Hello all,
A few weeks back I checked my oil and found a gallon of fuel in it. Woops. Based on the advice of others in this situation I decided to replace the fuel pump and also rebuild the carb.
I have been using a Solex Pict-3 for many years now, but I had a Solex Pict-2 in my basement. From what I read, you are better off with older carbs which have "less improvements". So instead of rebuilding my Pict-3 again, I decided to rebuild the Pict-2 which I have never used (came off a scrap engine I bought for $100).
To rebuild, I bought a kit from airheadparts.net. I did a very thorough tear down, and cleaning with carb cleaner and canned air. I replaced everything that the kit provided - except for the air idle screw. Reason being, the new screw in the kit was about half the length of the old screw. Perhaps that's normal ... I don't know.
With everything back together, my idle was MUCH lower than before. This is actually a good thing, because prior to replacing the Solex Pict-3 I couldn't seem to tame the idle down no matter what I tried (which may have resulted in the excessive fuel in my crank case).
However - the idle is so low at a stop light that I am near stalling. It's so low, it almost sounds like an engine that is skipping over piston firings. I can unscrew the screw all the way out, and it still idles just as low. If I take the screw all the way in, I can stall it out.
It's nice warm weather here in Ohio and so I laid out and adjusted the valves, and cleaned up a few things. Then I went for a drive and got the engine warmed up. Then I checked the choke. I noticed that I was past the last tooth on the idle arm (?). I don't think that is normal. So I loosened the screws on the automatic choke and cranked it 1/4 a turn past the middle mark on the carb to put the idle screw onto the last tooth where I believe it belongs.
After another test drive I found that it idles much better at a stop light. But I still get a wee bit of a stutter at around 40mph (which was there before). Also, that air idle screw doesn't really seem to do anything ... which is probably not good.
I know I'm being picky, as everything is running really well at the moment. But would anyone know why this screw doesn't work? Was this carb maybe too beat up to rebuild back to 100 percent?
Thanks,
-Steve Ballantyne
68' Bug