Saturday, July 29, 2006

SOLEX CARBURETOR DIAPHRAGM FIXED :)

For a few weeks, nearly month I noticed that my fuel consumption started to rise up. Petrol fume also can be obviously smelt somewhere around the carburetter. Until one day I notice that there was a leakage at one of the 'square shape mini pump' of the Solex Carburetor. Upon referring to Haynes Manual, it was called as Fuel Pump, refer to the exploded diagram, the whole unit assembly is labelled from no. 72, 73, 74, 75, 76. Obviously, upon rev up, petrol clearly seen to seep out through this mini petrol pump.

I did survey few workshop for this 'critical mission'. I was shocked when told that I have to skim the carburetor base. They claimed that the carburetor might have warped, thats why leakages happened. Lastly I when to see the late mechanic's assistant. He suggested it might be only seals or gaskets or maybe diaphragms. I love simple ideas, so I went to him.

The square pump secured by 4 flat screw. Upon unscrew of all this 4 screw, the assembly will then exposed the assembly. We found out that the diaphragm had worn out. Test with engine oil; pour it into the diaphragm and see if leaks occurs. The diaphragm is labelled as 73, but it comes in one package, both 73 and 74. Bought it from Yonit, local VOLVO and SCANIA parts dealer for RM145 for both diaphragm and the spring. Change it and refit the whole assembly back, very simple work. No special expertise needed for this job I guess.

The accelerator get powerful back now, no petrol leaks, no losses. Tested on highway, owh, to get below 130km/h even with light footed acceleration is not that easy. :)

*FYI Solex Carburetor have 3 diaphragms in total.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello. I am aware that this blogpost is over 2 years old but still i have to congratulate you on being able to find a volvo with the Solex carb that doesnt dig a big hole in the wallet when it comes to gasmoney :P

And, is there any posibility that you have a link, or a picture with the rest of the explanations to the items on the carb image?
(i have the haynes book myself but it barely shows anything when it comes to the Solex carb :( )

Thanks in advance!
/Proud owner of a -87 volvo 245

Ahmad Zhafri Ahmad Zahir said...

tj,

thanks for your visit & comment. yeah, solex do saves fuel :)

as for the manual, i'm also trying very hard to even get the exploded view.. the diagram posted was given to me by a friend who had VADIS software in his PC, he just print-screen the solex page to me... that is all i have until now...

you may want to try looking at Haynes for 740/760.. there is a section for solex, how to overhaul, etc...

good day :)

luke said...

Hi, I have a 1990 240 with the Solex carb as well. I was having problems with cold starts, stalling and the car idled poorly. I purchased a rebuild kit and it runs smoothly now (sort of). Now the new problem, when I set the float (#12 in your diagram)high it runs great, but fuel dumps out of the over flow. I lower the float in small increments, but once I get it to stop leaking fuel it doesn't have enough juice to run. Don't know if I need to but I thought of replacing the carb altogether except I can't seem to find one.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Luke

Ahmad Zhafri Ahmad Zahir said...

Hi Luke,

Thanks for dropping by. Am sorry, not an expert in carb settings. I was made to understood from local dealer here that brand new Solex Carb is available, highly priced (around USD 1200++)!