Need some help from the carb gods Volvo Penta 230A Solex 44 PA1 idling at 1600 rpm

Howdy Guys,

I found my way over here via Google.

I have a 1993 Wellcraft Excel 18SX with the 2.3l Volvo Penta 230A/SP CD. It has the Solex 44 PA1 carb. I recently rebuilt the carb due to it stalling at idle when at operating temperature and not restarting until it cooled some. Pulling into the dock was the big place it would do it, as your shifting in and out of gear.

The carb was full of crud, I rebuilt it and got it back on. Now it will idle at 1600~ rpms and I can not get it to slow down and stay running. I have set the idle and idle mix per the book. Newer style carb, 2 turns after touching the plate on the idle and 8 turns out on the mix screw. Running the mix screw in after starting will not result in a change to slow it down. It will run good above the idle range, you can see it bubbling fuel from the center stem in the carb at idle. I am going to work on it more this evening as I want to put it back in the marina Friday night! Any ideas of where I may have made a mistake or missed something? Almost seems like the main jet is not shutting off at idle ( I had a motorcycle carb with a worn/damaged needle that did that in the past)

Thanks guys! Oh yeah I have not verified timing yet, but I figured this was a fuel problem at the moment. I do have a electronic ignition module on the way to get rid of the points.

On a totally different carb, I had the following ethanol related problem... Would not idle at a reasonable RPM.
Stalled on shifting. Balked on acceleration.
Took carb apart, bowl full of crud. Cleaned everything. did the rebuild thing. Idle improved... everythi did , but no cure. Both idle and mixture screws "happy" only @ way off "default" settings... Fast forward 5 seasons...
Start boat inspring on hose... runs "fine". Launch @ ramp run a mile to a a no wake area under a bridge, throttle down... engine won't run under 1300 RPMs. With a 15x21 prop on a 23 ft boat, this is "amusing".
Boat runs fine @ speed. Time to dock in tight slip (stern to!) ... nightmare.

Use carb cleaner, etc... no joy. Take carb apart, blow thru jets... no joy. Remove venturi jets ( 2 bbl) and inspect and notice white deposit on one jet. Try to blow... its hard as a rock. cleaner... no joy. Eventually use a straighted out barbless hook to clean out crud. Reassemble... set idle and mix to defaults...Starts and runs like a charm. Idle 650 without touching a thing. No longer stalls, or balks on acceleration.

Dead smooth shift engagements without the previous throttle jiggling I had to do.

The take away... "blowing jets" no longer good enough in some cases. Fine copper wire just smaller than jets needed to check for clear. Somewhat stiffer wire may be needed to clean out.

The crap that I got out was the consistency of hardened plaster of paris, but a light tan color.

Sounds familiar....

I will tear it back out this afternoon and check through things again! I am putting a fuel/water separator while im in there also. It does have fresh premium fuel in it. I keep threatning to run 100LL from the airport just to not have to deal with the ethanol junk. We used to be able to get no ethanol, but not any more.

I use one strand out of a piece of 16 gauge primary wire to clean some of the jets in the newer CARB carburetors. The jets are so small a flea turd can plug them up and the carb won't work for crap.

First, are there air leaks causing a lean condition.

Second Are you sure the throttle plate is closing down. When these carbs get old, the throttle return spring on the carb itself tends to hang up on the washer or just too weak to rotate the worn out shaft. I've added lever as spring to lp cloe it down.

Is the throttle cable hanging up, check o make sure there is slack at the carb when in neutral.

Are spark plugs gapped correctly.

dennis461 said:

First, are there air leaks causing a lean condition.

Second Are you sure the throttle plate is closing down. When these carbs get old, the throttle return spring on the carb itself tends to hang up on the washer or just too weak to rotate the worn out shaft. I've added lever as spring to lp cloe it down.


Is the throttle cable hanging up, check o make sure there is slack at the carb when in neutral.

Are spark plugs gapped correctly.

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It does not seem like the throttle cable is hanging up. The butterfly appears to be completely closed. The boat ran good with the exception of the hot stall no restart issue before the carb rebuild.

I thought I checked the gap on the plugs when I put the new ones in last weekend I will double check them tomorrow

Just for grins I checked the timing, it was almost at zero. I dont have a meter to check the dwell, but my electronic ignition parts should be here tomorrow NO MORE POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did take the timing back to about 10 deg but it sits there and hunts and timing changes about 5 degrees along with about a 300 rpm swing.
It does sound much better with the timing closer to where it is supposed to be.

I did take the carb back apart earlier today and double checked all the passages and they all seem to be good to go now.

