hzoltaan

"and we have been together f..a..r too many decades for her to say anything just to prove me right or please me." :D I know the feeling. Thanks for the replies! I'll roll it on the pit and take a good look... as soon as the carry is rolled off the pit... Apparently i'd need another pit or at least a ramp!

Hi All, Asking for ideas about this issue: my gear shifting on colder days went suddenly more difficult...? We are coming out of winter, so there no more -10, -20 days when I found it entirely normal to have a feeling of moving a laddle in cold jam. (Yeah I had to start and run in about -25, that was interesting. But it did start and did take 1st and was able to drive) A few days ago it was just over 0 degrees (Celsius that is) and i was surprised to find that 1st and 2nd needed quite a rough hand to get it in gear. 3rd and 4th are considerably lighter. After a few kms the gearshifts eased up but it's still weird. I have been thinking about engine mounts for some time now as i noticed some 'clunk' when changed torque on the engine. (took gas off or gave big one) As far as I know my half shafts are OK, Also seeing quite a gap between the cast piece and the rubber frame on the engine mount that's on the left hand side (gearbox to wheelarch) Is that normal? Could i be loosing that mount? Would my gearshift experience connected in any way? (I'm dubious on that point myself). Car has 80000kms, so a fubar'd gearbox is probably not a thing. I even doubleclutch usually as I got used to it. Thanks, Z

Yeah, I'd not expect border control being very understanding and/or appreciating the sense of humor like that. Sometimes people really overdo it... and the main thing is to participate, get there, and have fun. And part of the fun is to fix broken off bits locally, that becomes nasty with a rare / expansive / special car.

This is becoming more and more popular. Many years ago i can accross the Mongol rally that's about taking a very much underpowered small car from London to Ulanbataar. That takes some cash and mostly time, so i never managed, even though my Suzuki Carry would be absolutely perfect for it. Cars can not be left there... Then there is the Bamako rally, where you can join up pro rally teams with something hopelessly not suitable for that kind of job, and then you get to enter for free or something like that. There's a Polish Zlombol that means communist cars, or cars designed during the communist era, so Skoda Favorit still plays... lot of Ladas, Yugo, Wartburg... That happens on road though, no abuse at all. Cars are supported through companies for advertisement on the cars. The money goes for charity. there's a small Gruz rally think, organised entirely privately, where you enter with something not off-road capable and go to places which are considered off road. They went to Romania last year, and Felicias are very much welcome. I guess as cars became very much available and still not too horribly expensive to run (I mean here in Eastern Europe) you can really get a still decent 30 year old car for a box of doughnuts, and have fun with it. That was unimaginable 10-20 years ago when a working car had a much much bigger value. This year I planned to enter the gruz rally (Zlombol just became waay too big, last time they went with 5000 teams to Albania) with my not much loved Opel Astra Classic. There's a guy who is running a Fiat Cinquecento with massively tractor like tires and goes everywhere with it. Cinquecento and Seicento were built here some 100km from me, and they are dirt cheap. Even the Mongol Rally organisers (theadventurist.com i think) started to make more local rallies, for people who can't afford to drop life for 3-4 months... Now you can start and drive around Europe. In that case Ricardo's comment is legit though.. you might end up scrapping your French car in Estonia, but let's treat the EU as one big car economy. After all I did the opposite, went with a wreck from Hungary to the UK, had an accident in Belgium, and eventually sold the carcass for metal in England. I'm not sure about abuse or no abuse... the sheer fun and memories are worth for me, though I personally would do my best to bring the car back and keep it, complete with the stickers, scars, modifications. A Suzuki Carry that limped back from say Kyrgistan would be on a plinth in my garage!

