Solex rebuild, heeeeelp!

Hello everybody! Long time, no post! Anyway, life is going good, and things have been well. At least until Old Bill stranded me for the first time....

The wife and I had gone out for a afternoon drive, and had gone about 40 miles when I made a 10 minute stop. Bill didn't want to start upright away, but finally did. Unfortunately, he kept stalling and hiccuping and I simply couldn't get him started again and had to get a tow home from a friend.

I had noticed this behavior slowly coming on earlier, but never to the point I thought it was a problem.

Anyhow, thinking it over, I believe that the Solex, being 6 years old, probably needs to be rebuilt. Bill doesn't get out every week, and once in a while, a month or two at a time. I'm thinking stuff either gummed or dried up inside there.

FWIW, I took off the fuel filter, and I have flow through the line, so unless I've already got a bunch of crap in a 6 year old tank, I'm thinking carb.

I've already got the rebuild kit, but there are no instructions. I know the Solex is a pretty simple carb, but was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a step by step, if there is such an animal. Or at least any tips of what to look out for or what not to do.

Any advice is much appreciated!

 

Nice to see that you guys are still around!

 

Not from lack of trying!!!

How much was the pool up to?

 

Nah, I'm gonna hang around. Life was just a bit crazy for a while. OK, a long while.....

 

Pertronix, so no points. It would fire right up with a squirt of starting fluid, but die as soon as that dried up.

Vapor lock maybe, but it hasn't been running any hotter than normal, and it was a pretty nice day. I've definitely run it in hotter weather than that.

I'm gonna double check fuel flow first and see what happens....

 

My pertronix died. Waiting for a new one. Won't start.

 

Well, when I did some experimenting, I had gas coming out of the accelerator pump gasket, so I knew that a rebuild was in order. The rebuilding went well enough, but I still ended up with the same troubles.

I was able to get it started by dropping a little gas down the carb, and I was able to get it idling pretty smoothly. I was thinking I had it licked, until I went to take a drive down the road. Got about an eight of a mile and it just sputtered and stalled. It would occasionally run again briefly, but with no power and not for long. As soon as I drop more gas down the carb, it'll start back up, but die off as soon as it gets used up.

Next stop, fuel pump I guess....

Oh well, it was gonna happen eventually.

 

Nope, not that old, I replaced it when I redid everything in '04. Everything to do with the fuel got replaced. Tank, lines, pump, carb, etc. But this problem has been around for about 4 months and slowly building to this point.

New pump already on order.....