DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Advise needed:

I seem to be having alot of problems with my carbs as they are in dire need of a rebuild.

I was wondering how difficult it is to do a rebuild although I have found several screws missing and one broken off with some bits left in the body.

Would a typical rebuild kit provide me with most of the right parts to put it back together and does anyone know of a good company in the UK who could either do this work or provide spares if necessary?

Once it is back together I will then get it on a rolling road so get it fine tuned and set up properly.

Any advise would be appreciated

Regards Jeremy

Of course another course of action would be to find some replacements in good order - anyone have some well priced ones on the shelves?

Regards Jeremy

Rebuild kits available from here:

zenith carb resource: www.puch500.at

Better if you use google to translate the website

http://www.356registry.com/techinfo/repair/zenith.html

hope this helps

Rebuild kits are also available from www.stoddard.com After opening the site look for the parts store and then 356 parts. Then open the catalog on the fuel system. You can then see the Zenith rebuild kits. Maybe with new brass mixture adjusting screws ( with the coned end ) and possibly the accelerator pump you might be okay. The float valve can be dodgy sometimes ( controls the flow of fuel into the float chamber and cuts the fuel when the float reaches the correct level.) Jets if they are not worn should be carefully checked and new gaskets fitted.

I would look at www.356registry.com and then open Technical info and articles. On the technical info there is an excellent coverage on how to rebuild or service 32NDIX carbs. Well worth looking at first!

If you have stripped threads , maybe they can be helicoiled. If it all looks too complicated, why not phone PRS Services they no doubt could assist as carbs must be top of their list to do regular work on.

You probably would need also a syncroniser to make sure both carbs are acting together properly when the job is done.

Actually it's not so difficult but easier if the carbs have been working on your car already. When you don't know really how they perform or what could be wrong, its likely a guy who knows them well would be the best bet.

Roy

I had a Mk1 Capri 3L V6 in an old '39 Standard....
The carb on that was awful, never ran properly......
From spending hours on it I gave up- sometimes its easier just to give it to someone else to do- just small things like if the jets have been over tightened can muck up the body and seat the screws just off key, you'd never know......

As Roy suggests Carburettor problems are certainly one of the top 10 items that cars come to us for

When people talk about rebuilding their Carbs, they really only mean taking them to pieces, cleaning everything and putting them back together.

That is NOT really a re-build

Along with other checks, Rebuilding means insuring that the Butterfly Shafts are not leaking air and the Butterfly’s themselves are seating correctly in the Bore of the Carb.

If these 2 x items are a problem then correcting them is not cheap and although we have Carburettors, that have been rebuilt properly, on the shelf waiting for you, we find that the cost seems to be too much for the average 356 owner in this country

With all this said Zenith’s (although a bit leaky) are great Carbs` and give far less trouble than Solex`s

With reference to The Kits that are available, they actually can cause more problems than they cure,
There is no perfect kit and you do need to know which parts to use in them and which parts to throw away

It is also possible to put the Right Jets in the Wrong Holes so care is needed and you also need to be sure that a previous owner has not had a mental aberration

One last point
Your Carb, problem can be a product of a poor distributor – the incorrect advance curve often means that people play with the carbs to correct a running issue inducing a tickover problem

We are always available to talk – 07000 356 911

No One said that life and running a 356 would be easy

Cheers Mike

Communication has begun with Paul so I suspect a visit will happen in the near future.

Of course the other option is to look for an alternative set of carbs, but I think the feedback has been that these are not a bad option when they are running right?

Although I was wondering if I could remove them and courier them over to you for the work to be done?

All the best

Regards Jeremy