Lancia Beta Forum

Morning all, just need a bit of advice as I hear tinkering with a carb probably does more harm than good.

Needed to leave car idling yesterday for the first time since owning it. Fired fine from cold and left it whilst moving another car. After ~1 minute the revs gradually dropped and engine cut out. Not sure if this would relate to auto choke not doing it's job or, having read through a posts here, if there is an idle circuit that needs attention.

I think the fuel supply is good as electric pump now fitted with new filter. Only other insights I have are the carb has been previously been rebuilt (many years back) during it's life so has had some professional attention in 40 years, and the filter I replaced was deteriorated so I can't rule out some particles getting past.

There is a Weber specialist just the other side of Reading so not against getting it rebuilt with new gaskets, jets etc. Not sure that sets the carb up for the car though as I would assume that can only be done on the car.

So, do I bite the bullet and get a refurb, or does this sound like a "look at this known issue and I'm 90% sure it'll help" type problem?

Hi John

I would think a refurb may help. It could be idle jet partially blocked or spindle wear? Check spindle wear by spraying carb cleaner next to exterior of spindle And check for rising revs. Also try adjusting idle screw.

Peter

will do

I would check choke set-up and rule this out first. Car wont be warmed through after a minute.  After it stalled did you try restarting ?   Did it restart OK and idle with the help of a slight touch of the throttle ?

I agree with Capriblu above. It sounds like the choke needs adjusted to me.

Thanks for the pointers. Just checked Haynes for some guidance on adjustments and found the autochoke is only semi-auto.

I think I need to try the foot to the floor approach to rule out "user error" before tinkering

Should be pretty simple, there does always seem to be a bit of a 'gap' (particularly in winter) when warming from choke screw to throttle screw, it may just be a case of tightening the choke screw slightly.

Haynes do a specific manual for the DATR carbs etc and it's hard to beat.  Get a good new gasket set if needs be with all the diaphragms, manually blow out the jets, of course re-fitting in the correct order! and set all the various adjustments to exactly as the Haynes manual and all should be good.

Taking the carb off and setting it up is fairly straightforward and will probably yield better results than a 'specialist'

Good luck & don't overtighten anything!   

My first 1300 was pre facelift and had a hand throttle (possibly where the manual choke was on the series 1?). Idle was correctly set at sub 1000 rpm when warm. I had to use the hand throttle for several minutes after the choke dropped off in queueing traffic until it picked up. My current Coupe had the idle set higher to avoid this. Not ideal but it works....

Oooh, hand throttle Neil? Now you’re talking. Just like our Austin 7!