Soldering a Weber cover . . .

[royrender1]

Find a good ali welding shop it can be ali welded had mine done last week
ROY.

[Esprit2]

I had to check out "Viking Funeral" in popular parlance, because I like the image. Among other definitions, this one stood out (I'm clearly uninitiated) . . .

That's creative, but not the definition I had in mind...

Tim

[Esprit2]

Looks like a great shop of parts Matthew Cooper has. Can I assume, Tim, that since you are in the States you must know of no comparable source of Weber parts this side of the Atlantic? Haven't ordered from GB in a long time.

IMHO, Eurocarb is the best one-stop source for both Weber and Dellorto carbs & parts. Yeah, there's a little shipping time/ cost involved to get stuff to this side of the pond.

There are lots of Weber suppliers in the USA (Google), but most know nothing about the Lotus-specific applications. If you're trying to work-out some running problem, then Matt knows the Lotus aps and can be a good resource.

If you know what part you want, and just want to order close to home, then there are lots of options... including "Weber North America". Their official online mail order site is Weber Carbs Direct.
http://www.webercarbsdirect.com/
Or, if you have a buddy in the car/shop business, World Pac owns Weber No. Am, and you can order through his World Pac account.

The largest Weber specialist over here is probably Pierce Manifold.
http://www.piercemanifolds.com/

Performance Parts Warehouse (aka Redline)
http://www.webercarburetors.com/

Carbs Unlimited
http://www.carburetion.com/Weber/WeberDCOEParts.asp

WeberJets
http://www.weberjets.com/

In addition, Webers (and Dellortos) are popular with the dune buggy and Harley/ V-Twin motorcycle crowds. You can often find those companies selling Weber parts, but you must know what you want... (Lotus? Whatzat?)

On eBay, seller alfa1750 sells a lot of Weber and Dellorto parts; but he's in Italy, so not the USA source your looking for. And, as his user name implies, he's not a Lotus specialist. But if you know what part you want, he can usually deliver it for a fair price. Contact him through eBay, and he'll work with you.
http://myworld.ebay.com/ebaymotors/alfa1750/
Contact alfa1750
http://contact.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e ... d=alfa1750

Regards,
Tim Engel
Lotus Owners Oftha North (LOON)

[reb53]

If you haven't got this fixed yet 'cos you can't find a decent welding shop, and you don't mind the wait involved in sending it half way around the World, I'll fix it for nothing. Just the cost of return postage which you can Paypal me.

I work as a clock restorer/repairer so have untold drills, taps, and pieces of brass. This repair looks straight forward.

Cheers,
Ralph.
New Zealand.

[RogerFrench]

Just to reinforce what Tim said, I ordered 2 new Dellorto top covers from Eurocarb on Thursday (see other thread) , and according to UPS they'll be here Monday.

[l10tus]

I had exactly the same problem - and also wanted to retain the existing Webber parts, with matching serial numbers, so I know how you feel!

Do you have the broken off piece still?

I managed to drill and tap a fine screw threaded hole in the two parts, then fit a small brass pin through the broken part and remaining post to effect a 100% reliable repair, locking the threaded pin in place with 'Loctite'', and lock nuts.

If you have lost the broken off bit, engineer / manufacture a new piece out of some scrap aluminium, it dosen't t have to be exactly the same material, and you can have several goes at it, if necessary!

I doubt very much you will weld / solder an effective repair, IMHO, past experience has always led to failure.

Advice is - go the mechanical route!

Good luck, let us know how you get on?

Best regards,

Philip

[rodlittle]

For what its worth I think your only chance is to find someone to TIG weld a piece of ally to the broken off stub and machine it back to shape
solder will never work.
rod

[Sea Ranch]

Love this forum! Thanks for all your thoughts and replies.

Special thanks to Ralph in New Zealand for offering to fix it for free!

Roy convinced me to start looking for custom welders in my area. Found one a few miles away, but when he heard that I had previously used JB Weld on it, he was sure that kind of epoxy ?soaks? into the aluminum and would not be weld-able.

Then I found a welder living in my neighborhood. He invited me to come over with the part, but we never quite connected time-wise.

Finally, I took the part to my high school, where I work, and talked to a couple of the shop/tech guys. One told me his neighbor was a tech college welding instructor, after having owned/operated a welding company. He assured me this fellow could ?weld anything.? So I nervously turned over the cover to my teacher-friend, after explaining the irreplaceable nature of the thing. Couple days later he came back to school with this:




Suitably impressed I was. So I set about filing, shaping and then drilling:







(A pic of one of my school?s ancient shops . . .)


Bolted the carb back together and she?s running again The stumble when stepping on the accelerator is gone and it carburets cleanly once more. (Unfortunately, my cold start hasn?t improved; takes enormous amounts of pumping on the accelerator to get it enough fuel to get started. Once warmed up, no problem. I have pulled the accelerator pumps and they seem clean and functional. ?? And it still hates the choke when starting from cold, although as soon as it is started, choke keeps it running at a nice elevated idle till warmed up. It used to love having some choke when cold; started up instantly. ??)

Much thanks again to everyone. Regards,

Randy

[Bud English]

That's a job well done, Randy! Your persistence to keep your original cover really paid off.
...and what I wouldn't give to have access to an "ancient shop" like that. A lathe, a lathe, my kingdom for a lathe! (my apologies to the Bard and Eric Idle )

[Sea Ranch]

Thanks, Bud. I agree on retaining the carb cover.

And, of course, regarding the shop, too. The students at school don't really understand that when they leave school, they will leave behind access to the most amazing collection of shops they will probably ever see. What a privilege and opportunity. Unfortunately, as staff, we have rather limited access ourselves, unless we are tech department people. But it definitely helps.