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tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:04 am
by Jules Dielen
what is the story on the tall vs short Knecht mesh air filters with the small opening for 32 solex carbs? are the short ones for earlier cars? is it a 1100/1300/1500 thing?

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:58 am
by James Davies
It's complicated.

The earliest mesh filters for the 32 PBI carbs on 527 engines were short. This is circa 1951-52. Then they became tall in mid-1952. Then they remained tall through the rest of pre-A production. Both the short and tall from mid-1952 onward had just 2 lines of German text on them. Period photos from magazines show both the short and tall in mid-1952 (see photo below).

For the 616/1 engines they eventually became short again, as the intakes were taller on the 1600 than the 1500, though from Don Zingg's book, it looks like the tall ones with 2 lines of German text were used on the first 616/1 engines at the end of 1955. But the short ones used during the 356A T1 period had 4 lines of German text (as did the Solex 40 PICB ones).

As far as I know, all the type 369 and 506 (1100 and 1300 respectively) engines had the mushroom-shaped Knecht filters, not the mesh ones. I believe also the 506/1 engines did. I believe the 589 (1300 Super) used the mesh filters.

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:28 pm
by Jules Dielen
good lord, sorry I asked :)

Thank you for that info James! so it is a bit of both, time and engine family related. Interesting to know.

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:21 pm
by Vic Skirmants
good lord, sorry I asked :)
:D :D :D

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:17 pm
by Jules Dielen
soooo

i guess it is even more complicated, as i have 2 high early 2-line (bei Verschmutzung reinigen und einölen!) mesh filters for solex 32. One has large script and one has tiny script (about the same width as the Knecht logo).....

argh

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:08 am
by James Davies
Yeah, the logo dimensions on the 32 PBI tall mesh filters changed sometime between 1952 and 1955. The larger logo is earlier I believe (same size logo and writing as on the 40 PBIC mesh filters). The photo above shows the tall filters with a large logo from 1952. There's another factory photo showing the large logo on ~22 May 1953. I have a set of these tall mesh filters from 1955 and the logo is smaller.

Don't ask me when the change occurred during that period, though I suppose we could request feedback.

EDIT: Ok, coupe 50687 has the large logo Knechts and coupe 52073 has the small logo Knechts. Both very original cars. That narrows it to later half of 1953 or the first half of 1954.

Ack!

=)

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 7:11 pm
by David Green
Here is my tall filter from 51015, August 10, 1953.
David

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:00 pm
by Jules Dielen
here are the 2 tall ones i have. I thought i had a pair until i noticed the font size. :(

Re: tall vs short solex 32 mesh air filters

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:46 pm
by James Davies
Here's a tall ones from early 1955. Small writing.