OT: when did you last time disassemble/repair a carburetor?

[shogun]

Well, the last time was around 1975 when I owned a 1974 built BMW 2002 BMW New Class. Long, long time ago.

Today I had to do that on my 1999 Honda Acty HA3 truck, the one with 660cc and 4 valves per cylinder, and yes, 4 valves on each of the total 3 cylinders ;-)
A Honda Acty looks like this Honda„*ƒNƒ‹ƒ}„*ƒAƒNƒeƒB�Eƒgƒ‰ƒbƒN„*‰×‘ä (http://www.honda.co.jp/ACTY/truck/webcatalog/carrier/)
Honda Acty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Acty)

That model year still has a socalled 'programmed' carb. Pretty complicated stuff/system. 1 production year later the engine got EFI = electronic fuel injection.

Problem: high fuel consumption, worked only up to half throttle, with WOT black unburned fuel was coming out of the exhaust and RPM went down.
Removed the intake airfilter, without airfilter it ran good = more air. So the air/fuel ratio was not good. So I bought a new airfilter, installed it, same trouble. Checked spark plugs (yes all three of them, hehe), ignition wires, distributor and rotor, fuel pressure regulator, all fine, spark plugs were black from unburnt fuel.

Then I asked a Japanese friend who knows these engines very well and he showed me the repair of the carb as shown here

£È£È£´¡¡¥*¥ã¥ÖÀÚ³« - £Î£Ï£Ò£É£Ë£É¤¬¹Ô¤°¤¥¡ª¡ª - Yahoo!¥Ö¥í¥° (http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kurumanosentakuya/51811442.html)
Actually we did not have to disassemble the complete carb, but he told me to order 2 parts which are usually the problem.
attached to the carburetor
16024-PZ3-000 solenoid for air
16031-PZ3-000 solenoid for air
16024 solenoid was dead and did not move, now full power again.

He told me by email:'I know that, the air vent cut-solenoid. The air vent cut-solenoid function is return to inlet and suction side for vaporization of fuel from fuel-tank. Then, mix it with fresh-air and filling for cylinder. If doesn’t work for these parts, not enough air for air fuel ratio. So accordingly too rich-condition.'

this was was not working
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zblyxQzyf4
this is a link from internet, in my case the solenoid did not move at all.

Cost for both solenoid valves with accessories, even washers, new bolts etc, all in the package, $50, pretty cheap compared to our BMW cars.
Honda Acty runs like a F1 car now. ”grin” , never had so much power out of it. I could feel ALL 48HP, and the torque of 57 Nm !!!/ 5500 RPM
Filled the tank to see effect on fuel consumption.
Engine is a Honda E07A
SOHC 12 Valve
Displacement: 656cc
Inside diameter × stroke: 66.0 × 64.0
Horsepower: 43 kW (48HP) / 6,300 rpm
Torque: 57N m (5.8 kg m) / 5,500 rpm

Even a factory reman carb costs less than $300

Honda Acty Factory Rebuilt Carburetor: HA3, HH3, HA4, HH4 E07A Engine (http://yokohamamotors.net/store/product319.html)

[whiskychaser]

Fond memories of twin choke Webers. Not so fond ones of diaphragms splitting on Strombergs and those horrible later Ford carbs. The one you are working on seems a bit high tech to have to use a Colourtune to get the mixture right :-) My '92 Concerto had a lovely 1.6 16V with EFI so I am surprised they were still fitting carbs 7 years later.

[shogun]

my built year Acty was the last year they made with carb, a year later with EFI.
I still remember carbs when I had a 2002 back in 1975 with twin Weber, to adjust the idle perfect was almost impossible, but when revving, these Weber helped.
Just found that they are still selling these
BMW 2002 FAQ - Weber Downdraft Carburetor Installation Guide (http://www.bmw2002faq.com/content/view/18/32/)
Weber Carburetors For BMW from AlamoMotorsports.Com! (http://www.alamomotorsports.com/weber/bmw_carb.html)
WeberCarbs.com (818) 764-1901 (http://www.racetep.com/weber/bmwkit.html)

[whiskychaser]

Good to hear it wasnt just me had problems with the idle on Webers :-) IIRC, wasnt the original auto choke with the bi-metal strip so bad you could buy a kit to convert it back to a manual choke? Or is my memory playing tricks again? :-)

[John B.]