Sorry for not coming back at this earlier, I looked for that info, but found not much. There's compression ratio that's 9.2 I think. I repeated the compression test for a warmed up engine and it's all neat, Nr1-to Nr4, all in the region of 1000-1050 kpa, that's about 150psi. I'm happy with that. Weird is, that it was almost exactly the same when i did the test cold. And Nr4 cylinder showed much higher. I wonder why. And I wonder why i did not repeat the test on Nr4 back then after a weird value. I guess I'm forgetting all that i learned in engineering. Car starts fine now on all 4 cylinders. So I expected the color-coding of the plugs to be sorted but it's not. The outer 2 cylinders are still black / dark grey, inner cylinders are white on the plugs.... But... my carb is probably wildly out of spec So I'll do that in the coming weeks and see what happens. It's definitely too rich, as there's a plug right on top of the engine side flange (exactly where the carb for suzuki carry has idle mixture screw) that looks like... well, idle mixture screw. As I started to turn that out it started to idle higher and higher, so I'm guessing it needs some extra air. I do not remember my last settings, but i recall that i kept adjusting fuel level and whatnot. Best is to remove it, and see if everything is up to spec. I have several different manuals now, thanks to Ricardo, I only need a free afternoon.

Yeah I agree to that big time. Burning LPG is probably a better method to make a carburetted car cleaner than slapping an EGR on it, It was one of the first things I did to this car after carb rebuild, to deactivate the EGR. Back then i just disconnected the vacuum hoses from it as it seemed to be stuck close. Now It was properly removed and exhaust port closed with an oil plug. (I got lucky, it's the same thread, 16x1.5) Regarding manuals, I agree with you chaps, whenever I can I collect more of them. I love the ability to have the book open right next to the car and look into it. Used to have an old tablet for repair manuals in the workshop but it'd finally given up the fight. For the Felicia I have some great pdfs downloaded (even some body repair manual in Czech, that would tell me how to build a Felicia from a few squaremeters of salvaged corrugated garage doors. ) I used to have a Polish edition of a repair manual for Felicia but it was just horrible. Now I'm stuck with the pdfs, so every time I forget some torque or other detail, it's a jog back to the house where I keep the computer. (gotta repair that bloody old laptop and have it in the garage) No developments now on the Saab front... We are experiencing proper winter now. I have not seen the gauge go down below -20 since 2010, but yesterday morning it was -27. In the garage I have -8 right now. Yesterday tried to work on my bike (making heated grips if you ask) and after an hour or so just gave it up. Let's say it's uncomfortable. With EGR removed, vacuum lines sorted and with proper plugs it fired up properly a few days ago. Any kind of road testing will have to wait till the big freeze moves on. Thanks a lot for ideas and help regarding this and also for the flexibility shown (Saab vs Skoda) .

