I recently replaced my old (broken) idle-solenoid with a secondhand one. My old solenoid pictured below had a much thinner washer on it than the replacement one.



For some reason the washer on the replacement one was much thicker and had a slight recess in it to house a small rubber washer.

I put the original "thinner" washer onto the replacement solenoid as I figured that my car ran ok before my original solenoid packed up with the thinner washer in place so that must be the way its set-up?

It seems to me that having a thicker washer on the solenoid would stop it sitting so deep inside the carb?

Hello, take a look:
https://www.sucarb.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=31221

Some years ago i owned a Oltcit Club, a romanian version of Citroen Axel and that solenoid looks very fammiliar to me.

Both my original solenoid and the secondhand replacement one came off a 340...

you need both, you should have: solenoid>thin washer>washer with recess> O-ring and that screws into the carb.

the recessed ring is to make sure the O-ring stays in the correct place to seal the port in the carb

volvodspec wrote:you need both, you should have: solenoid>thin washer>washer with recess> O-ring and that screws into the carb.

the recessed ring is to make sure the O-ring stays in the correct place to seal the port in the carb

Thanks, this is very valuable information indeed. My current solenoid has just the thin washer and then a rubber washer; my car seems to be running fine and was tuned perfectly by ear by a friend of mine who used to work for my main Volvo dealership back in the 80's. He wasnt sure of the washer set-up either.

I guess if I set it up as you've described it'll affect the carbs current tuning? Also, when you say washer with recess do you mean the thicker washer that the rubber ring sits inside? Im guessing the o-ring needs to be placed/positioned inside the washer with a recess?

My cars running like a dream with its current set-up and Im worried that if I do what you've suggested it'll seriously throw the tuning out; What will happen if I carry on driving my car as it is?