I own 4 motorcycles with carbs so I get to play with them regularly. Also 2 old Alfas, both with dual side draft webers.

[shogun]

ahh, the good old Alfa Spider. I also had one back around 1970 with Hardtop, but with the 1300cc engine. Great car, great engine, great engine sound, but the rust killed it unfortunately.
For those who do not know this car, here some pics from wiki
Alfa Romeo Spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_Spider)

[nk530]

My 1984 Jeep CJ7 needs to have the jets cleaned about every 2-3 months depending on how much it gets driven. I've gotten so good at it, I can pull the thing, clean it and be back up and running in about 15 mins.

[Russell]

1976 2002. Before that it was a series of Holly 4v on a mustang 351c. I am old :)

[genphreak]

Hmm, my first Ford, a '75 302C Ford Fairmont (Falcon) station wagon (http://www.flickr.com/photos/50415738@N04/7708248898/)/estate I bought (well actually 'swapped', for a case of beer) in my last year of school. The stock 2 barrel carb had melted over a few hot Australian summers, but I found a 500 cfm Holley to replace it with, so learned about float levels, jets and rebuilding. Ended up changing the engine when the air cleaner bolt broke in two (one piece went down the intake, jamming a valve and cracking the block). Built a 5.8 litre version in the lounge room whilst mum was away on holiday. Added a 750cfm 4 barrel at that point. All carbs were second hand so I was rebuilding quite a lot.

That Ford car, he was a monster. 1900kg of iron, no alloy except the alloy steel the 4 Barrell Holley carb was made from; a bullet proof, iron cased 4 speed 'top loader' gearbox, 9-inch diff, 2 way tailgate that I had trouble lifting when I took it off. They built over a million of this model alone (for Australia this is a lot), and there was three produced on this floorpan/platform. They threw away their competitive advantage when they decided to stop producing the cars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si1dSF0VN4s&feature=related) that sold really well in Australia, and made things worse by trying to kill V8s off in 1983. That decision had been made sometime earlier, as they effectively stopped development of V8 powerplants in 1977. They never gave them alloy bits, fuel injection or 4 valve heads, the oil crisis driving their thinking. It meant they lost all the marketing cache they could have used from the success of Mad Max. They re-introduced them due to a lack of appropriate replacement powerplants (they lacked the creativity to build even a mild turbo six like BMW had been doing for years and years at that point.

Realising that the engineers had the engineering solutions, not the management teams, Ford's Australian management left the engineers alone and turned their focus on their design teams (as did the rest of FoMoCo management internationally). They proceeded to destroy the look and feel of almost every model they were planning to make, and collected their bonuses whilst sending the company broke over the next 2 decades.

They simply failed to listen to the staff, and failed to figure out why decisions like the one about the V8s were being made (and reversed) by people that didn't know how. Meanwhile BMW listen to staff, build great cars, but caught the same 'control freak' approach and hired Bangle to run the design team. They lost their Italian flair and still struggle to get the designs ahead of the pack, and lost a lot of ground to VW/Audi amongst others.

[tnsguy]

Not sure of the last time - probably the 2-barrel Weber on my 1974 Datsun 610 wagon. That was some time ago. I do remember the first one - 1965 Mustang 4-barrel. My mother had bought the car for the kids to drive to high school. I was 17 and didn't think it was running right so I bought a rebuild kit from Checker Auto. It was quite an education. I think I only had one ball and one spring that I couldn't figure out what to do with. Since it seemed to run ok afterwards I didn't worry about it.