CJ2A Stumbling and Possible Solex Issues

Another thing I might mention...the nuts on the throttle shaft (one on each side) are known to loosen up and allow for leakage at the shaft ends.  Now I doubt this would be the culprit of your issues, but you can take the factory nuts and keepers off and replace them with those thin "stover nuts" from the hardware store.  They make thin ones as opposed to the normal thicker nylock nuts.  You might have to look around.  Anyway, they work to keep the throttle shaft from leaking fuel out and sucking air in.

I can give you another tip if you feel your choke is not working right, but I'll save that for another day...

Don't write off your Solex.  I have had great performance from my Solex, but they have a couple of issues you need to iron out to get them right.  Once you dial them in, life is good! 

That said, I feel like your issue is fuel line and pump related.  The pumps DO wear out. 

Edit:  Rock Auto has a Carter pump for $26. It is the same pump exactly as the Airtex.  They do actually work well.  It might be worth trying in your jeep if you are looking for a cheap alternative to try.

We pulled and blew out the jets with compressed air. Not much debris in there; but there was some. 

Put a fuel pressure gauge on the line after the filter, and was getting around 2psi. (about 1psi off from the dial on the regulator). 

A couple of notes: 

The fuel pump is completely full, while the fuel filter is about 1/3 full. It will start but as soon as you try to give it throttle, it wants to quit like it’s starved for fuel. There is fuel leaking from somewhere on the pump. Doesn’t appear to be from the fittings, so I plan to proceed with the pump change once it’s arrives. 

I may pull the regulator and see what the pressure looks, and if it improves the idle. 

As far as the WO goes, it was included with the Jeep, so I figured I’d take a crack a rebuilding it, and see how it does on the Jeep. Worst case, I can potentially have a back-up carb for the Jeep. 

The pump appears more and more likely to be the culprit - though the other smaller issues could be making it worse (distributor springs, heat riser spring, etc.).

I appreciate all the feedback, and I’ll keep you all posted. Worst case, it’s an excuse for my dad and I to spend some time together. 

Another update: still working on the Carter - not having much luck with the Solex that’s on the Jeep. 

A bit stumped at this point. I did the kerosene test to see if it’s pulling air in from somewhere; but didn’t hear the idle improve. Also looked for air bubbles around the base and the top of the bowl; but didn’t see any. 

I’ll keep chipping away at it. Stumped for now; but I’m sure we’ll get it. I feel like we’re hitting all around it. 

Edit: I pulled the plugs and checked the compression just to see if anything looked crazy. I got 90psi on each cylinder. Mainly just did that to make sure I didn’t have one that was way off. I did notice that that plugs had quite a bit of carbon on them. I’m checking to see what the factory setting of the idle screw for the Solex is. I believe I saw 3/4 turns open; but I’ll confirm that. 

Seemed to be only carbon. It was chalky and came off relatively easily. On that same note, when I took the Solex off to clean it out, I noticed a lot of carbon build-up down in the intake. 

Borrowing a borescope tomorrow to see the timing marks on the flywheel to be certain we’re bringing #1 up to TDC on the compression stroke. 

We’ve got fuel, compression, and spark getting to each cylinder. So at this point it seems like timing is the only thing left keeping it from cranking and running. 

Still stumped but we’ve got to be getting close to the issue.

Let me know if there’s something I might be missing.