I think I made some headway today, but im not going to mess with it anymore until I get the electronic ignition in so I can make sure the timing is exactly where it is supposed to be.

Hi, I can only echo Sandkicker’s excellent advice. I have the Solex 44 PA1 carburettors and stripped and cleaned several times replacing gaskets etc. soaked in carburettor cleaner, even used an ultrasonic cleaner bath and still had similar issues as you describe. It turned out to be a blocked idle jet, and the thin copper wire strand did the trick. If you are careful you can check without dismantling again.
Whatever though, good luck and keep us posted in your findings.

I will!

The idle jet is right under the top next to the venturi locking screw right? Those three holes above the idle mix screw have me wondering also, I'll run some copper through those also. There is really not much to that carb, I despise carbs. If the EFI wouldn't cost so much i would be going that route. My electronic ignition parts should be here in a bit, I'll get those in, get the timing set and then go back to the carb. But I think y'all are right there is something blocking the idle jet. Thanks again for everyone's help!

jakefreese said:

I despise carbs. If the EFI wouldn't cost so much i would be going that route.

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Theoretically, I agree. EFI should be better, however, the need of manufacturers to manufacture a system "for a price" has, IMHO, lead to systems that are not all that reliable. For my own boat, I intentionally re-engined with a carbed ( 2bbl TKS) engine. In over 50 years of boating, a carbed engine has never failed to get me home for fuel related problems, except once for a failed fuel pump on a 318 chrysler. That failure was traced to water in the fuel that caused the inlet valve on the fuel pump to rust and not seal. Water (pre-ethanol/water separator days) in fuel due to "someone" forgetting to replace the fuel filler cap correctly on a refuel the night before a 3 day noreaster.

A few years ago I had a fuel related issue with my dual 44 PA1s...the engine would bog down when you tried to accelerate and would never reach full RPMs. What seemingly fixed it was my removing and cleaning the ID'd part below. Can anyone tell me what this part is? Some sort of jet I presume.

That's the main jet there. The one right under the flat plate is the idle jet. I do need to get another o ring for my main jet. A couple of the videos I have seen they all seem to be tossing the o ring. I figured solex put it there for a reason. I'm heading out to work on it now.

am_dew said:

A few years ago I had a fuel related issue with my dual 44 PA1s...the engine would bog down when you tried to accelerate and would never reach full RPMs. What seemingly fixed it was my removing and cleaning the ID'd part below. Can anyone tell me what this part is? Some sort of jet I presume.

View attachment 11945

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Rotor rootering the idle jet helped a bunch. But now the alternator is flipping me the bird at 18 volts. So it will be some time next week before the alternator shows up, unless I can find a marine 10si to put on there.

Yeah I think mine has a resistor off it. I will check it out more tomorrow, just ran out of time today. I figured the regulator gave it up. But I still have less than a half volt of Ac ripple so the regulator may still be good

New to the forum. Bought a 1991 Glastron Capri. Engine says Volvo AQ0130. Do not know what kind of carbs. Had a boat shop service it and they ended up replacing the joints in the lower end. Took it out and several things happened. Idled high (2000 Rpm idle) which it had never done before. Shifted into gear very hard, I suspect because of the high RPMs.. After 30 minutes of running, prop spun off and had to get a tow.. Have now gotten a spare prop and all the parts to make it go, but need to figure out the high RPMs. I have a Solex manual on order. My questions are;

1. What kind of carb do I have or where do I find that information?
2. Are there schematics available on line? If so, where?
3. Can I remove the main and idle jet without taking the carburetor off? (Butterfly valve appears to be fully closing)
4. Are there any other ideas or suggestions on why is suddenly started idling high?
5. Any other sites I might go to so I can try to trouble shoot while waiting for the manual?

thanks all, cannot wait till the manual arrives!!

Sounds pretty much like I had the issue with, read above. I tore the entire carb down and rotor rooted all the passages with a copper strand out of a piece of electrical wire. I had a couple passages with a hard white crud in it. After all that it runs perfect now. The carb is very simple, I put a fuel water separator/filter on it and run it out of gas when it gets stored.

OK thanks.

since I do not have a manual, do you know where I might find a schematic, and where the jets, main/pilot and idle jet are located? Can I access these w/o removing the carb?

http://www.carburetor-blog.com/solex-44pa1-carburetor/
Here ya go

Is your flame arrestor good and clean and do not over tighten the carb to the manifold. Check the base of the carb with a straight edge and allways install a new gasket. Good and snug is all thats necessary and then snug it again after the engine fully cools down.