About 13 years ago I bought a Beetle with a 'built' (as the kids say) 1679 engine. Sadly it was beyond its prime with the rear quarters rotted out allowing water down one of the DRLAs and into the case. The case was actually rebuilt by Bears but one of the carbs was so corroded that the spindle shaft wouldn't turn. I beat on it an awful lot but gave up and put it away. I know a lot more now than I did back then and had another go at it last weekend. My starting point was just a few bits of shaft stuck in the body so I used a combination of heat and some cheap but effective Rocket lubricant and I managed to free them off and drift them out. This is what was left: The old butterfly's were also destroyed: So I put an order into Dellorto for a gasket set, new spindle and butterfly: I also ordered a gasket set: Here it is laid out: It's obviously missing a gasket so I need to get onto Dellorto about that. One of the diaphragms is also corroded: The other is slightly corroded too but not as bad. Not a great start for something that costs a small fortune. Monday's job to sort out. Any recommendations on an ultrasonic cleaner welcome.
When I bought the rebuild set one of the diaphragms leaked from the word go. When I complained they admitted the ones in the kit are Marmitee and sent me good ones.
Yeah I'd read your post on that. I'll keep an eye out for that but either way they will need to be replaced as I'm not wild about new corroded parts.
It doesnt take a lot to make some brass look like that, just a bit of condensation and the surface will develop patina. Provided it hasnt actually eaten into the metal, polish it out, those bits are just rivets or at the extreme a place where a spring rests. A few months with modern ethanol fuel and it will look like that anyway.. I can tell which jets have been used on my carburettor, and relatively how long they have been used by how dark they have become.
On the other hand the kit pump diaphragms are known to be particularly poor quality so any excuse to get them replaced with better ones is the way forward.
I was told most affordable ultrasonic cleaners last a very short amount of time before blowing up. He boiled his single choke dell's in a pan of water to good effect. Remember these looked brand new-not the manky crap people sell me. Thought he could just fit em straight on. Eurocarb want £35 each already stripped for ultrasonic clean. I've done the same and pulled the sized shaft out a 36 DRLA. Dirt is a nightmare in old carbs to remove.
Does look like you literally beat the Marmite out of it . Hope it’s ok .. A decent ultrasonic cleaner will cost around £1500 and you can get special carb cleaner to put in it .. I wouldn’t boil them or use lemon juice . If heavily corroded on the outside I’d Aquablast them .
It's hard to see in the pics but the silver part is also corroded. Either way, even if they corrode after fitting, a new part shouldn't look like this. I wouldn't buy a new car which had rust to be told they will all look like that in 50 years time anyway. These kits are not cheap.
It's fine. Made sure to file the ends before knocking them through so the bores escaped - just. The body is in good nick. MigWeldinguk forum seems to recommend best ultrasonic.com but response from them is very slow so I'm going to roll the dice on some cheaper chinese stuff. If it fails, then ebay should kick in.
Dellorto next day'd 2x replacement diaphragms and a gasket. Nice work resolving the issue so quickly: Here is the carb completely blown apart. Some of the parts I removed 10+ years ago so no idea where they come from and some are I'm sure are native to other components e.g. the brake shoe spring The worst of the jets are these where water did them no favours: If anyone can identify any missing parts, let me know.
The carb body is now bare except for this part: Anyone know what it is and if I should/can remove it?
Should it move freely? All the other ones I've seen seem to have a blanking plug in there. There's still a little rust I can see in that section from the previous calamity.
Good point. Its looks to be the original plate which has been modified to probably act as a blanking plate. In which case, can I just clean it all up best as possible and reinstall that plate and forget about it?
It has a seal on the bottom and you have choke jets and emulsion in your picture. Not sure what would happen if the piston couldn't spring to the bottom and make the seal. Choke always on?
To give an idea just how bad the water intrusion was, here is a close up the diaphragm: Crunchy. Anyway, whilst I wait for the ultrasonic cleaner to arrive I decide to make a degreasing bath to give it a headstart: This is the solution after cleaning the main body. I did two seperate washes for jets and screws. The jets were even worse than the main body solution below: Scum in the bottom. Eagle eyes will spot 2x gaskets and 2x washers. Not sure where they came from:
I read that these always stay closed by default. However if there's a seal then at some point that will fail?
