[Andy Lawton]

M4 – thanks. I’ll buy a few hundred so I can lose them.

I don’t know about the challenge yet. I’ve not taken the car on a long run, and I’d like to build up a bit of confidence first. Plus I have some UJ boots to change. And probably another cafetiere- I’ve done one, and when I looked at the other it seemed it would only be a matter of time before that went. It never ends!

[Andy Lawton]

The second link you posted is a garage in Rennes, I think. €375 for a fully reconditioned carb.

[Andy Lawton]

Hi Peter.

I live in France, so I have no access to a rolling road!

I have spotted a Weber carb on Leboncoin, so I’ll see if I can get that and if it makes a difference.

Oh, and if anyone knows, what is the size of the nuts that connect the linkage to the carb? No surprise, I’ve dropped a few into the darkness below that not even a magnet on a stick can find.

Thanks for the link. Someone is selling a bunch of carbs here – including a few DLEA2’s.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipement_auto/2275333177.htm

[Andy Lawton]

Well, the new spacer arrived, so the carb is back on complete with new gaskets and a smear of hylomar.

The car starts first turn cold or hot. It never started hot without using the acellerator pedal before.

However I still can’t get a smooth idle. There’s no air leaks or anything else that I can see.

The saga continues! I wonder where I can get a Weber …

[Andy Lawton]

I have a PDF from Citroen that states that the Weber 28/36 DLEA2 can be replaced by the Solex 28/36 SFIF and vice versa.

I have the Solex carb on my car, and it has two screws for what I think is idle mixture adjustment. One is a brass one, definately for fuel, and the other is a steel one on the barrel that is for the air.

There’s provision for the accelerated idle device for the auto cars, but there is no device fitted. In fact if you look at where the device fits, there are no openings at all in the body of the carb for any extra air to be injected. Maybe the Weber carb is the same? If you get the DLEA2 for a manual carb, then the provision for the device is there, but they just don’t drill the channels out?

I have had lots of issues with my carb. I still can’t get a decent idle. I envy you having a Weber!

Here’s a link the Citroen document.

[Andy Lawton]

Yes, good point. Taking off material will make it more liable to distort when it’s bolted down. Looking at the fibre spacer, it has distorted to match the distortion of the carb base, but it also feels that it’s softened a little. Hopefully the new one will be more stiff, and I won’t clamp the carb down with a piece of scaffold pole on the end of a socket.

The carb was less distorted on the side closest to the engine. I suspect this is because the nuts on the engine side are much harder to tighten than on the opposite side, and so the force on that side is less, meaning less distortion.

[Andy Lawton]

Hi John,

Yes, I can see that as long as the gap between the two chokes remains constant, then it can be compendated for in the mixture setting. It just seems odd that there is so much time and effort during manufacture to ensure control of the air flow, and then you put it on a base that has an uncalibrated and definately variable air leak, where you could eliminate that variable by a simple double holed gasket. Or maybe I’m overthinking it!

[Andy Lawton]

Hi Paul,

There were no gaskets at all when I took the carb off. I’m thinking of using the supplied gasket between the spacer and the manifold, and make my own between the carb and the spacer. Looking at the der Franzose website here it seems almost random as to which carbs get a single hole or double hole gasket.

[Andy Lawton]

First prize (provisionally) to John. I am convinced that there is no issue with ignition now. Despite my best efforts, I just can’t get a stable idle. So off came the carb again, and I checked the flatness of the base of the carb. Looked like a banana. So I have got the base nice and flat using emery cloth on a sheet of glass. Problem now is that the spacer between the carb and the inlet manifold is’nt flat. It’s been deformed by the carb. So I have a new one coming.

Here’s another question. When I bought the carb rebuild kit, it came with a paper gasket. This gasket doesn’t have two cut outs for each choke, but a single cut out that connects the two chokes together. Now I can see that this is OK if you use this gasket between the inlet manifold and the spacer, but if you use it between the carb and the spacer, won’t it allow unwanted air from the bigger choke that’s supposedly closed during idle (but there is a very small hole in the butterfly) to bleed across into the smaller choke? Or is there no need for a gasket between the carb and spacer? I have an exploded diagram of the Solex carb, and it doesn’t show one between the carb and the spacer.

[Andy Lawton]

I took out all the jets I could and made sure the holes were clear. I blasted out all the orifices I could see.

I’ll try the hand over the choke trick. As for the Italian tune up – when it dries up a bit, I’ll see what I can do.

[Andy Lawton]

Yes, it’s quite possible. When the rain stops, I’ll see if I can squirt some carb cleaner around the carb to see if the idle speed chaanges.

The spindles could well be worn. It’s 50 years old, after all. If it were a Weber carb, I might be able to find a new or refurbished one. The chances of doing that with this Solex I think are small.

[Andy Lawton]

I’ve had chance to do a bit more investigation.

The misfire isn’t on one cylinder. It seems to be random.

I’ve checked the valve clearances – they were OK.
Checked for a blown head gasket with the kit that measures exhaust gases in the coolant – nothing. I’ve also never had to top up the coolant. There’s no mayonnaise in the oil.

The plugs were a bit sooty, but I’m not completely surprised about that, as I’ve not had a chance to go for a long run. The insulator tubes seem OK too. I cleaned up the plugs and made sure the gaps were OK. They are very recent.

After all this, it does seem to run better, but there is still a small intermittent misfire.
it does run smoother above about 2000 rpm. I suspect that the carb is worn, and there’s something in the idle circuit that isn’t quite right. The carb has been through the ultrasonic cleaner and had a rebuild kit, so I think it might just be a bit old. I guess the fuel pump might have some issues too, as it is original I think.

I might just have to put up with it, if I have to!

[Andy Lawton]

I haven’t had the chance yet to start any more investigations, but the plug leads and plugs are all new. No guarantee that there isn’t a faulty one in there somewhere though. The coil is new, and is a Valeo as specified as a replacement for the DS/ID.

As for the position of the distributor, if the body is rotated to the position you suggest (anti clockwise 90 degrees) then the strain relief for the cables exiting the distributor body is hard against the pipework and rubber spacer that run between the cylinder head and the distributor. With the distributor in the position shown, there is space for the cables to exit. I can’t see why this would make any difference. As long as a spark happens at the correct time to the correct cylinder, the position of the rotor cap is irrelevant. Assuming your plug leads were long enough, you could leave the body of the distributor in the same position and reposition the rotor cap 90 degrees different. All you would then need to do is reposition the plug leads to take this into account. I have checked the dynamic timing with a strobe, and it follows the C11 curve exactly, so I don’t think the position of the distributor is an issue.

I had noticed that there seemed to be a lot of condensation from the exhaust, and was worried that there might be a head gasket issue, but I’m losing no water, there’s no evidence of any water in the oil or oil in the water and using a kit to detect exhaust gases in the water shows no problem. I think it’s just some condensation in the exhaust, and as it’s been quite wet recently, humidity.

As Peter suggested, I do have an infrared thermometer but to be able to get to the individual cylinder exhaust pipes, I’d have to remove the heatshield, and I’m not ready to do that yet.

Back to testing tomorrow!

[Andy Lawton]

I have installed the new distributor.

Not too difficult, but it does help if you fit the plug leads in the correct order …

Sadly, it hasn’t fixed the problem I was hoping it would. The idle is uneven, and even at high revs you can hear a misfire. I guess I’ll have to delve further.

[Andy Lawton]

Thanks Peter, but I have decided to get a 123. I found a drawing of the 123 distributor, and took mine out to compare. All the critical dimensions are the same, so I know it will fit.

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