Oh God! I was out a few days and see where the events have led us! I even meant to notify you guys that i won't reply too fast, I have a lot on my plate and when i can get away from the computer I try really hard not to turn it on. (Even though i wanted to check on the Skoda forum) Let me go in points trying to keep some timing in answering the posts: - compression test was done years ago when i got the car. I seem to have lost the photos of that but i thought they were all even. (can't recall the number though) book is again in the workshop (far away) i do not know the compression values. I think 145psi for a cold engine form the 80-ies with 260k on it is OK...? NR4 stands out and i do not know why. Baffles me! - spark plugs: Yeah, Ricardo, some truth in that... my impression was when i just pulled Nr4 out that it was wet, but probably from the petrol of it not igniting properly. I focused a lot more on the black/white coloring. Maybe I should have mentioned it, I think i decided at the moment there and then that it was just unburnt fuel. (I had bikes in the past, one was consuming oil, the JAwas were ever going out of ignition timing, so have seen a fair share of plugs) Why i did not say so in post nr1...? Mea Culpa! With the compression suspiciously higher in that cylinder I switched to my oil theory. I mean come on, we all been there, right? Hoping for something simpler than an engine rebuild! - nta16, I'm hoping for vacuum leaks or whatnot, as that is easier to fix (if not to find) than anything else. More on that later! - After that the threadwar started, and i'm very sorry for that chaps. Yes, I'm really grateful for getting answers from a Skoda forum on my Saab. I got loads of good knowhow for the Felicia here, and I prefer to ask people I feel that I know. (Of course not, but hey!) I could have gone to a Saab forum but I really think this engine is simple as a brick, so I was not expecting some magical issue with discolouring plugs. Etc. -nta16, why do you think I'm not answering or taking your advise? If that's the impression, sorry Man, not intentioned. I have many projects, renovating a house, building a Suzuki Savage for a trip that's 3 weeks away and checking the bloody war news daily to know when to grab the backpack and head for the border. Nah, you guys are much faster than I anticipated, and I feel bad about not following and checking every sane idea that comes up. - J.R. : you can skim this through. The bottom few lines will be more relevant. (I do that too If I'm in a hurry... And That would support Ricardo's point of being concise and on the point, so that not to waste time, but then, I'm on nta16s opinion a bit, as this is not professional diagnostic workshop, but more like a gathering of likeminded people. At least I'd like to think so... so yeah, lengthy novels as I like to express myself that way, that annoys Ricardo a bit and you skim through. Relax! It's a joke! ) New developments as of yesterday and my thoughts: - Got new plugs (NGK6BE as per manual) and before i installed them, I adjusted the gaps... and next to the gap spcs there were all kinds of interesting data for the ignition system so I also measured the resistance of the leads and measured the coil. I found that data in the workshop manual and thought why not. And turns out, that the book says much, much less resistance for leads than what I have. My NGK leads were specifically bought for this car, but instead of 3-3.2k per lead I have 7-6k, so double. The Lead from coil to distributor is 4k in my case, should be 1k according to Haynes. - Checked coil as well, I mean, who knows who fixed this car before, right? Secondary winding should be 24-35k and I have much less... bud damn, I forgot the number... 4k??? - Nevertheless Started the car up. (wanted to test if EGR removal and blanking off does anything) And it did, Fired up on all 4 cylinders! Now: - It's snow here, the Saab has no wheels (rims are getting painted) and it has no technical test. So a testride and plug color check is a no-go at the present moment. - Ricardo! You mentioned the leak test, and I meant to write to you. I have not done that, can you point to a decent write up of that? Any special tool needed? - Now that the engine is running I'll do a proper compression test and will post the results. I'll try to get proper leads and check into that coil resistance. As I wrote a bit before, be patient, I have some other fish to fry, this is a hobby car, so if i'm not coming back to you immediately or not do all that's advised, take it easy. Thanks a zillion for the help, much appreciated.

Great! Saved them all into the Saab folder on my machine! Thanks a lot! I owe you a big cerveza. Yesterday I also blanked off the EGR and did a compression test while at it. Nr1: 1025kpa Nr2: 1010kpa Nr3: 1025kpa Nr4: 1180kpa As Nr4 was black and wet if i recall correctly now i wonder if it has some oil leak from valve stem for example that would boost the test results. Otherwise decent. Test was on cold engine of course, all components present, but wide open throttle, I gave each cylinders about 5 compression strokes with the starter.

It says on the plastic cover: 'Pierburg 175CD' Stamped into it's side: '175 CDUS' and smaller letters under that: 'DAG' Thanks!

OH, hey, that's relevant! Do you know any source of info on what to check how to properly fix up a Pierburg? I used my Haynes when i replaced the torn diagraph, but it's quite sparse on info. Later on I found a volvo 240 manual for Pierburg 175, and a Stormberg/pierburg technical description in PDF. (I can mail them to you if interested of course)

nta 16, sadly i miss contacts like that over here, moved a lot over the years, and more often than not i meet with mechanics who are utterly untrustworthy / incompetent or both. Fortunately for the Skoda Felicia I've happened to stumble upon a decent chap. But he is Skoda only, and only his Dad would poke around a carb anyway... Them Kids, don't wanna touch anything that's not injected. Knowledge like that what you mentioned is simply priceless! Got an oil plug to seal off the EGR exhaust port (M16x1.5 thread) and set of new plugs. I'll try to find the time and put it together. I still feel that if it were carb issues, the sparkplugs would not be colorcoded like blakc/white/white/black. Hoping for a small leak around the EGR connection / valve cover air connection. I'll fix that up and report back. (Might take a few days, I have a few projects running)

I guess they are, Webers are pretty famous. And here it is. https://classiccarbs.co.uk/product/weber-40-dcoe-139-twin-carb-classic-alfa-romeo-1750-2000cc-twincam-engine/ It's only 700 quid! I paid about 800 for the entire car.

