I thought you meant 'fast'! Ah well...

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:Looking back on this thread....I have also had this problem recently. The car starts fine, then dies, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It's a pig to start again...probably taking 3-4 seconds of cranking to fire (but fires under 'cold start' choke conditions...so its not flooding).

I've also been struggle with misfires recently. Typically at about 70-80mph in 5th, it'll lose power. Change down to fourth and take it to 90 (~4000rpm), and it clears up for another 10 miles. It only does it with 'cheap' fuel. Even quality 95 oct (Shell is my favourite) is enough to clear it up, but supermarket petrol makes it very unhappy.

I smell carb problems
1) Wear? Needs rebuild maybe?
2) Dirty jets maybe? Carb cleaner will sort that if that's what it is....

Any thoughts?

cheers

James

Three things come to mind:
The fuel mixure may be too lean.
Check if the 3 screws at the top which keep the cover on the carb are not loose.
Worn spark plugs or distributor cap/rotor.

I can't see it being mixture, because its out of the idle circuit range (only place the 'mixture' screw applies). Leaning out due to blocked jet...yes.

I did a good run today on decent fuel, and it was fine, despite intentionally running it at around 75-80. I blame a) poor fuel and b) repeatedly running the tank down too low (dragging up crap from the bottom of the tank).

Spark plugs and dizzy cap....good ideas...worth a try.

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:I can't see it being mixture, because its out of the idle circuit range (only place the 'mixture' screw applies).

I'm not trying to be smart here, but from experience the mixture screw affects the whole range, not just the idle. I was playing with it once and I set it way too rich. The engine was running really badly, I got black smoke from exhaust when driving, hesitation on accelerating (flooding), detonations in exhaust due to unburnt fuel entering it. If you set it even more rich and manage to get the engine running, you could get flames from the tailpipe if you quickly take away the throttle (has actually been seen on a Renault 4).

Even if you turn it just a bit, you'll notice a change in performance. So it's important that it's within the range (1 - 2.5% CO at idle for this engine).

yeah mixture affects everything, not just idle.

My reply didn't appear!! I was arguing my case....but I can't be bothered any more. The gist of it was that the mixture screw doesn't do anything at high RPM or full throttle - its all down to jet size then...but anyway....much more important news....

I think we might have found the solution. Jon Marsh over on the VOC site said he fixed this problem by fitting a new rotor arm to the distributor, as the integral resistor had fried itself. Gotta be worth a try...

cheers

James

James, if you car starts fine first time from cold and then dies straight away and floods itself, I would be thinking worn pnematic choke diaphragm on the carb. This device uses engine vacuum to pull a lever that opens the choke flap by a couple of mm when the engine first starts, to stop the engine over-choking itself.

I would guess it could cause air leaks. If I was you I would try and get a diaphragm kit from Webcon, and change all yer diaphragms, accel pump, pneumatic choke etc.

Hopefully that should cure it, although, at our age, things like throttle bushings etc get worn and cause funny air leaks.

How does it idle when its hot? If it's OK.then chances are the main workings are all OK and diaphragms will help.

Andy

Great post Andy. I also have a suspicion that something is up with the carb (although I have no idea what!), but I can't be bothered to do much with having it refurbished, etc, as I'll be fitting the ADDHEs within a few months.

It could be a lot of things really. It feels to be ignition, but then that's just an instinct (ie: probably wrong!). In general it runs just fine when warm, but very occasionally it misfires under heavy load.

It's only a problem for the first two minutes or so, so I guess I'll have to put up with it in the meantime

cheers

James

Hi guys, just thought i'd chuck in an (unlikely) idea. I had similar problems with my GLT when starting up when i first got it. After i changed the head gasket it started perectly everytime, i assume it still is now too. I guess water was seaping into the number 4 cylinder and causing the problem.

Indeed its starting fine Done nearly 2k miles in her now, onto 113k

Glad to hear it!
I'm starting to want one again now. I've had big plans of tuning my 205DT and using it on events, but i'm now starting to think i could sell that on for £600 or £700, buy a nice GLT, spend a few hundred on sorting it out and not lose any money in process....

Nice sounding one on that website at the moment, the 3 door with leather sounds nice too.. but u can't rally that surely!

I can rally anything

The slight hesitation on hard load could well be accel pump or full load enrichment diaphragms, all these things go hard.brittle with age. It wouldn't cost alot to get the parts, and a day with the carb off the car and a few tools and the Haynes would get your carb up to spc properly.

Trust me, its really not that hard.

When I say occasional....it's done it about twice in the last 6 months. There was also a longer spell of missing on the M40, but I'm putting that down to me having run the tank right down. I took it to the garage today, and he said he thought there was a very slight vacuum leak somewhere...which would explain it.

I've tracked my starting problems down to a mis-adjustment of the choke lever throttle offset cam (it opens the throttle too much, causing a leaning out)...just need to figure out how to alter it now! However, there's definitely a very slight underlying problem as well, and as you suggest I think it's the carb. I'm gonna put all my efforts into fitting the ADDHE carbs, and just ignore the once-in-a-blue-moon hissy fits it has in the meantime - unless they get more frequent, obviously!

cheers

James