Thanks! A couple of things: 1. Watch for the cut ear on the front carb cover. See red circles in first pic. 2. The airflow meter I bought didn't fit. I lucked out because I found a pill bottle that I cut the bottom out of. The bottom of the bottle fit perfectly inside the meter and the neck fit snugly into the carb top once i wrapped a few turns of electrical tape around it. Maybe this restricted the air flow some and maybe not. But its equality of flow that counts anyway. Good luck, Tony Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ok, I spoke with a shop today who can do an ultrasonic cleaning for me this week if I can make it in before Friday. So a few quick questions for those of you who've done your carbs - 1. any issues or things to watch out for when removing them from the intake manifolds? I would think I can plug the fuel line with a bolt and clamp, remove the air cleaner, and the carbs are secured with a series of bolts all around? What about the linkage, how does that come off? Any other advice here? 2. what cleaning solution is appropriate to use for ultrasonic cleaning of the carbs (aluminum and brass as far as I know)? The shop said they could use water, or a detergent they use, Tetra-something or other that he said is very aggressive. He also suggested white spirit/mineral spirit (turpentine) as an option. I would think that the latter would leave a film. 3. are the parts easy to identify and put back in the right places? Or are there 8 screws all differing by a thou that I need to carefully document when taking them apart before the cleaning? I plan on taking pictures as I go, but it's good to know. Some things are designed so you can never mistakenly mount stuff in the wrong place, other things are like a Chinese puzzle once in pieces. I'll probably have more questions when I get them off the car and cleaned. Found a shop where I can rent a spot for a week or so, but I need to do it now if I'm going to get it done. Will also have to order a flow meter asap so it gets here before Christmas...!
1. Each carb has 4 bolts. You'll need a very small opened end/box end wrench. The front most bolt on the driver's side almost seems impossible to get to but it's doable with the opened end side of the wrench. I forgot what size 10mm I think. The linkage is easy. Just remove 4 cotter pins. I have a tool that is a magnet that's at the end of a telescopic antenna. It came in handy when I dropped my little wrench down under the manifold. 2. I used Gunk Spray carb cleaner which I guess you can't get there. 3.You can't mix up the parts. The only thing is the Accelerator pump screws can be mixed up with the starter (choke) screws as they are a little different. But one has 4 screws and the other only 2. Good luck!
Hello Quattroporte3... We are both pretty much in the same dilemma regarding the carbs. Here is what I can say, recommend, and what my plans are... What Tony indicates regarding removal from the intake is correct. My additional advice is to make sure you DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING - especially the pin holding the float in place. The posts the pin goes into on the carb top can easily be broken!! In the end, I used a small straight piece of a paper clip (diameter smaller than float pin diameter) to remove them plus sprayed them penetrating oil. Penetrating oil may be your best new friend here, if needed. Dis-assembly / Re-assembly - There are lots of small O-rings, gaskets, and what not.. In the end, I will always keep on carb fully assembled so I can refer to it as necessary, if I forget, or the pictures and parts lists aren't helpful. This may not be feasible for you as you are having a shop clean your carbs ultrasonically. But perhaps you can work it out with them to have 3 cleaned at once and the 4th after one of the other three is re- assembled. I went ahead and purchased an Ultrasonic cleaner.. I will be soaking the dis-assembled carbs in parts cleaner first, to remove the bulk of the grease, grime, varnish, and what- have-you! I will then use the ultrasonic cleaner to ensure a good thorough cleaning inside and out has been done. I'm not sure what cleaning product I will use yet, but will keep the group informed.. I will also post pictures of the unit when it arrives over on my QPIII thread. Probably won't get to use it until after the Holidays, as the wife insists we have to go visit family... Hopefully, some of this is helpful!! Mike
Pulled my carbs this evening, it went ok. Pretty quick up to the point where I had a few problems getting to some hard to reach nuts (under the acceleration pump) and found that carb no. 1 blocks no. 2 from being removed. No. 1 also has some sort of microswitch mounted underneath the rear left of the carb (closest to the driver), with a spring set screw that activates it at idle as far as I can tell. My front carb does not have a cut ear on the velocity stacks. Nuts for this part are 8mm, nuts holding carb bodies to manifolds are mostly 11mm, although I had one 13 and two that may be US sizes, they were in between 11-12mm. To get to the hard to reach nuts mentioned above, I pulled the vacuum hoses from the attachment points on the manifold. There isn't any space for a wrench in there otherwise. Everything else was very straightforward. Although I didn't notice any obvious difference between the carbs (aside from no. 1 having the little metal tab + screw to activate the microswitch), I labeled each one according to it's original placement. If anyone knows that there are differences between them, let me know now! ;-) The interior of my intake manifolds look polished/honed, I wonder if the PO had anything done to them, or if that's how they all look. Tomorrow I plan on taking them apart and leaving them in carb cleaner, then off to an ultrasonic bath in the evening before putting everything back together. I'd post pics, but am over my quota, and they don't allow deleting of old pics here. No time to put them on the blog yet. Should any grease or lubricant be used for assembly, aside from packing grease into the throttle shaft bearings? Regular all purpose grease ok for this? (p.s. the telescoping magnet tool is indeed handy for this kind of work!)
