Serious 1.4 issues.

[My340isbroken]

Hi everyone

I got a 1991 340 Red Stripe a week ago, lovely condition, 47k on the clock. Drove it home, loved it. Noticed slight popping from the (blowing) exhaust on overrun, thought nothing of it.

Used it all weekend and monday, noticed it was reluctant to start monday morning, took it to work and had a tech check the timing with a strobe, he said it was fine. Went to start it on tuesday evening and it was NOT happening.

Since then I have

Had the carb stripped and cleaned
Re-sealed the carb onto the inlet manifold
Changed the plugs and leads
Had another mechanic mate play around with the mixture screw and timing (dont know what it was at originally now )
Charged the battery
Replaced the rusty exhaust
Cranked it over a lot
Sworn a lot
Noticed huge amouts of fuel vapour shooting out of the top of the carb when I stop cranking (got a flame out of it once..)

Can anyone PLEASE give me some pointers? Its a brilliant little car and i'd rather be using it every day than my thirsty(er) 4x4.

Can i set the timing up with a strobe with the engine static or is there another procedure?

How many turns in or out should the carb screw be for standard mixture?

Any help is vastly appreciated

Martin

[turnbullj]

have you checked your dizzy cap and rotor arm?
James

[My340isbroken]

I rubbed the end of the rotor arm down with a bit of emery but that's it. Should I put a dizzy cap on it just in case?

Also I've read the fuel lines can cause problems, is this possible?

Cheers

Martin

[Ride_on]

You have a significant problem, its probably not an adjustment or cleaning issue. Pour a few cc of petrol down the carb, should be enough fuel to start it whatever state your carb is in. That will eliminate fuel problems, but start with the ignition problems below

If you are having carb flame issues, your ignition timing is seriously out. Also could be cam timing, but that tends to lead to no compression, which sounds funny on the starter.

Is the distributor loose or the arm? It has a vague adjustment from the days of points, but timing is controlled by the flywheel sensor and Renix unit, but if the disty is really far out it could be selecting the wrong plug.

You need to find the firing order and turn the engine to TDC then remove the disty cap and check the arm is in the right position for that plug (doesn't need to be spot on, say +/-20 degrees).

[My340isbroken]

Ok so first step is to check the timing by getting TDC on number 1 (flywheel end?) and checking to see where the rotor arm is pointing?

The distributor is loosened off as I have been trying in vain to get the bloody thing to start, for all I know the timing is, as you say, miles out.

Do Renix units fail often? Or flywheel sensors? The first 2 days of owning the car it was fine, do they deteriorate slowly or just stop working all of a sudden?

Thanks for the help, I cant wait to get it back on the road!

Martin

[Chris_C]

Do Renix units fail often? Or flywheel sensors? The first 2 days of owning the car it was fine, do they deteriorate slowly or just stop working all of a sudden?

Renix's never. The lil coil thats bolted on the front of the renix sometimes has the terminals connecting it to the main renix corrode sometimes, but the renix itself won't fail. Make sure it's the correct renix (though an incorrect renix will run, just badly)

I reckon you might be onto something with flywheel sensor though. If you hold a plug to the block, do you see any spark on cranking? There will be non/rare if the CPS has gone.

I've had 3 CPS's go on me and a mate similar. Certainly worth investigating

[My340isbroken]

I only checked one plug on the rocker cover so far, will check the rest asap. Will also check the connector on the unit for corrosion, then I'll try a new crank sensor?

Where's the best place to get one from? eBay search was fruitless earlier

Cheers everyone

[volvodspec]

beside the coil and its terminals Renix units do fail, very rarely though. most of the times it is the membrane for the vacuum timing advance that tears; but i've had a unit once that was broken as only thing to get that car started was swapping it out with another one.

first, have you lifted the distributor off the engine? if so, remove it , note the 2 small pins on the bottom and place them exactly above the pickup in the engine, note there is only 1 way to fit it as the 2 small pins aren't perfectly across to eachother.

next; fix the distributor as this doesn't help with a Renix ignition and you are only making it harder for yourself with it loose and off timing, there is 1 way of mounting it so that's a simple job

1st bet: as above, busted/dirty TDC sensor
2nd bet: non rotating rotor-arm due to blocked oil pump; check this by removing the dizzy cap and use a key 19mm on the crankshaft pulley to rotate the crankshaft, if the rotor-arm moves it's ok, if it doesn't you're in for an engine swap.

[My340isbroken]

Yes I have lifted the distributor from the engine, I dust look at the base of if just hastily put it back as I thought it came out!!

Will check for corrosion, possibly change dizzy cap, try and set timing statically (or is this taken care of by the distributor locating pins?) check all other sparks and see what occurs

Thanks peeps

[morgan105]

Check and clean crank sensor as prone to getting dirty, and check for moisture in dizzy cap as if the condensation cover is cracked it can let moisture in to the cap. I have noticed even a small amount of moisture in the cap will stop the car running.

[Ride_on]

The timing is set by the Renix unit using the flywheel sensor, the distributor just selects the plug. If Its not spot on it will be fine, but if its out by more than the width of the rotor arm it won't work.

Flywheel sensors can go in various ways, if possible test the resistance, it not good practice to just buy new parts without diagnostic testing. Also try moving the sensor near steel to and fro, you should see the resistance vary briefly. Not sure by how much though.

[My340isbroken]

Ok thanks everyone, I've got a few more things to check tonight then!

Will report back when I've checked and cleaned crank sensor, re-fit the distributor properly, checked the cap for moisture etc etc

[My340isbroken]

IT'S FIXED

The connectors on top of the renix were so corroded they were barely there, so replaced them all with bullet-type ones, still didn't run...

Re-set the distibutor properly, took cap of,, LOADS of moisture underneath. Brake-cleanered out, emery'd up the points and she ran like a dream.

Adjusted idle, will get the local garage to put it on the emissions tester to get that adjusted up.

Thanks for all the help, i'm a very happy 340 owner! Now to adjust the clutch....

Martin

[volvosneverdie]

Result!