Weber carburator

[tunepipe911]

Had to put in a Weber last week,the Solex was dead or allmost,after 150.000miles.
Had to make a few adjustments to get it fit,but now the engine turns like a
Swiss watch,could not believe the difference
Wanted to keep it all original but, as it goes now ,the Weber stays!
just to let you all know,there is hope after trouble

[automata3.0turbo]

what makes the solex such a piece of crap? everybody says it should be replaced with the weber.

[opelwasp]

Solex has 2-32mm barrels, and the weber has a 32mm primary and a 36mm secondary. Around town it is no different, but push the pedal down and you'll know the difference. Also downdraft Solex's seem to have been made from poor quality metal I guess. They have a tendency to warp here in the states especially in warmer states. When they warp you can never get it to run well again, due to the guts being all out of alignment. Plus the sound of the engine is so cool when that second barrel opens up. Bwahahaha.

[automata3.0turbo]

my fiance says she had alot of problems keeping the old solex on her car tuned before she replaced it with the weber. she said even when she could get it tuned right that it wouldnt be long after that it would go outta wack again. ive only dabbled with cars with fuel injection, my expirences with carbs are extremely limited, just to an old camaro i had a few years ago.

[oldopelguy]

A properly set-up and maintained Solex actually is a very good all-around carb. Even after 500,000+ miles one of my Kadetts was still starting right up, running and accelerating smoothly, and getting 28+mpg with the origional Solex.

Probably 90% of the problems I have seen with Solex carbs were due to improper repairs. Much like Quadrajets, the Solex requires a gentle hand; over-tightening the screws will almost always ruin one. They also require more frequent tuning than Webers, as they do a lot more metering with adjustable needles instead of the Weber's jets. By now, then, it's a sure bet someone's had to tinker with the Solex, and odds are good at least one of those tinkerers was a bit ham-fisted and broke something.

I do prefer the GT Solex, with the mechanical secondaries, over the Manta and Kadett automatic one with the vacuum ones. I have seen quite a few of those vacuum secondaries not working properly whereas the linkage always does.

[tekenaar]

Agree with everything Stephen (oldopelguy) said in his previous post above and will only add that the single biggest problem with vacuum (load dependent) secondary Solexes is a ruptured vacuum diaphragm. I also believe that this is the single most undiagnosed problem on this particular Solex type . . . ask me how I know!

When the diaphragm ruptures, the carb becomes totally untunable. No matter what you try, the carb neither ever idles properly again nor does it perform properly in the upper RPM range . . . both caused by the huge vacuum leak in the primary, source of secondary diaphragm operating vacuum!

At idle, carb will be extremely lean and is typically maladjusted to compensate and attain some sort of idle characteristic. When throttle is wide open, secondary is never opened due to diaphragm leak and primary mixture is also leaned out due to this leak . . . no secondary opening and leaned out primary results in less performance than from a properly operating primary alone!