Don't get me started...

Laddies and Lassies

Bessie is back from a month in a pal's garage, who was trying to get it working in between main jobs, but to no avail.

I've fitted a new weber carb (replaced the old weber one, as we thought it might be suspect).

Bessie almost starts but turns over and catches a wee bit.

I've no idea, what's wrong now. None.

Over the 10 or 11 months I've had her, I've replaced (at least once) the plugs, leads, condensor, carb, cylinder head gasket, alternator, points, and so on.

Any ideas anyone?

Ken:crazy:

Have you pulled the fuel inlet pipe off the carb and tried the manual lever on the fuel lift pump? If it's not pumping properly you could have dirt in the fuel lines, or they might be damaged or the diaphragm on the pump might be perforated. Have you tried taking each of the spark plugs out, earthed it and turned the engine over? Was the spark good? Have you put the leads back on in the right order? Have you set the static timing correctly? Try turning the engine over with a spanner on the front of the crankshaft - does the compression feel good? Is the petrol in the tank old? - If so drain it out and put some fresh stuff in.

are the fuel lines on right way round ? might seem stupid never know !

Hi

All good ideas. I'll get on that as soon as I can get some dry weather and daylight!

Cheers

Will advise outcome.

Make sure the connections on the coil are good, i had a dodgy one before and my engine would not start and when it did it just cut out.

Mine was doing that because I'd killed the ignition switch changing key barrels. :s

To add insult to injury I'd flooded the engine by the end of it and it needed full choke to start after I replaced the switch.

Are the status lights flickering when you turn the key? If they are a blast of switch cleaner through the barrel release hole could fix it.

Hello you lovely people!

Bessie spluttered into life this afternoon, then collapsed again.

We tried the fuel investigations, i.e. pulling bits off and making sure that petrol was squirting out all over the place. We did this at various stages from the lift pump onwards so, clearly the fuel is getting there.

Oh, sorry, we had to put fuel in her, as I discovered there was feck all in her tank...this we found helped a good bit...

We then gapped the points, which were out slightly and it fired no problem, but died almost immediately.

So, I'm thinking of replacing the points, they look fairly poor and I thought about replacing the distributor (it's a lucas one from 1978 onwards I've discovered) as paddocks are only taking £16 for it.

But, before I hit the "buy" button I wanted to check your thoughts and feelings on the matter...after all you ARE experts...aren't you?

Ken

If youve run the tank dry then the prob most likely is ****e/rust in the fuel. The start then stop gives it away. The jets in the Webber carb are easy to get blocked. Also, whip off the float chamber, could be crap in the needle valve. Give the jets a good blow out with an air line and fit an in line filter in the fuel line if it doesnt have one and try again!

eliminate tank probs by gravity feeding carb directly from a can.if it runs ok then you know its the pump/line/tank.you can use the same method to pinpoint the exact cause(if it is a fuel prob)

oh and there isnt some kind of immobiliser fitted is there

are the spark leads on the right way
ive a diesel so not sure which is right,

my handbook says firing order is 1 3 2 4 for petrol
the repair and operation manual says 1 3 4 2?

if its sparking correctly when static and big sparks when cranking dosent sound much wrong with distributor

Yeah but hes testing it to the rotor arm. Make sure the spark is getting as far as the plugs......Should be able to see it really well now in the dark.....

Hey Guys

Excellent suggestions. I never thought about a gravity feed...so simple as well. I'm going to try all of these out sometime this week.

It's good that the series is an easy car to work on, I can't see me trying all this **** with the E32 1988 BMW 730i that I've got as a run around for the moment.

Cheers guys

Hello again chaps!

Thanks for the gravity feed idea, we tried that this afternoon and it worked fine, so I can eliminate fuel pump issues.

The new carb is fine and I've fitted a new dizzy, and the car purred into life and then died again a few minutes later.

Since then, it will fire and run lumpily (is that EVEN a word?). It wants to go, but won't take any pressure on the accelerator or it just cuts out.

I'm wondering if after the head gasket rebuild in June last year, if a valve is sticking or if it's burnt out again.

There's a spark, there's fuel, and it runs after a fashion but then packs in.

I'm stumped...any other ideas, I may have missed?

glasgowkiss said:

Hello again chaps!

Thanks for the gravity feed idea, we tried that this afternoon and it worked fine, so I can eliminate fuel pump issues.

The new carb is fine and I've fitted a new dizzy, and the car purred into life and then died again a few minutes later.

Since then, it will fire and run lumpily (is that EVEN a word?). It wants to go, but won't take any pressure on the accelerator or it just cuts out.

I'm wondering if after the head gasket rebuild in June last year, if a valve is sticking or if it's burnt out again.

There's a spark, there's fuel, and it runs after a fashion but then packs in.

I'm stumped...any other ideas, I may have missed?

Click to expand...

have you replaced the condenser? had a similar problem with me old v8 series once

Does it run ar tickover, or die after a minute? Or does it die when you try to move it?

Reason I ask is my S3 used to startup, run great at tickover, but died when accelerating or going uphill ... turned out to be the fuel pickup in the tank. Brand new fuel tank, but we didn't clean it out when we fitted it, and all the dust and ****e clogged the pickup filter (very fine mesh gauze in a triangular shape at bottom of pickup tube.

If it's dying at tickover, without any load, I'd have a good look at the air inlets, the air filter and the exhaust ... seen similar symptoms when a mate flattened about a foot of exhaust pipe ...

Hi

That's an excellent set of ideas.

I'll try that today.

Cheers

Are you saying that the engine runs fine when gravity fed, but gives trouble only when running on fuel from the under seat fuel tank?

Have you checked that the breather pipes for the tank are clear? If they are blocked a vacuum can form in the tank as the fuel level goes down which makes it hard for the lift pump to do it's job. Try running it with the fuel cap off. Remove the fuel pickup from the tank and have a look at it. Try blowing through the fuel lines. Have you checked for kinks in the fuel pipe from the tank?

I don't think that one sticking valve would cause those symptoms - it would start and run O.K. but just unevenly. If you've confirmed that the spark is good when it is playing up, then I think the problem is very likely to be in the fuel system. Using a strobe light to check that the timing is steady when running would eliminate the possibility that the timing advance mechanism in the distributor is not playing up.

Hi

Sorry I didn't make that very clear did I? When running on the gravity feed it made no difference to the running of the car, it was still "lumpy" and really is not happy to keep itself going, or run propery. I can't even lift the clutch up to the biting point without killing the old dear completely.

Cheers

Ken

Have you confirmed that there is a good strong spark from all four HT leads?