solex carb

Took delivery of my shiny new carb last night. I haven't compared it directly to the old one yet but the geometry looks the same. What's odd is you can't see the choke when moving the linkage.

Can I set the idle and mixture to the factory specs or are they different?

thanks.

 

I put one on mine, and it cranks and runs
great without any adjusting at all.
Almost like fuel injection. Fast starting.

 

That's what I like to here!

 

It does not have a choke butterfly, It does have a fuel enrichment valve that acts like a choke. mine was fairly easy to tune, but dwell setting was critical along with timing. If it were me doing it again I would make sure the timing & dwell is set before even trying to adjust the solex. starts easy and no stumble after warm up.

 

I installed it Saturday with little problems. I only need to redo my choke cable. It started fine after realizing I needed a coil, luckily I had one from another vehicle. (see next thread) The odd thing is after running a while and getting up to temperature, the carb was covered with condensation.

Is this normal? Otherwise it runs great.

 

I'm curious to know how the Solex runs on the trail with the steep hills and such.

 

If your engine is in good health, No worries I backed up a hill so steep it puked oil out the fill tube on the hood the cowl and in the floor board. It was still running great at that angle

 

I once had mine driven up a vertical wall so high that oil ran out of the steering column and onto the driver's seat. I let it run and climbed out to take a picture of it. Do the Solex's work well facing uphill and bouncing too? Does it have a front, side or rear bowl? They don't cost very much but are they easy to rebuild and are parts available for them? I know my Carter YF has a few common problems when it sits for a while; what are some common problems with the Solex? You guys are convincing me too try one.
I see the Solex for the f-head starts for years 58-up. A page also explains that the bolt holes are set to match the originals which run front to back on the intake. Mine is a '56 and the base mounting holes run side to side. I didn't realize some f-heads had a different bolt hole layout. Do I want the M32 or M34 number Solex?

 

Common Solex issues I've had: when it sits for longer than a week, takes longer to start like the fuel has evaporated out of it. When cold, condensation does form on the lower part of carb, will ice up if very cold.(Just ask Unclebill!!!) Disappears when motors warms up and gets some heat off the head. Always run a filter between pump and carb. Only tune/adjust after engine is fully warmed up. Enjoy!

 

My '60 is mounted from side to side.
You want the one that mounts side to side. The other is for the L-Head (flathead), probably.

 

I've got a solex carb and I could use some help..

The carb is one I picked up from somewhere I found online, cost about $100, was brand new and Omix Ada brand. This is on my 47 2a with an L134..

Since new it more or less runs pretty good and certainly starts better than the old carter WO that came with my jeep, but I've had a few problems.

1. The throttle/butterfly linkage likes to loosen and when that happens, the butterfly, accelerator pump and the two throttle arms (one for the gas pedal, one for the throttle hand control) all change position WRT each other which makes everything go haywire... IE one minute it will idle very high, then next, not at all, the next super low rpm, etc and it changes basically every time I let off on the gas. Tightening the nut seems to help at least for a little while.. There appears to be a lot of slop between all of these parts and the "D" shaft, which allows everything to move a lot. Additionally, the locking washer/retainers fit so loosely on this shaft that they can't do their job either ( that is, keeping the nuts tight that hold the whole mess together).

2. (bigger problem) it's always leaked. Initially I just saw stains, but once I started parking it in my garage I'd notice a lot of gas smell. It's been on there 2 years and 3000ish miles so far. Yesterday I was poking around there after I had just turned it off and noticed that gas was burbling out of the jet and filling up the manifold. I pulled off my PCV valve and fuel dribbled out... (probably a tablespoon or two). I monitored this and saw that it continued to burble/dribble gas until the line pressure had gone down. I guess that explains the gas smell!

If I let it sit a few days the carb seems to be bone dry and takes quite awhile to fill back up with fuel and start.

So I assume there is something lodged in the carb preventing the needle from fully seating...? Does anybody have a link for a good exploded diagram or better yet, instructions for how to rebuild one? Mine came with a very fuzzy/hard to read exploded diagram, but I haven't managed to locate it yet...

Overall, I'm not impressed and considering rebuilding the original WO. Is this worth my time? I have two, I know one works, don't know anything about the other. I'd like to think that if I get the nice master kit from Walcks and combine the best parts of both carbs I'd end up with a real nice rebuild and a good clean running jeep.

http://www.walcks4wd.com/Product/W-O-Original-Carter-Carburator/4454

Are there any other "solex" carbs out there of higher quality than the Omix version?

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Jonathan