I have heard people use a lemon juice\dish water\water soap mixture. I used a jewlery solution, but it was a bit tough on the blue surface.
HI SEE BELOW FROM ALSA. CAN I GET SOME ADVICE. FUEL PUMP SEEMS TO BE POWERED ON THE EMERGENCY CIRCUIT BUT I NEED THE CAR RUNNING. I AM SUPPOSED TO BE DRIVING IT IN A WEDDING ON SATURDAY!!! I have analysed exactly what is happening today, so if you have any contacts who may be able to shed some light on it then it would help A LOT! Bear in mind we had the car running fine last night, switched off, left for ten minutes (simulating what occurred at the MOT station) and it would not restart. This morning.............. 8.30 - started from cold immediately (no battery re-charge etc required) and left to run until full operating temp achieved ......... 8.52 - engine turned off. 8.52 - engine re-started with no issues, run for a moment and switched off. 8.55 - engine re-started with no issues, run for a moment and switched off. 9.05 - attempt to re-start, won't start, turning over on starter initially fine, but becoming sluggish at a rapid rate as if battery is running down. Fuel supply fine. 9.15 - as above, but starter motor becoming more sluggish as if battery is rapidly losing power. 9.25 - as above. (Fuel supply still fine btw). 9.45 - as above. 11.00 - starts fine without battery re-charge nor boost. I have removed, cleaned and checked ALL of the battery lead connections including the starter motor feed and the earth lead attached to the gearbox bellhousing and also bypassed the battery cut out switch as this is just another set of connections that could have been the problem. We have simulated exactly the same scenario (with the engine starting from cold fine) this evening after cleaning all of the connections, with the battery now 'appearing' to be almost flat (as happened last night); but I have not had time to leave the car cool off enough this evening so we'll see what happens in the morning............my guess is that she will start immediately from cold without having the battery re-charged and we'll be back to square one! I am at a complete loss. (& extremely frustrated!)
William, Have they checked the large starter wire at the connector to the battery. Not just the battery terminal but where the wire goes into the terminal. That's where my problem was. It worked great when cold but when the engine compartment was warm it faltered. That wire is held into the terminal by an Allen set screw. It can be seen under the boot on the terminal. I removed it. Cleaned it all up and reset the Allen key tightly on the wire. So far so good. Tony
I forgot all about that micro switch! Yes I have one also but forgot to be sure it was adjusted after setting up the idle. Thanks for reminding me. Oh yeah. I put some bearing grease on the cams that push the accelerator pumps. I also took apart all the linkages (Ball & socket joints) and cleaned and greased them too. Removed that bearing that's held down by one of the manifold bolts. Cleaned and repacked that bearing... Tony
I would do like stated on the forum, look for connection issues on wires\terminals. Check earth points. One question though, when it is not starting, have you checked if you have ignition? Some times coils fail when warm, but work fine when cold. Worth checking as well.
Hi William, I still haven't found my starting issue either, but a Scottish friend who has wrenched a lot of cars knew exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned the "click-click" problems, and said it's *always* a wiring problem. Either the power not getting to the starter, or a poor earth. Remember that the key and ignition sits between all of this, controlling relays, and may have old/worn/dirty contacts too. It may not help you, but when I was having the most problems with warm starting, I just left the car running and didn't switch it off until it was parked and finished for the day. Not ideal, but it may get you through the wedding at least. Good luck!
Mine is not the click click issue. It is turning over fine although as Al said it seems to be turning over slower as if the battery is running down. So the fuel is on and it is turning over just not starting.
When this happens, have you used a multimeter on the battery? Just to check if the battery has the same voltage as the times it does start. Sometimes batteries can collapse when they are pressured, but work fine when not.
