Hi everyone

My name is Ian and my wife, Jane, and I are the relatively new proud custodians of 'Bella' our beautiful 1972 500L.

Bella spent her formative years in Treviso near Venice in the care of a lady by the name of De Martis Enea Palmira who had looked after her from new until she passed away at the age of 90. In that time Bella covered less than 30,000 kilometres which are fully documented even down to the dates of refuelling which would always be €20 worth at a time!

Here is a photo of Bella with Jane



Bella has been with us since March and in that time she behaved impeccably until our drive home from the wonderful Goodwood Revival. Perhaps the excitement of being in the company of all those other fabulous 500s was too much for her!

Anyway, on the way home she kept losing power then picking up again and whilst she got us home there was clearly something not quite right. The symptoms worsened on the next few outings to the point where Bella kept losing all power, stalled and didn't feel like starting again until she had cooled and calmed down!

Not being at all mechanically minded I called upon the services of a local mobile mechanic who checked plugs, contacts and fiddled about with the carb but couldn't find anything obvious. He suggested stripping and cleaning the carb which I have managed to do with the help of this fabulous forum but Bella is now suffering with a severe bout of the hiccups. I had hoped to attach a video clip but have been unable to work out how to do so but basically when idling she does what I can only describe as a little hiccup / sneeze every few seconds or so.

Anyway, enough of me wittering on. If anyone can help with suggestions of what the initial problem could be and how I can cure Bella of her hiccups that would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

Ian

Welcome to the Forum Ian and Jane. Congratulations on managing to get your car into the Goodwood display. Trying to sort these sort of problems out 'on-line' is difficult and tedious, especially when, as you yourself say, you are not very mechanical. Where about in the UK do you live? It might be that there is a Forum member close to you who can help you out from their own experience.:bang:

Hi Hobbler

Many thanks for the welcome.

We are based on the south coast between Portsmouth and Southampton.

Any help from a local forum member or recommendations of a local mechanic would be much appreciated.

Hi Ian welcome the forum. As Tom aka Hobbler said it is difficult to diagnose from afar without stating all the obvious things like carb, timing, tappets etc....

There is a 500 specialist not too far from you at Ringwood, I haven’t been there for years but he has been working on 500’s for many years. The guys name is Cliff.

http://www.autorossa.com

Tony

Welcome Ian,

I love your car. It is very cool to have the detailed history like you do. At least once a week I get asked about my 500F and I must admit to being a little jealous of you being able to wheel out your story rather than the "Dunno mate, I bought it from a guy down the road" I have to.

I had a similar issue with mine a few weeks ago. It was hard to start when it was hot, and occasionally stumbled when idling but otherwise ran fine. I adjusted the tappets and problem solved.

My two cents...
Chris

Me thinks tappets too.........