The 2-barrel manifold, fresh from a Dutch scrapyard. Note 4-stud mounting for carburetor; original 1-barrel manifold had a 2-stud mounting.

Like the 1-bbl manifold, the 2-barrel uses a separate 'intermediate plate' between the carb and manifold inlet to supply vacuum to the PCV valve and 95/96 power brake booster. Since the Sonett doesn't use a power brake booster, I plugged this outlet with a rubber cap.

Here is the Solex carburetor itself. Since it had come from a salvage yard, I decided to start by cleaning it.

I didn't want to disassemble the carb fully, so I just removed the bolts that hold the top section to the bottom.

As you can see, the inside was fairly cruddy. Another thing to note is the carb-body gasket visible to the left of the carb -- it was stuck to the body and I tore out a piece as I separated the two halves of the carb. IWhen I put the carb back together later, I spliced this bit and added some extra sealer , and it's been working fine ever since-- still, it would be best to be careful and NOT tear the gasket in the first place!

After removing all the "soft" parts (and putting them into the 35mm film can at upper left for safekeeping) I soaked the main upper and lower sections in a can of carburetor cleaner.

After the soaking, I cleaned all the internal parts I could reach with an old toothbrush. It cleaned up pretty nicely, I thought.

To make sure these jets and passages weren't clogged, I sprayed carburetor cleaner into them and then used a rubber 'ear syringe' to blow them clean. The ear syringe is a squeeze bulb used for washing out babies' ears and can be bought in any pharmacy. It reaches easily into carburetor passages and is gentler than an air compressor.

I already had learned by measuring that there would not be enough clearance under the Sonett's low hood to allow the use of the Solex carb's automatic choke mechanism. There is a 'vacuum pulldown' chamber on top of the auto choke housing that sticks up just a bit too far. I removed the chamber (3 screws), shortened its base a bit, and plugged its vacuum port to the carb interior (very important to avoid air leaks!) This meant I had to convert to a manual choke (which I prefer anyway because it's simpler.)

Fortunately, the Solex choke mechanism is pretty standard. I was able to use a generic "manual choke conversion kit" from a mainstream auto supply store -- although I did have to carve notches in its plastic housing to clear the studs on the Solex choke control body.

The manual choke housing assembled neatly using the original Solex clamping ring. My car already has a manual choke cable (from previous Weber 34ICH carb) so now the carb is ready for installation.

If you have a Sonett, you can't use the air cleaner designed for the Solex because it's much too tall. Saab did make some low profile air cleaners for the Solex that were sold from the Sport and Rally catalog, but I figured my chances of finding one were slim. Instead, I decided to adapt my stock air cleaner. The first step was to trace the oval shape of the top of the carb (obviously this is much easier BEFORE you mount the carb on the car!) and cut a cardboard template.

Using the template as a guide, I cut an adapter plate of the same shape out of sheet metal and bent it to fit the contours of the bottom of the stock air cleaner. I cut out enough metal from the air cleaner housing to accommodate the hole in the template (the metal is thick and hard to cut accurately, so I had to make it a little oversize. I wasn't sure I could weld the adapter plate to the air cleaner housing, so I used rivets instead. Black silicone rubber sealed up the air leaks. (Eventually I also painted the plate, so the finished product doesn't look quite so doggy as it does here.)

Notice the tabs protruding from the adapter plate. The Solex doesn't have a bridge piece across the throat, the way a FoMoCo does, so the air cleaner can't be attached using a screw through the top as on the stock setup. Instead, I added the tabs, which are bent so they rest against the outer sides of the carburetor top. A big hose clamp holds the tabs against the carb and secures the air cleaner.

Now it's time to install the new induction system. This picture shows my car's scruffy engine compartment before I began work, with the incumbent Weber 34ICH carburetor in place.

This is the throttle linkage for the Weber; a FoMoCo carb works the same way. Notice that this is an "up and over" linkage -- when you step on the accelerator pedal, the bell crank on the linkage rod turns UPWARD to pull the coupler rod to open the throttle plate. The Solex works in the opposite direction -- it's a "down and under" -- so we'll have to change the linkage to accommodate this difference.

Here are the single-barrel (left) and two-barrel manifolds side by side. One important difference is that on the two-barrel manifold, the two center bolts need to be shorter than the ones for the single-barrel manifold. If you didn't get a set of bolts with your 2-bbl manifold, you'll need to thread the original ones into the holes, notice how much they protrude, then buy bolts that are that much shorter. Another difference: the base for the throttle-linkage "foot" (bent plate that supports the linkage rod) is a different shape on the 2-bbl manifold than it is on the 1-bbl. The base just barely shows in the picture; it's the hole below and to the left of the carburetor opening. The shape difference means the clamp for the 1-bbl manifold won't fit; you either have to use a 2-bbl clamp or make one.

I've got the 1-bbl manifold off the car. The distributor has to come out to do this, so be sure to mark its position and plug the hole so nothing falls down into the drive gears. Next step is to scrape off the old gasket.

The 2-bbl manifold uses the same type of gasket as the 1-bbl. I got this particular gasket from the local Ford Industrial Power dealer.

Once the manifold is in place, installing the carburetor is an easy bolt-on job... once you've figured out what linkage pieces to use. On a 95/96, you can use all the pieces that came with the 2-bbl carb. On a Sonett, you have to use your stock linkage rod (long rod running horizontally in the picture) because it's shorter than the one for a 95/96 -- but you have to clamp down its mounting foot with the clamp for the 2-bbl manifold, because of the different shape of the base, as discussed previously. To make the linkage change direction, just turn the rod in its mountings so the vertical link from the accelerator pedal comes up the opposite side.

Here's a close-up of the Solex linkage. Note how the bellcrank on the coupling rod turns "down and under" vs the "up and over" movement in the earlier Weber photo. Also notice the nice, threaded, ball-ended coupling rod that comes with the Solex -- much nicer than the bent-wire-and-clips gizmo on a stock FoMoCo! You'll need to adjust the length of this coupling rod to make sure the throttle plate moves through its full range in response to the accelerator pedal.

Here's everything back together. Install the modified air cleaner and we're done!

One important final step NOT shown here: install the Positive Vacuum System (PVS) valve in the water line that runs (or did run) to the choke heater. The PVS senses engine temperature to determine which of the carb's two vacuum ports should be connected to the distriibutor's vacuum chamber. The PVS valve has three vacuum pipes: connect the center one to the distributor, the one closest to the water-hose tee to the carburetor's primary-barrel vacuum port, and the one farthest from the water-hose tee to the carb's secondary-barrel vacuum port. (If you've got one of those distributors that takes two vacuum lines, I have NO idea how you'd connect the PVS!)