Quattroporte III catch-all thread

You can just see the resistor below the water pump in the picture
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I found a picture with the resistor there. You can zoom in on it on the picture and see the coil. The electric block on top of the radiator was rewired and I wonder if this was the same wiring set and perhaps there was just a disconnection as the fan stopped 3 speeds about the same time.
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Wow! I'm jealous. That engine compartment looks fantastic.
I know if I can get my hands on the car I can fix the problem. It may take me a while but I'd get there...
9 out of 10 times with this car its a connection.
My first step is to turn on the offending circuit and check the fuses. Sometimes they look fine but won't work under load. So check for 12 volts at BOTH sides of each fuse in the circuit.

Then I start tugging at wires where they are plugged in (at each device too) to see if the fan in this case comes on for a second and goes back off.

My next step would be to check for infinity ohms across each resistor in that resistor pack.

Then I'd check the relays involved.
Tony

 

Tony, when can you visit London!!!! See some more pics of the 86 on my site on ferrarichat. Bring your tools...

 

Do I hear an all expenses paid vacation to London for me and a friend?

 

Hi All...

Does anybody have a good vacuum diagram for the QPIII? I checked the maintenance
manual, my technical information, and other stuff but could not find one... There is
a plaque which attaches to the engine compartment, but I'm not sure how reliable that is.
For example, the plaque does not show the vacuum pump which is attached to the back
of the upper passenger (USA) side cam cover.. Anybody?

Mike

 

Its alive! I pulled the choke, tuned the key and it lit right up! Waiting for the air flow meter but just had to try it.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=697722130238340&set=vb.100000016783240&type=2&theater
Tony

 

William.. Your engine compartment looks great!!!!!! I will have a few questions for
for you soon it!

Tony... Congratulations, that's wonderful news!!

Mike

 

Hi I will answer all I can! Lots of information on the threads I have for the 81 and 86 and then the US 85. Lots of need to update!!! Once I replenish the bank I will hit them again!!! I may sell the 86 because I want the 81 to be perfect…… Anyway, all good and I still love these cars -- so rock n roll

 

Love it! Just wait until you get the airflow set up...be getting better and better.

 

Looks and sounds great Tony!
Looking forward to hearing how it goes after a proper balance and colortune!

 

Thanks guys!

If you notice I put the tops of the carbs on without the lower air cleaner mounting plate in between. It probably wasn't necessary as this video shows how it's done without the tops installed. I had gasket material lying around and it wasn't hard cutting my own temporary gaskets out using those from the kit as a template. Once I'm happy with the tuning, I'll just throw out those temporary gaskets and use the ones from the kit properly with the air cleaner lower housing plate. Not having the plate there has to make it easer to get to all the adjusting.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppykf2cTOCA]Carburetor air flow balancing on the SM Maserati C 114 engine 001 - YouTube[/ame]

Because I don't have the air flow meter yet I tried using the "listen to the airflow" technique as described in this pdf. It kinda works but it's probably best to use the meter. I actually got the sound of each barrel to barrel to be the same by adjusting the air flow adjuster out for the "quieter" barrel.
http://www.citrotreff.com/pdf_sm/Weber42.pdf

I'm using this video as a good guide. You may have noticed that in my video the throttle linkage wasn't hooked up at all. It was running with each carb against it's own idle stop. It looks like first you do barrel to barrel balance on each carb individually using the air flow adjusters and meter. Then you do the carb to carb balance by adjusting their individual idle stops. Once they are balanced you simply sliding the loosened linkage onto each carb as is and tighten the linkage adjusters in their place for each carb. Now you can back three of the carb stops off keeping only one of them as the "master" idle adjuster.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBs7GzSLLCc]Weberology: Tuned Induction I - YouTube[/ame]

Then you colortune. My plugs looked exactly like the one in this video!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9t8XhFlKbk]Easy engine tuning - Colortune by Gunson - YouTube[/ame]

BTW here's a video I just stumbled upon. While putting tis post together.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQCV5RMtOFw]Maserati Quattropotre III Weber carburetors - YouTube[/ame]

Hopefully having all this information in one place is useful.
Tony

 

Great idea collecting the videos together, nice job.

I especially like the one discussing the linkage, as I've been wondering about that myself after seeing several other Weber tuning vids online. It helps make things clearer.

I've seen several videos of the Hungarian car, it looks like he really uses and enjoys the car, like it should be ;-).

 

last year for ford fairlane was 1970. would u check the year and app. I need a window motor or two

 

Agree, more info on this one please!

 

I will check with my body man and see if he can pinpoint the year. However I am certain he said Fairlane but was fourteen years ago.

 

HI

I just did a quick troll of QP III for sale. I think it is a useful guide particularly as I only have the Euro cars here mainly. The source is from the net but I find the www.suchen.mobile.de site very useful.

You can see a general guide to the cars and a few observations. The bulk of the cars are well worn used examples but there are a few nice looking ones there also.

Time for you US guys to catch on…….

We did a guide for the cars a while back on another thread.
View attachment QP III Sale List.doc

 

Hi William,

thanks for taking the time to create this overview. Is there any news as to progress on the registry?

 

Yes I have been working with them on it and just need to scan in high resolution some brochure pictures and give them the hosting details.

 

The tuning seemed to go flawlessly. The Colortune is great!
Thanks for all the support you guys have given me!
Tony

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=701406193203267&set=vb.100000016783240&type=2&theater

 

The silver beast sounds very good! Saved yourself a few thousand getting the car running.

What is the next thing to do??

 

It does sound great. Thanks
It's going to be nice to no longer have that delay of power when you try to lightly accelerate. I would press on the pedal and it would bog a little and then kick in.

The next thing is to drive her! ;-)
I'd like to get the valve cover gaskets replaced. It looks very easy. Then clean up that engine compartment.
There are some small rust spots just rear of the back wheels and one just rear of the front passenger side wheel. A few dings in the driver door. The whole car needs a repainting but that can wait. I just want to stop the rust for now.

I know that this is completely unrelated to the carb work but my primary started circuit never once acted up during all the restarts between the colortune spark plug switches.

Come to think of it, I have the emergency pump switch on right now because the primary pump is noisy when its real cold out. You can see the light come on in the video. hmmm...
Thanks again for all the support.
I don't know what I would have done without all the support here.
Tony

 

Hi Tony...

Glad to hear the car is running.. That is great! Another one comes back to life!

I read where you would like to replace the valve cover gaskets.. On my 1982, the
vacuum pump needed to be removed before the valve cover could come off from
the top passenger side cover... There are 6 bolts which you can feel on the back of
the vacuum pump.. Only 3 of these secure it in place. Be sure you remove the correct
three.

Mike

 

Thanks Mike!

 

Congrats Tony, she purrs like a kitten now! And starts up instantly, excellent.

My Colortune is on it's way, I need to order an airflow meter and most importantly find a place where I can put the car to do all of this. Not having a garage of my own poses problems when doing bigger jobs, or ones where you need to leave the engine running for a while while fiddling with the carbs.

The plan is to have my carbs rebuilt and reinstalled by the end of the year, assuming I can find a spot to work.