Lancia Motor Club

I needed to check the carburettor fuel/air mixture as the spark plugs were very black after just a few journeys so checked
my English Lancia manual (pdf format) for advice on how to set it up. It says to unscrew the volume screw until the engine "gallops" then wind it back in until it runs smooth. My engine didn't "gallop" it just coughed and spluttered a bit.
Wound it back to where it was and for the time being will leave it there.
The manual did not state if screwing the adjuster in weakens or enriches the mixture so needed to investigate further.

Found this Solex pdf doc  Solex manual   http://oacdp.org/pdfs/solex.pdf

which goes into all sorts of detail about their range of carburettors, interestingly it states that to adjust the fuel mixture unscrew the volume screw until the engine starts to "hunt" then wind it back in until it runs smoothly.

So now I am thinking that perhaps something has got lost in translation in the Lancia manual where they say "Gallop" instead of "Hunt"........ coughs and splutters sums it better than either of those terms anyway!
Incidentally the Solex manual did say that screwing the adjuster in weakens the mixture, a helpful piece of info that the Lancia manual omitted.


Maybe useful for previous thread-    Re: Solex C32 PAIA 8  Carburettor manual?

What's the air filter like? I had a Fulvia coupe and when I changed the air filter the fuel consumption went from around 25mpg to 30+ mpg.
I might be wrong but that screw thing is only for tickover...

Air filter is fairly new.....still very clean.
One other thought - when I bought the car the rubber pipe from the oil filler/breather cap to the underside of the air filter box was just directed down the back of the engine and the air filter was extremely dirty. After changing the filter I connected the pipe back to the air filter and it shows no sign of excessive fumes etc being drawn into the carb.
Recently the guy I bought the car from saw I had reconnected it and said he thought it was better if not connected but didn't give any reason. ??? ???

John,

Thank you for the link to that Solex manual. Quite interesting - have downloaded it as a pdf.
Might be useful sometime for my Solex carb on the Aurelia B12.

I would also be interested in a web link for a similar manual for Weber carbs, especially the 40 DCZ/DCL.

Sebastien

I've always used spark plug testers and Gunson Colour Tune (See Ebay). Works well on the Dilambda!

Robin.

Thanks for that - Gunson Colour tune looks promising........
However, one worry is with the spark plugs being so deeply set into the engine will this be a problem - anyone used it on an Appia?

Adjusting the fuel mixture depends on the type of Solex. If I remember correctly, in the Fulvia undoing the idle screws will enrich the mixture. In the Appia undoing the single screw will weaken the mixture.
Having taken apart a few Appia Solex carbs I should say that finding wrongly sized jets was not uncommon. Moreover, the housing of the idle jet was often full of dirt and the jet itself in poor shape. It is very helpful to fit an inline fuel filter before the carb, Andrea

I haven't used a colourtune on a Fulvia but mine fits with a 22mm socket and on a Fulvia I suspect the plugs being buried deep in the head may make it even easier to see the colour of combustion.