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Problems getting started after dismantling carb

Nikko

New Member
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2
Location
Northampton
Hello to all in this community. Looking for a bit of advice after dismantling the Solex 32 SEIA on my R5 TL 1972. For the first time ever it refused to start during its summer check and after dismissing everything else I took the carburettor off and cleaned it all out and put it back together with new gaskets. I now know that the reason it didn’t start was because I was feeding it diesel, anyway now all cleaned up, all jets and orifices blown through with carb cleaner. It fires up, turns over unevenly for a short while at slow revs and does not respond to throttle, before stalling. Backfires through the carb. Any help would be much appreciated
 
Dealing with the consequences of inadvertently adding diesel's not as simple as draining the tank & cleaning the carburettor! You'll probably find you'll need new plugs as well, as the diesel can react with the electrodes. By feeding fresh petrol into the carburettor directly from a can, you can by-pass the tank and the pipe from it. To do this, put 5 litres of premium unleaded (it has more cleaning properties than ordinary unleaded fuel) in a can and run a rubber pipe from the pump's input into the 5 litre can. Spray some Eazystart into the carburettor and start the car, allowing it to warm up normally, having ensured the 5 litre can's securely wedged and can't spill its contents! Once it's warm try to rev the engine. If it revs happily the problem is some residual diesel in the tank and pipe.

This is just a suggestion.......
 
Thank you.
The tank was bypassed using a bottle connected to the pump so I don’t think diesel residue is an issue. After the carburettor clean up the engine did at first start and run for 30 seconds or so, which would have cleaned the plugs. After that it became more and more difficult to start the engine and then it never run for more than 5 or 10 seconds before stalling. Choke in or out or opening the throttle had little or no effect on the revs which were near idling speed. I did not touch the throttle plate adjustment but obviously the air screw and mixture screw settings were disturbed as I cleaned them out.

I am thinking that opening the throttle should have some noticeable effect on the revs if the engine is firing and because nothing much was happening makes me think that something may not be right internally, even though I tried to be super careful when putting it back together.

I understand that backfiring through the carb is a symptom of a weak mixture so I turned in the mixture screw a little. In fact turning the screw in or out had little effect.
Haynes manual is of no use on this. Is there a procedure for setting up a dismantled carb?
Many thanks in advance.
 
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