Nr1 is true. After I got it in 2020, i did a basic maintenance and plugs were evenly light grey then. (a bit too lean for my liking, my other carb'd car an '85 suzuki carry has light brown) I was surprised to see black/white/white/black plugs now. No change in starting up though, it always felt like 3 cylinders fired up correctly and the 4th took a lot of play with the choke, a bit of throttle etc. (If i used it more often like every day I had no issue firing it up. After a few days it would do it's usual 3 cylinders.) Now it's in the workshop as i did some bodywork and thought of finally getting to the root of the issue. Just checked my Haynes, and there's no picture that would help me with the vacuum lines.

Wow, thanks for all and happy new year! I was out for a good week visiting family with no access to internet or the car. Thank you all the myriad answers, I'll try to go/check point by point: What we know of this engine: After buying the car a few years back as a project car (actually I learned to weld on it) it was always difficult to start. Once you got it going on all 4 pots, it ran good though. Not too strong. Always felt that it supposed to give a bit more umph. Everything in the engine bay looks original, not tampered with, full of old SAAB bits. Stickers and whatnot make me feel that it was very well maintained till like 2016 when it got exported from Sweden. (I bough it in 2020) It's a 1988 model, the simplest 99hp version with that Pierburg carb. Intake is hooked up to the coolant, and yes, airfilter gets hot air off the exhaust downpipe region. All of that was tested and works. Even the Thermostatic gizmo works to regulate intake air temperature. Work done: After the purchase carb was re-built, new diagraph, cleaning, etc. It had lousy power due to a tear in the diagraph. That's got fixed. As it was still difficult to start, everything after coil was replaced. Lead set, plugs, distributor. And as it did not change a thing, I tried again with a different brand of leads, plugs, no change Early on EGR was disconnected, (controlling vacuum hoses taken off between carb and thermostatic valve in intake manifold (the green little thing on the picture) Just now checked for valve clearances, all perfect. ... ... and you know what, now that i'm looking at that picture i noticed that the vacuum hoses are connected differently... Hang on.... Sadly there are not many pictures online of the carbureted engine, most are the more glamorous injected... I'll have to verify that in the workshop with my manual. It never occurred to me that somebody might have messed up reconnecting the vacuum hoses. For example the connection under the EGR that goes to the valve cover is blanked off in my case, I'll have to check that. Yesterday I had an idle few minutes in the workshop so i took off the EGR entirely. I'll properly blank it off with a flat plate. Need to get the fancy threaded bolt to close off the exhaust gas to EGR too. Give me the afternoon to check those vacuum lines. Once again, great thanks for the help, much appreciated!

Hi Ricardo, my car is exactly like that one from the Wiki picture i added. Somehow I lost my own photos about it, so You gotta take my word for it. I changed diagraph in that carb so i'm sure it's a carb. Yeah, there were Bosch injected ones but the simple 'pikey' models were carburetted. Saab B engine - Wikipedia Mine sadly has the Pierburg 175CD carb, that's pretty rare compared with the Zenith. But you can fin it on some Mercs, and there are tons of those in Poland.

Hi Pete, It comes off at the corner where Nr1 cyl is connected: Marked in blue. This picture is not my car, it's off Wikipedia, but it's the same model, Engine, B201, with the single Pierburg carb. Do you suppose there's a leak around the vacuum line...? Why not? I pulled it out quite easily last time i fiddled around the alternator... And now i see that on this picture under the EGR, that hose connection is made to the valve cover... That's a weird thing. On mine it's blanked off. Warrior193, I'm sorry, the LPG bit was about my Felicia, not the car in question. OFF of the OFF topic: For starting with petrol, it's absolutely right. Over the years i had 5 cars on LPG (it's very popular here) and on the carburetted ones we used just a manual electric switch that would close off the petrol line and open the LPG line. You started on petrol, then switched your ON-OFF-ON switch to OFF, waited till the petrol went low in the carb then turned to LPG and off you went saving the globe. On the injected cars it's all automatic. It starts automatically on petrol then switches to LPG once the coolant is about 40 degrees. I never would have thought that LPG was available in New Zealand... I thought guys down under either drive V8 pickup trucks and SUVs or Japanese key trucks. (I own a Suzuki carry as well)

