Servicing and running correctly for '84 360

[OapEM]

I am needing to give my '84 360 which has covered 59K miles a good service/tune, as it has been off the road for quite some years prior to me purchasing it there are obviously things that need replaced and overhauled.

I have already replaced the mechanical fuel pump, I intend to purchase a new air filter, plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm and drop the oil/change the filter, coolant flush, brake fluid flush etc.

At the moment it won't fire up without a squirt of easy start into the carb. Then when it does it runs on high idle - choke does nothing most times. It looks in the past that the choke linkage has seized and this has kinked the cable. The linkage is very stiff (after greasing) and I have to adjust the idle speed by adjusting the linkage myself.

Is this a common problem? Also it is using an obscene amount of fuel at the moment, I still need to remove the inspection cover and check/replace the fabric fuel hoses (I hope these are leaking lol)

I would imagine the carb will need to be set up / mixture adjusted, anyone know of anywhere old skool in the North East that's handy with carbs?

And lastly the brakes! From <40mph in dry conditions they are fine but anything over that and after maybe half an inch of travel the pedal feels set in stone - like none servo assisted brakes. This is not good lol, I have yet to remove the wheels and check brake condition, everything seems fine (no binding etc) and it is bedding in a bit better than when I first got the car, although I haven't even covered 100 miles yet. What do we think, could this just be down to old fluid?

Thanks, Liam

[jtbo]

I had stiff choke lever problem too, in my case problem was joint of choke butterfly lever at top part of carb.

What I did was detach top part of carb, 4 or 5 screws, then you actually need new gasket for it, also you need to be very very careful not to bend float arms when removing and installing top part of carb.
When you get that top plate off you can see pivot point of choke arm in it, I did use bike oil for that and after some wiggling it started to move much more easily and very precisely, not sticking at either end.

Then there is lower part of choke linkage, one that cable connects to, it needs some lubrication too, should start moving easily with small amount of lubricant.

While you have carb halves separated, you would like to clean float chambers from goo, take lower part out too and clean every hole with carb cleaner, also adjusting ventilation valve and checking if it's spring has been modified as told in green books is easy at this step as all other base settings and checks, like float height etc.

You also would like to find piece of glass or some straight ruler and check if carb base is warped, that is quite common as metal is too soft and carb base bolts are meant to tighten only to 2Nm or something as silly, now most garages turn them too tight and probably every car has visited at garage because of running problems.

Then you should get all new gaskets for it and assemble it together with new gaskets.

Remember also those vacuum hoses, from side of carb hose goes to Renix ignition unit and from crankcase ventilation system hose goes to intake manifold.

Constant +12V power should go to thermistor and other +12V lead to idle solenoid valve.

After that there should be few problems less with carb, but of course doing that all is taking quite some time.

That is of course quite lot of to do, but making choke lever work correctly and cleaning+adjusting ventilation valve should already help to your current problem.

Some pics so that you know what to except
http://jtbo.pp.fi/images/album/360/cisac2/

[OapEM]

Wow thanks for all that mate. Really appreciated. I will certainly be looking into that when I can get new carb gaskets!

Cheers, Liam