That air cleaner was a one-year, one-engine-only deal: 1962 Valiant-Lancer cars with the 170 engine. They called it 'unsilenced'—a better word is
loud—and it offers no operational advantage. No better performance, no better economy, but it was a trifle cheaper to make. The one-year-only usage tells the tale. This what's on your car appears to have been modified with what might at one time been a breather hose fitting; this kind of hack was done on a lot of 1961-1964 California cars during that state's experimentation with retrofitting various kinds of emission controls to cars not originally equipped.
The correct air cleaner for your car is one of two types: a 9" diameter ('63-'67) or an 11" diameter ('61-'68) item, both with a baseplate and a full-circumference/full-drop lid that covers the entire air filter element. California cars '64 and later got the larger type, with a breather hose nipple on its outer wall. 49-state cars (and CA cars through '63) got large or small—no breather hose fitting in either case—depending on which one came to hand when and where any given engine was being assembled. Both types take the same air filter element, but the larger type has more drop to the baseplate, so it takes a different bail to attach it to the carburetor. The 9" air cleaner takes the same bail you have now.
Your carburetor is a Holley 6145. This, first used in the early 1980s in California, is the feedback version of the Holley 1945, which in turn was first used in 1974. It is pretty completely inappropriate for use on your car—it won't work correctly with the mixture control solenoid left for dead like that with its wire cut (and they can't really be said to work "correctly" even with the mixture control solenoid hooked up as intended; feedback carburetors were a cheap and nasty way of squeaking cars past their emissions type approval tests so they could be offered for first sale). This carb has no proper provisions for the rotating-rod throttle linkage in your car; it's meant for a cable-type arrangement. Looks like someone has kindasorta rigged up a way of attaching the rod to the carburetor. I wouldn't trust it.
The correct carburetor for your car would be a Carter BBS or Holley 1920, again depending on which carb came to hand when any particular engine was being put together. Which one is preferable is largely academic; the BBS is the better design, but at this late date the better carburetor is whichever you can find in better condition.
Problem is,
good carburetors for these cars have grown difficult and costly to get hold of. "Remanufactured" ones are practically a guaranteed waste of money and time.
First choice would be a new old stock carb; these are terrific when they can be found and afforded. Second preference would be an older refurbished/rebuilt/remanufactured carb from years ago, back before "remanufactured" meant what it means now.
Here's a perfect new '66 Holley 1920.
Here's a worthy-looking older rebuild of a '63 Holley 1920, and
here's a worthy-looking older rebuild of a '65-'66 Carter BBS. Any of these would be much more suitable for your car than what you've got now. If you wind up with a Holley 1920, its fuel inlet faces the passenger side, rather than front. Good excuse to do the
fuel line mod.
Third preference is to have a good used carburetor thoroughly rebuilt by a skilled expert—starting with an unmolested original carb that is in basically sound condition and has never been abusively cleaned (sandblasted, etc) in a manner that strips off the anticorrosion surface treatment from the metal—with that coating gone, the carburetor turns into a pile of powdery white "metal mould" inside, especially with alcohol in the gasoline.
Whichever you wind up with, fixing the choke is easy; get a № 1231
electric choke kit.
Carburetor operation and repair manuals and links to training movies and carb repair/modification threads are posted
here for free download, and tune-up parts and technique suggestions in
this post.