What side does the float pin come out on? One support post is split, the other not. Does it matter which side I drift it out?
Hi All As you know my car has let me down and I was using it for a great girl's wedding in London. She needed to arrive on Saturday at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) from about 4 blocks away and then from there back. If there is anyone of you in or near London to help with a posh car - need not be a Maserati - I would be grateful. I feel really bad to have let her down at quite short notice and she has been our babysitter/tutor for a long time. I know it is a long shot but Thanks
I need to again. I took my Biturbo there years ago and they did good work on it and I had them recommission my 68 QP I before I showed it and sold it to its current owner. It came second in that year but has since won some awards. I did have the slight feeling that they were busy recommissioning the Shah of Iran car, Sultan of Brunei and fettling 5000s and Ghiblis and my lumpy QP III might be priced out of the running. I would have to check but their quote to do the motor was something like 12,000 pounds excluding the parts and the removal and set up with a waiting time of 12 months or so. I don't want to misquote so I will check. Still a bargain compared to my experience to date. However, your point is well taken. Perhaps the point really is that these cars have fallen out of the capability of a "gentleman" driver to own and run unless they have considerable mechanical skills or bottomless cash to feed a machine with yacht like aspirations….. Someone can photo shop a keel and sail on my QP III to see what it looks like. I have reached a conclusion of sorts. We should keep a few good ones for reference but we should have some key upgrades that have been sorted out for the car like we did for the shocks. Ditch the electronics with some plug and play upgrades. Modify the engine electronics and operations across the range. New cooling fans and wiring upgrade. A complete front end rework that bolts in - it is too weak. Slightly wider wheels in the rear without changing the look from the side etc etc. Not talking about putting a crate motor in but my car is not on the road and right now is worth more in parts than it is rolling. Anyway, my rant for the day. PS OOops I check the rough quote. 12,000 pounds plus 20% VAT plus parts plus 5% and it was a 6 month wait not a year not including fitting the motor in the car, testing it and getting it set up and running. Still if it came out running perfectly it may be a step to take for the right car. The issue has been people doing a job of work in isolation to the whole car. My car was running fine with the cracked heads except the odd time there was smoke. They spent a lot of money doing the heads and robbed my other car (still a bit bitter about that) and the job looked good but the car does not run now due to a hot starting problem. Of course, nothing to do with the work done……………..
McGrath Maserati does charge a small fortune, your soul and a couple of virgin girls. But at least you know what you are getting in return. Have you considered giving them a call and asking (begging) for them to quickly do a fix for the car, to at least attend the wedding? Just a temporary solution for sure, I can't help because I won't be in the UK until next week or so.
Thanks for the help. Got the carbs dismantled and they are soaking now in carb cleaner (amazingly effective stuff, that!). Tomorrow they go to an industrial facility for an ultrasonic bath in an alkali solution then a rinse in water. Thereafter I have the Christmas pleasure of trying to figure out where everything goes and put them back together ;-) I actually video filmed the first one, and if there's interest I can edit out my idle chatter and post it somewhere. Being an old school kind of guy, I also made a regular photo series as well. William, I'm really sorry to hear of your woes. That car has given you more trouble than anyone has a right to, and you've made a heroic effort in trying to keep it happy. Maybe it's time to do like Mitchell, and let it be someone else's problem, and find one that actually runs and is reliable. Just thinking out loud. It seems you've also had a real run of bad luck as far as workshops and such goes, which doesn't help the matter any. I do hope you find and fix the problem (cheaply!), and get to enjoy the car the way it was meant to be enjoyed. £12,000 sounds insane. For a Ghibli or 3500GT maybe it makes sense, but a QP3...? Even if they did do your engine, if you have a starting problem you'll just be even more frustrated when you get it back and that brand-new-rebuilt-engine won't start. I've only had mine for a few years, but so far (knock on wood) things that have gone wrong have been reasonably straightforward - transmission, carburetors, wheel bearings, shocks. I.e. things that need to be maintained on at least a 30 year interval, if not more. Since I enjoy turning a wrench as a hobby (not that I really know what I'm doing, but I have a lot of good advice and help from the kind folks here), at least some of the stuff I can manage to take care of on my own. Anyway, I really hope you find a good solution so you can come out on top with the car. Good luck!
my 365 V12 motor cost $6,000 in labor. having to reb. one finished, just waiting for the paint shop to finish the car. work at Alliston Ont. Canada. set of new pistons $1,000