Compression is even on all 4 cylinders... I wanted to tell you the exact numbers, but i don't have those pictures any more. Time to make a new test! Plugs were replaced (correct heat range) after buying it (maybe a 1000kms before) , and it always had cold start problems. (It's a project car taken for a walk every now and then, mostly used to learn welding. ) It usually starts up on 3 cylinders, and you have to play a lot with the choke, accelerator to get all 4 on board. I started throwing new parts on it as i also did not understand the issue. It has now new plugs (double electrode versions, I hoped it will help... It did not), cables, distributor. Ignition is electronic, but timing is manually adjusted and distributor is mechanic. Ignition was checked with a strobe, it's set correctly. Carb was rebuilt and i was fiddling a lot with the float height to get it start better, but as you said. Having 2 cylinders run rich and 2 lean on a single carb system does not make much sense. I can only think of some tiny leak in the manifold... there's an old stuck EGR valve still on it. I disconnected the vacuum control hoses to it, but who knows... Hence if no better ideas present themselves, I will take the manifold off and close all the extra holes. Any other ideas? I think i sprayed it with brake cleaner once to see if there's any leak on the intake manifold and did not manage to find any... It baffles me really. Thanks for the advise, and sorry it's not a Skoda The Felicia has no such issues apart of lacking power just off idle on LPG, I think i need to raise pressure a bit now that it's colder.

I must confess, this is not a Skoda, It's a carburetted Saab 900, that's pretty much the same idea as a Skoda 105 engine, just bigger. There's 1 carb, a single Pierburg, sits in the center of the intake manifold. So my quick question, and i'm off, Offing the Skoda forum. My N1 and Nr4 plugs are dry black, while the 2 middle ones are white, a bit too white for my taste. (on carburetted cars i usually have them nice and light brown) Just checked valve clearances, they are OK. Big Big suspect is intake manifold and carburettor, but i though it never hurts to ask about. What would you guys check, adjust, clean replace and in what order? Thanks a lot! Z

I just found measures for it off a russian blog. Sadly i was unable to find it in my english or Czech manuals, even though i have a body repair manual. (I think i got the set from here or from Ricardo, thanks for that!) the scary thing here is that nr2 nut from the 2nd picture. Apparently you need to add there something special. So from factory, there's no metric nut welded in? I thought there would be!

i just checked the fusebox in the garage... Relay R2 (front foglights) is missing, and just above it, there's a empty socket for a connector. So I'm guessing that that connector had wires to the switch and L/R foglights. I'll measure if that socket is really wired to the relay and test the idea. Would be a hell more neat and it would probably work properly. And yeah, all the fuses are there, no empty slots, even for stuff that's not installed. On my Saab900 it was exactly the opposite. All fuses relays are properly marked, and the not used ones are empty.

They might have built those very el-cheapo cars for the Polish market in Poznan a bit differently. I looked and looked, but nada. Also could not find wiring for the switch itself, which was doubly painful as I wished to install it decently, with control light in dash, allowing rear foglight to work with only front fog, etc. Eventually i made a new wiring for the fogligths and placed a 4 pin relay near the battery (I think on ABS models there are relays there, there were two M5 threads screaming to be used for relays) Wired in the switch too, getting interior light and ground feed off the rear foglight switch right next to it. Added a thin wire to tickle the rear foglight relay when the front fog is turned on. Not exactly the same way as the original is wired, but hey, I just simplified... Today morning it occured to me that my circuit breaker box might be the same even if front fog wiring is missing... If that's true (I need to check that) Then i might be able to use proper fuses, and a relay in the box to control things, just need to wire in the switch. Anyways, it works now, the only thing missing is the control lamp in the dash. Gave up on pulling the speedo cable and with that in place, I can't get behind the instruments. Sadly some extra hoses and etc for the LPG blocs access to the speedo cable retaining cap, so i can't get in there with pliers. I'll try from underneath one day. Otherwise all works as the logic from the schematics suggests apart from the extra relay that allows it all only going when ignition is on. I'm truly curious about how they did the different wiring loom though. Designing and installing differently based on car models, etc just to save a few meters of copper and some plastic connectors...? I really expected it all to be sitting there and be connected. But of course... There is no wiring for aircon, ABS etc, so there must be some variations. Sad thing, foglight was not standard equipment, considering our nasty winters and autumns.

