Revision of carburator?

[Dakloos]

Today all the parts have been put together again, luckily I took enough pictures to figure out where everything belongs.
If you take it apart you will see what a piece of wonderful engineering this carburetor is, unbelievable!
After the assembly all springs and moving parts have been lubricated.

She now looks like this:

Isn't she a beauty for a 31 year old Solex!




Everything seems to work and move great again, so when I have some time I will put her back on the engine to see if she works.

[Jeroen]

Nice work! Hope she won't give you too much pain adjusting, just plain driving fun again!

[Dakloos]

Nice work! Hope she won't give you too much pain adjusting, just plain driving fun again!

That's a good one, I think I need to read the "adjusting manual" from the e30.de website. It's only very hard to read because it has been scanned a couple of times, at least that what it looks like.
Does anyone have a better version somewhere?

[Peter V.]

Offcourse there is a better one.

Hope your German is good, otherwise buy a "vraagbaak" and enough info is there to get it run. Only the finetuning off the throttlevalves etc is not in there.
This german version is complete.

http://www.ruddies.business.t-online.de/se4a1b.htm

Please make sure you will not tighten the carb to hard on the manifold or it is getting torned and the big flappes on top will not move smoothly anymore. Only 9-10 Nm is enough.

[Dakloos]

Offcourse there is a better one.

Hope your German is good, otherwise buy a "vraagbaak" and enough info is there to get it run. Only the finetuning off the throttlevalves etc is not in there.
This german version is complete.

http://www.ruddies.business.t-online.de/se4a1b.htm

Please make sure you will not tighten the carb to hard on the manifold or it is getting torned and the big flappes on top will not move smoothly anymore. Only 9-10 Nm is enough.

Hi Peter, thank you very much, just what I needed. My German reading and speaking is good but don't ask me to write it.

[e21manic]

wow never thought of boiling them haha.. nice!
now that it is apart also do this one check. place the three sections on a flat surface, ie the outer rims of the three sections and make sure there is no warping. if it is warped you will see a gap between the flat surface and the edge of the carb section. of you do see this, and it is not too much, then consider using two gaskets on that section when you put it all together, followed by the crossed fingers, prayers, kumbaya dances etc in the hopes it doesnt cause issues later on.
good luck on the rebuild!!

[Peter V.]

Indeed that is a good idea but the top part of the carb has no flat surface in total so you must check that with a metal strip. It is just that the top part of the carb gives you the problem of an unflat surface and difficult moving flaps.

[Dakloos]

The carburetor is back on the engine again, all the hoses connected to the carb have been renewed. Then the moment of truth came, starting the engine for the first time after the rebuild. After a few seconds of starting she gave a sign of life and started, thank god I didn't break the damn thing with boiling it!
She runs steady on all the cylinders without shaking, so there is improvement!

But..
She runs at 2500 rpm but with a little tweaking I managed to get the engine running at 1700 rpm, but that's still too much.
The manual says it needs to run at 850 rpm. I'm a little stuck on what to do now, this is because of lack of experience with adjusting a cars carburetor.
Now I need your help on which move to make next.

Play around with the carburetor and manual without really knowing what I'm doing?
Or find a expert that knows how to adjust it?

Next little problem is when the engine made a run for 10 minutes and I turn it off, it will not start again. It will only starts if I close the small valves on top of the carb for a second and then let go.
These valves (picture on the left) are fully open when the engine is warm. My question, don't they need to close automatically when the engine is turned off, or will they close when the engine is cold?
If they close when the engine is cold, then why does my engine only start when I close these valves for a second?



I know these valves open and close because of a spring inside the " big grey drum" that is at the right side of the carb (1st picture on the right). I am questioning myself if the spring inside needs to be turned around once before attaching it to the little "nipple" (2nd picture) inside the grey drum?



If someone has another idea that is of course very welcome!
When I have some time I will make a movie so you can see ho she runs now.

Thanks,
Roy

[Peter V.]

The chokeflaps are open when the engine is warm. It is indeed the bimetal spring which moves the valves in closed position and then by the temperature of the coolingfluid and the electric connection which gets his power by the temperaturesender at the bottom of the intakemanifold.

The fact that you can start it when closing the flaps gives me the sign the the carb is sett in a very lean mixure. Ofcourse when the engine is cold it runs in high revs en when it is warming up the rpm's is lowering a bit but not enough.

Now it can be that both mixture scews are sett not right or that the throtlleflaps are not sett in the right position when they are in idle. It could also be that the cover of the carb is a bit twisted so that you have a vacuumleak. Mostly by the worst fault that people make with this carb. The 4 big nuts to place the carb on the manifold are to tight so the carbcover.

please make sure that the missing lever between the thermovalve and the spindle of the vacuumbox at the chokehousing are connected.

[Dakloos]

The chokeflaps are open when the engine is warm. It is indeed the bimetal spring which moves the valves in closed position and then by the temperature of the coolingfluid and the electric connection which gets his power by the temperaturesender at the bottom of the intakemanifold.

The fact that you can start it when closing the flaps gives me the sign the the carb is sett in a very lean mixure. Ofcourse when the engine is cold it runs in high revs en when it is warming up the rpm's is lowering a bit but not enough.

Now it can be that both mixture scews are sett not right or that the throtlleflaps are not sett in the right position when they are in idle. It could also be that the cover of the carb is a bit twisted so that you have a vacuumleak. Mostly by the worst fault that people make with this carb. The 4 big nuts to place the carb on the manifold are to tight so the carbcover.

please make sure that the missing lever between the thermovalve and the spindle of the vacuumbox at the chokehousing are connected.

Clear explanation! About the vacuum leak, I have tested if everything is straight and in mine opinion it looks good.
Another thing, isn't it so that if there is a vacuum leak the engine will stop if you put the automatic gearbox to "D" because this also works with this vacuum?
Next thing I want to do is check the four nuts to see if they are not to tight.

Two things I really want to know is;

1. Where do I set the idle of the carb?
2. Where are the two mixture screws located?

Thanks again!

Roy

[Peter V.]

Hey,

In the manual which i placed the link of the question of the idle and mixture is explained.

The mixture is the biggest issue with this carb because there are two screws. One for the left part and one for the right part of the carb. It is that the carb is devided in two actually. One part for cylinder 1 to 3 and one part for cylinder 4 to 6. They must set perfectly balanced or you have an engine which idles not smooth but sounds like a jojo.

The idle screw is located at the throttle system which make sure that the throttlevalve stay's open (is located between de carb and the engine).