Afternoon all...

So after a good couple of months (and about 6,000km) of good running I'm having some difficulty with Gina. Previously starting would be very normal - ignition on, 'choke', and pull of the starter, and she would start immediately. After about 10-15 seconds I'd ease back on the 'choke', and then have it off completely after a minute or two. Running would be fine, and restarting when hot would be fine also.

A few weeks back I started getting some difficulty on the cold starts - taking a bit longer to start up and needing feather the accelerator a bit as well. This has gotten progressively worse; Yesterday and today I'm barely able to get her going without full choke, foot flat on the floor, and then I basically need to keep the revs up with the accelerator (or the manual throttle) for at least 5 minutes before she'll run on her own. Once I'm at that point she sounds like she's running a bit rough and occasionally she might peter out with a bit of a wheeze, or might not. When I give her a bit of gas on the accelerator there's almost a pause for a half second, until the power picks up; when letting it off she might go back to idle, or occasionally peter out.

Things done:
Yesterday I removed and blew out the jets. In the past few weeks I've renewed the fuel and air filters; based on past issues I changed out the capacitor too; the timing seems fine and I had it checked with one of the local guys; the tappets were adjusted about 4,000 km ago; and had new plugs about 7000km ago.

It has been really wet where we have been recently, so perhaps this is water in the fuel or carb? Could this be a fuel pump problem (though she seems to be pumping fuel fine, but with varying levels of fuel coming through the filter).

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!

Kieren

I would check the tappets first. 4000 km is quite far since last adjustment. Give the plugs a good clean also and check gaps and condition

Cheers Paolo66 will give that a shot.

If you are running standard ignition then I would check the points gap as after a period of time the heel on the contact breaker points will wear where it rubs on the distributor cam thus closing up the points making it hard to start and if started needs the revs to be up to flick the points open.

Toshi 975 ; Paolo66 Many thanks!

I started with the easier stuff first (for me at least!) - plugs and gaps on the points. Looks like the gaps were the main culprit and its made a massive difference! I compared them to a new set that I have on standby and I'm surprised with the amount of wear - how many kms would you normally get out of the contact breaker points before the heel does that sort of thing?

I gave the idle jet another clean too - looks like there was some residual crud in there as well. She's back to the Gina of old... for now at least!

Off again tomorrow... when we next get into a 5 nighter stop (likely somewhere in Sardinia) I'll look to check the tappets.

Thanks again

KJ

Good that you got her back to normal Kieren. Obviously the good advice of the Forum did it but I also think that the pressure of being on the move focuses attention. It might have dragged on a few weeks if you had Gina parked in the garage.
It sounds like the fun continues.

Absolutely Peter! Its amazing what a bit of fear can do for you - I've had a couple of nights reading the Haynes manual and worrying about what I would do if I couldn't get her off the ferry... wait till next summer I suppose!

Its been a blast so far. Looking forward to getting across to Sardinia. I think I might have even convinced my partner in crime that a 'Gina does Scotland' next summer is a good idea!

Sardinia is nice. I lived there for three years. They have built some new roads from Palau to Olbia, so the older twisty turny ones will be less travelled. Should be a fun drive!

Cheers Luxe - really looking forward to it. Any spots we shouldn't miss?

I don't know If you plan on going north or south, but I always loved driving the Costa Smeralda from Olbia up through the North East corner of Sardinia all the way to Palau. San Teodoro is a great place to stay and visit the beach. Porto Cervo is where all the movie stars vacation. A drive around the islands of La Maddalena and Caprera are always beautiful. If you continue west of Palau the drive is nice to Santa Teresa, but be sure to stop and see Isola dei Gabbiani (beach and wind surfing). If you go south from Santa Teresa you come to Castel Sardo (great picture). Of course all the way down the east coast from Olbia toward Cagliari is a beautiful beach ride! You can't go wrong. Have a great trip!