that not only has a completely different design, but it even uses some specific parts! 

Common Weber carburetor models

Here are some of the Weber carburetor models we deal with most frequently. The suffixes in parentheses are not critical and indicate only minor adjustments.

Even better, the castings for the DGV's body and top plate are symmetrical. Weber could have simply moved the fuel inlet fitting, throttle pump, and linkage to the other side. Instead, they used a completely different top plate. The DGV and DFV can't even use the same air filters.

There you go, we hope you can now more easily identify your Weber carburetor and order the correct corresponding parts on our PAFClassic website.