Rusted Out 1970 850 Spider Fix-Up

Time to dot some “I”s and cross some “t”s with this car! I have kinda half heartedly tried to sell it recently, and didn’t get much of a response (not really surprised) so I figure, if it is staying with me, let’s get some more stuff done! First up, the darn idle was not idling again. Yup…primary idle circuit plugged up. But this time it was not the jet, but in the carb body! Blasted it out with compressed air and that fixed that. Next up: the air cleaner. As you may recall, I put a DGS carb on this car. Here is the throat on that carb:
View attachment 67630
I could not find an air filter anywhere that would fit that. My last attempt at hooking it all together failed miserably, so this time I spot welded two hose clamps to the bottom of the original air cleaner, and reused the plastic ring that came on the top of the carb when I bought it. There were a couple of small gaps that I filled in with caulk. Here it is all painted up. I tighten up one of the clamps, and it is not going anywhere!
View attachment 67631

Beautiful? Nope. Does it work? So far.
View attachment 67632

Next up: idle jet clogging issue. I think that jb weld I posted about a while back may not be as “impervious” as they say. Or the car magically sells. Stay tuned!
You need an Abarth sticker on the air cleaner
 
Time to dot some “I”s and cross some “t”s with this car! I have kinda half heartedly tried to sell it recently, and didn’t get much of a response (not really surprised) so I figure, if it is staying with me, let’s get some more stuff done! ... Next up: idle jet clogging issue. I think that jb weld I posted about a while back may not be as “impervious” as they say. Or the car magically sells. Stay tuned!
1668115303690.png


If the JB Weld on this part turns out to be the problem, send me a dimensioned drawing of what this needs to be. I'm fairly confident I could make one for you. Your work on this car has been inspirational and entertaining. I'd be happy to be able to lend a hand.

Brian
 
View attachment 67752

If the JB Weld on this part turns out to be the problem, send me a dimensioned drawing of what this needs to be. I'm fairly confident I could make one for you. Your work on this car has been inspirational and entertaining. I'd be happy to be able to lend a hand.

Brian
Brian, that is very generous of you! I am not capable of doing such a drawing, but what if I sent you the actual in the picture instead? Would that give you what you need?
 
Daniel's part has arrived, and I'm trying to figure out just exactly what the new part should look like. I thought it would be wise to open this up for input from folks who have more familiarity with this setup than I do. Daniel supplied a photo of one of the other jets and its carrier for reference:

F168565D-0B63-43A9-9D58-FA95A4A7BCC3.jpeg


The reduced diameter of the jet inserts into the carrier up to the shoulder. I've got the overall assembled length, the hole diameter, and the thread specification from the sample part. Is there anything else I should bear in mind?

Brian
 
Hi Brian, Daniel, pasted below is a conversation on this board I had with Daniel about this very same problem. This is regarding a 30DGS with has an idle cut off solenoid on the pass side of the carb. I recommended calling Pierce manifolds and getting a suitable idle cut off solenoid (from dges series I think) The idle cut off solenoid holds the idle jet in the end. My 30dgs runs great.

quote:
The owner at pierce told me the idle jets are the same as the 30dic but weber is now recommending larger size because gas today is so poor. He sent me both 50 and 55 to try. I'm running 50 here in AZ, runs great. Just call pierce and buy $20 bucks worth of the jets he recommends.

Weber carburetor Authentic Weber Carbs, Manifolds, Conversion Kits!


www.piercemanifolds.com

You have to call and ask for technical help. Remind him what he sent me.

I was missing the idle cut off solenoid. He found one that fits. Some DGS had them,

some don't. See photo below from ebay.it

1669336443652.png
 
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I did try Pierce, but each time they sent me a jet holder or solenoid that was too small. After the third call and product returns with them, the answer was kinda “nope”. That is why I got started with making one in the first place.
 
Daniel's part has arrived, and I'm trying to figure out just exactly what the new part should look like. I thought it would be wise to open this up for input from folks who have more familiarity with this setup than I do. Daniel supplied a photo of one of the other jets and its carrier for reference:

View attachment 68229

The reduced diameter of the jet inserts into the carrier up to the shoulder. I've got the overall assembled length, the hole diameter, and the thread specification from the sample part. Is there anything else I should bear in mind?

Brian
this looks like the idle jet on th exhaust side. Will not fit on the intake side
 
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I did try Pierce, but each time they sent me a jet holder or solenoid that was too small. After the third call and product returns with them, the answer was kinda “nope”. That is why I got started with making one in the first place.
some thoughts,
1 I spoke with the owner.
2. maybe giving them the spec on the hose size and thread pitch.
3. As you can see there are tons of 30 dgs carbs for sale now on ebay.it and ebay.co.uk. You could message those sellers and see who has a solenoid. They don't always list them

4. This carb was used on the citroen GS, never imported or sold in USA, but they sold a buttload in europe. Pierce never sold these either but they have a ton of parts for weber carbs. Might be cheaper to send him your 30DGS rather than have him send you solenoids.

5. I can check in a couple weeks if there is a part number on the solenoid, but I bet you could find it doing some internet digging by then.
 
this looks like the idle jet on th exhaust side. Will not fit on the intake side
Thanks for chiming in and trying to help.
This was a picture Daniel sent me of a jet with a different (smaller) configuration, that doesn't use the cut-off solenoid. He sent me that picture to help me visualize what the assembly looked like.
It sounds like Daniel has had a tough time trying to purchase a solenoid that fits. It seems to me that his approach of making something dimensionally interchangeable is a reasonable workaround, provided he's willing to not have the fuel cut-off function. It just needs to be made from materials that stand up to constant immersion in fuel.
Do you know of anything I'm overlooking, dimensionally or otherwise?

Brian
 
"Do you know of anything I'm overlooking, dimensionally or otherwise?"

No, but its a kludge at best. Kludge is ok when the part is unobtainable. IMHO the right part can be found and for quite a bit less than big money.
 
"Do you know of anything I'm overlooking, dimensionally or otherwise?"

No, but its a kludge at best. Kludge is ok when the part is unobtainable. IMHO the right part can be found and for quite a bit less than big money.
Perhaps if you can provide a part number, like you suggested, that'll give Daniel another route to obtain the solenoid.
In the meantime, I'll see what I can do to get him up and running. It's OK with me if what I make is a temporary solution. It's not that complex.
And if it works well enough to be 'for keeps', that's OK too.

Brian
 
Quote:
". As you can see there are tons of 30 dgs carbs for sale now on ebay.it and ebay.co.uk. You could message those sellers and see who has a solenoid. They don't always list them"
 
I am here to give A HUGE shoutout to Russe11, who machined this awesome jet holder for me. Works perfectly. I am so impressed. No JB weld AT ALL! Magic.
Put it on, and the car idled great. Tried to accelerate…stall. After fiddling with it for a while, benched the carb, and disassembled and cleaned it…again. Now, vroom vroom vroom. The whole secret to 850 ownership is to disassemble and clean the carb every 10 miles.
But that is not meant to take away from this jet holder. Magnificent!
19C219B9-9041-4E98-A4BD-27FF62AC6B62.png

And also a shoutout to this entire forum. The fiat folks here have been most generous with time and materials. Y’all are the bomb diggity!
The new part in place and in action!
 
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