Hello!

Post by **27.86** » 31 Jul 2006 03:44 pm

Hi. Just joined V3M. Picked up my 340 GLE from South West Wales on Saturday & drove home 213 miles to South East England. Car hadn't really moved for 8 months...

Wondering if anyone could help me with the following:

Where do I get wheel bearings from? Fairly loud noise, not connected to engine speed but connected to road speed, so guessing bearing(s).

Engine timing - My local garage has told me it's likely to be a processor on my car (1988 1.7 GLE), so might be more involved than the timing on my other car ('68 Triumph Herald). Need to get MOT & timing seems to need doing before then - takes ages to start & have been told (on the way home) that it's flooding.

Other than that, seems to be a great little car!

Any advice gratefully taken, but I'm no mechanic-god!!

Post by **jtbo** » 31 Jul 2006 04:01 pm

You really can't do nothing to timing, it has Renix unit (coil is in there too) that has programmed ignition map and it is not possible to adjust.

Distributor cap, rotor arm, plugs and new spark plug wires are what you can do for ignition side.

So that leaves only fuel issues to play with and there is possibility that carb base plate has been warped, but that usually causes rough idle and typically this happens with 1,4l model, can't remember if it was same with 1,7 or not.
Then cleaning and adjusting carb should be enough to make it work.
If that does not help there is still vacuum leaks to be checked and in any case, replace those original fabric surface fuel hoses, every one of them, from engine bay and from under car / near fuel tank, they may look okay, but they are really leaking.

I don't know where to get wheel bearings in UK, but here in Finland we have several places that sell aftermarket spare parts and those are ok when you check that it is SKF bearings. But in UK story may be different

Welcome to board

Post by **SteveP** » 31 Jul 2006 04:07 pm

Welcome... you can get wheel bearings for the front from GSF Car Parts or Euro Car parts, they occasionally (along with rears) come up on ebay too.

Post by **27.86** » 31 Jul 2006 04:17 pm

Thanks, jtbo. I've been keeping an eye on the forum since I won the car on ebay last weekend.

The problem I'm having with the engine is this:

Thanks to a weak battery, the car is taking a long time to start, and I was told by someone on the way home that the engine was flooding. I've had this happen to me on a couple of bikes, and that seemed to be flooding, as the car took ages to start (would kick over slowly at first, then continued kicking over more quickly until eventually taking). The car then needs a fair amount of revs for a minute or two before doing anything. The other problem I had was the car dying shortly after start-up (particularly at the front of a queue on a busy roundabout

). Also, a large cloud of smoke/fumes on startup. Did have a problem with losing power for a few seconds at a time, but that was intermittent & stopped altogether once I'd done about 140 miles of my journey...

I'm very pleased with the car, particularly as it cost under £30.

Post by **dalahare** » 31 Jul 2006 04:29 pm

Charge the battery and run a tank of two of good ( maybe some sort of cleaning agent too) fuel thru the car before worrying too much about the ignition, stale fuel and weak battery won't be helping the cause at the moment, then start replacing things, I always like to put new oil, filters, plugs and check rotor, dizzycap, leads ect, in second hand cars as you never know when they have been done last.

Post by **foggyjames** » 01 Aug 2006 01:27 am

^^^^ What he said. If a tank of fresh fuel doesn't help, start looking at the carb. That's most likely to be your 'hardware' problem, if you have one.

cheers

James

Website · Post by **antiekeradio** » 01 Aug 2006 07:34 pm

the 1.7 carbs are notoriously unreliable over the years.... sometimes there are no problems (thats a 'lucky' scenario tbh) but usually there are issues with air leakage and a float that looses it boyancy so that the fuel flows over.

Post by **27.86** » 02 Aug 2006 09:44 am

Thanks for all the helpful info, gents (and ladies, as appropriate...)

I took the car out yesterday to see how it's doing - started up much more easily & with fewer problems. Still doesn't like low-speed manoeuvering after a drive at higher speed, but at least it doesn't stall!

Definitely got a wheel bearing problem, though. Can get 2 front bearings for £17 inc P&P - is that a decent price? Also seem to have a leak on the exhaust, as car sounds a bit woolly. After that, though (plus adjusting the drivers door as it drops when it opens & needs a slam to shut properly) , the car's going to be lovely and quiet! Well, compared to a Herald with a dodgy gearbox, anyway...

Again, thanks for your help - seems like you've already started saving me money!

Andrew

Post by **5lab** » 02 Aug 2006 10:17 am

drivers door dropping is quite a commen problem - especially on 3 door cars. try knocking the upper door hinge pin down a bit- might fix the problem (did on nessy)

Post by MJ » 02 Aug 2006 04:10 pm

Maybe a tank of high octane,Optimax/Ultimate etc may help if it's sat for a while. Its 5 or 6p more a litre, but I think the car runs a little better on it.

Post by **foggyjames** » 02 Aug 2006 06:29 pm

Alternatively, if you're not as stingey as Hugh, new door hinge pins cost less than £1 each at the dealer....two per door. If you can wobble the open door up and down, they need replacing.

cheers

James

Post by **jtbo** » 02 Aug 2006 07:33 pm

One good investment is Haynes book, there is some information about measures and some tips how to do certain jobs, of course it has some issues, but it is really worth to buy.

For example adjusting float height in carb can't be done without those tips in book, very easy to adjust it wrong as method is somewhat different than many other carb has.