Good Afternoon everyone. I REFUSE to have my car towed up to Brad Mayeur just for a "tune up"... I WILL do it myself, and I WILL get it running as good as it used to.

I found this website that I've been "studying" up on Solexes:

http://www.356registry.org/tech/solex.html

Here's my problems:

Car runs rough..... when it gets hot, it barely runs at all.

Much of the gas is 6 months old (its been stored all winter)

Last time I drove it, I (yes, I'm a moron) drove it through an automatic car wash... it was October, and it was too damn cold to wash with a hose).... The engine died from the water. It immediately restarted, but ran like shit.

And it still does.

I can get it to idle smoothy, but once you accelerate, even while in neutral, the bogs out, or just stalls. If you're "driving", the car literally has almost no power. You have to turn the enging to 4500 RPMs, and s l o w l y let out the clutch... just to get it moving. The hotter the engine gets, the worse it gets.

Here's what my plans are:

Drain the tank, refill with good gas

Change the coil

Clean the jets in the carbs.... this is where I need help. I've never removed the jets from a Solex. I know the "retainers" are on the bottom, but the jets are on the opposite side??? Can someone explain this to me?

Any other suggstions?

Thanks everyone!!--Matt

Did you put Stabil (gasoline stabilizer) in the tank before storing it for the winter? If there's bad gas in your tank, there's bad gas in all the twisty little passages in your carbs as well. If the gas in some of those passages has turned to varnish, some of those passages may be plugged requiring disassembly to fix.

Skip

Nope... the gas still flows freely, pump is still pumping. I even changed the filter in the parking lot of Auto Zone. That was actually my first guess cause when it gets hot, it "acts" like it's not getting fuel.

But when I first started it, it ran a little rough, but it is perfectly driveable when it was cold. Once it heated up...... bad.

Still think its fuel? Or does that sound like ignition?

First, ALWAYS get the ignition timing and valve adjustments spot-on before messing with the carbs. Make sure the distributor advance mechanism isn't hanging up.

The main jets are under those large hex head caps at the base of the throats. Remove and clean everything you find underneath. The idle jets are 2/3rds of the way up the body. Spray lots of carb cleaner everywhere.

Solex PII-40s are insanely sensitive to float height, which is externally adjustable on these carbs, even while the engine is running. Literally a 1mm change can make the difference between lots of popping and banging and very smooth running. This is something like a 1/4 turn on the adjustment screw. I got my 912 to run very nicely w/o buying the snazzy little measurement tool, mostly by adjusting them on a running engine until I no longer had ANY popping or even slight misfires at idle. I then revved it in the driveway listening for smooth operation, and kept twiddling until I got there. This was very tedious, and had to be done and re-done, back and forth between the carbs, until it was right. The adjustment tool turns this into a 10 minute job.

Look at the jet sizes on your carbs and make sure they're all the same (all four idles should be the same, all four mains should be the same). You can get new jets from Classic and Speed Parts, a 356/912 shop. They also have rebuild kits with new gaskets and new idle mixture screws (cheap, too, like $35 per carb).

If it ran fine before, iit's likely the carbs are OK. Before you go any further, put a new set of points in it and re-time it. I bet you'll find it runs pretty well right after that. I'd probably also verify that the dizzy breaker plates are moving freely and that the vacuum advance module didn't sieze up from the water.

Funny thing...... I did mess with all the adjustments on the carbs, just as the directions said. I DID get it to purr like a kitten. No popping, no backfiring... ran smooth right at 900RPM.

For the first 15 minutes, it felt like it was being slightly starved of Fuel.... but it was still driveable.

After that... the car went to shit... absolutely NO POWER at all.

Again... even when its hot, it will idle smoothly... once you give it gas, even if it's in neutral..... nothing.

I don't "think" it's the timing or the valves. This isn't something that gradually happened over a long period of time.... this happened all at one. Something "broke"... or something got "clogged".

Points???? Hmmmm.

It has a new cap, rotor and plugs.... but I didn't do the points.

Think that would really make that big of a difference?

can being drenched in a car wash cause points to go out??

The water could very well have caused a short and the points are severly pitted to the point that your dwell changed significantly. It sounds like you're not getting any advance. Or at least that's a distinct possibility. You also make no mention of actually checking the dwell or timing.

You know what to do from here I think.

Thanks everyone.... wish me luck )

Not to mooch off Matt but my car seems to have the same cold. Dual SolexCarbs, drove around a couple weeks ago, stopped for coffee, etc. Got to a stop light and had the radio up so loud the I didn/t know the car stopped. Engine cranks, but wont fire. Took center wire off of Distrib cap and am getting a spark. The flappers in side carbs do not seem to move when I push / pull the throttle. Sprayed carb cleaner in. Got it to run for about 10 secs then died. Tried to restart but got a loud pop backfire and thats all. Any ideas, need help quick.


little bean

Thanks everybody....... once again, the 914Club pulls through.

Car is running GREAT!! Did a burnout to celebrate.

Turns out....... it was the coil. When it got hot.... it took a crap.

New coil... all better. Of course, now it has new points, plugs, cap, rotor, and a THOROUGH cleaning of all the carb jets, cause I had to go through all that to figure this out.

Car isn't "perfect"... carbs still need a bit of adjustment, but I got em pretty damn close. There's no popping or backfiring at all... but there's just a little bit of hesitation at takeoff..... nothing major at all though.

It's very driveable to the next local cruise night.

We're going to Florida for a couple weeks on the 23rd, when we get back I'm thinking about taking a road trip up to see Brad Mayeur.... let him "tweek" it till its perfect, you know?

Again.... thanks everyone for their advice!!!!!

--Matt

Great ending to this tale. Moral: always check the simple stuff first. If you engine gets wet and it starts to run like crap think electrical first, carbs last.

I'm on my 2nd 914 engine that I'm trying to bring back from the dead. I'm gonna rebuild the solex pii 40's myself. As I had success on my last 2.0L engine I pretty much replaced/checked all the electrical connections on it: New plugs, plug wires, cap, rotor, points, & condenser. Then I gaped the points, checked the dwell and then the timing. It's at that point one should mess with the carbs, if need be. All the stuff above cost about $120 at pelican parts so there is no excuse. Wish me luck on my new 72 1.7. It may have not been turned on since '86 but is in amazing shape in spite of that.

Steve