Yeah, I came to understand that. So apparently to get the wiring out intact you need to remove the connector housing. Well... Next time!

I tried to remove that, then chickened out. Wanted to get in there with a toothbrush, so the filter was to come out, but no. I gave up forcing it. Fylaktos, i don't remember when was the last time i got somebody in the workshop with me, and however hard i tried, i could not do the two-man method by myself.

Hi All, Just had a horrid afternoon getting the old rusty tailgate off ang putting another one (less rusty) on. I really tried to keep the wiring intact and original, but i must admit it did not work. I still have no idea how they installed it in the factory and would love to know. Here is what i did: -took the carpet covering off the hatch -removed the plastics from the boot to allow the big piece on the left to be moved out of the way (probably worth getting it off completely, i ended up cursing a lot because it was in the way) - wiring connector is just by the left rear lamp. - Managed to pull the whole wiring out of the D pillar so it was just hanging off the tailgate. (this is how i got the replacement tailgate, with the wiring hangin'... I thought this is the way to go) - Then tried putting it back to see if i could do it with the new one.... the big connector that lived by the rear lamp was really tough getting through the slot in the roof, and there was no way it would go back into the pillar... - Then the hell started... Even pushing a leading wiree through was an issue... I did not manage with the silicone electrician's leading cable, but got lucky once (Once) with a simple rigid copper wire Then as a test i tried to do it from the other way, (ie, disconnect all in the hatch, then pull out the wiring from the hatch... but then the connectors for the positioning lights are a big issue. They come out, by force and some fiddling, so I managed to save the whole wiring intact, but how on earth put it back into the tailgate...?? - I finally managed to get a leading wire into the D pillar from the taillamp area out through the slot in the roof... Had to use a hook and fiddle inside the left corner of the roof to catch the wire that i pushed up from the taillight... by then i probably had blood pressure up in the stratosphere... - Eventually I installed the replacement hatch with it's main connector cut off and the cable pulled down in the D pillar with the leading copper wire. It did not go down easy. Had to remove it's rubber protecting tube too. - Soldered the connector back on and seems to work but Man, it was a tough evening. It's not ready yet, but i'll post further complications. The that almost made me cry (but i men does not cry, instead goes to his room, pours a whisky, sits down, lights a cigar and puffs. Then cries): - turned out that the hatch that i was so happy about (it's in really great shape for a felicia, they tend to rust badly behind that plastic cover by the lock) is a lighter red than mine... Damn! I never noticed that, just on the car... (well we have a joke here, that husbands won't be sold mixed coloured paint unless they present a written agreement from the wife) Now I have to learn to spraypaint and i was putting that off and off for a long time... But i do not want a colour palette car! So, the point of my long pouring-out-the-heart: - how on earth you install rear hatch wiring the easy way? Thanks! Z

HI All, I'm considering installing the fog lights to my '97 MK1 Felicia Combi. I'm not exactly sure i have the wiring pre installed though. Is that possible? Car is Polish made, in Poznan, and the trim is probably the poorest possible. I was hoping they would not bother with making different versions of wire loom, but i can't find the foglight wirings at all. Are they just hidden real well somewhere or am I screwed here and needs to make my own wiring / relay, etc. (not a biggie, done that before, but would save me an afternoon if i didn't have to) Thanks! Z