Technical Fuel issue and hello again!

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Hi all. I've not posted on here for a long time but have been reaquainting myself with old threads recently. Facebook is not the same!

Anyway, I'm not sure how many people still post but I have problem in the most recent addition to the fleet: a carbed 1000 CL that Vernon sorted out for me at Panda central.

I had a problem starting it and finally managed to by priming the pump and carb. On a trip out today we suffered more or less complete fuel loss under a heavy load going 60ish uphill. We pulled over to safety and it would fire but only run very poorly with foot on the pedal. Not enough to move it under load. 2 hours later, just before recovery arrived, it fired up and we limped home. I had suspected the pump so fitted a new one I'd picked up. It seemed to be idling better with the new pump but I've had exactly the same fault on a test run. Gunning it uphill the same fuel starvation again. After about 25 mins and the engine cooled, I managed to get it going again. Roughly at first but I got back home.

Any thoughts on what to do next? I'm now thinking the issue is likely to be the carb? Tapping it to release stuck float valve didn't make a difference.

If anyone has a good idea let me know! Sorry about the saga!

 

[jackwhoo]

Don't assume it has a fuelling problem.
Check ignition first, especially if it is fitted with points distributor .

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Thanks. This one was converted to electronic. It's not 100% gremlin free electrics wise though.

 

[RalphM]

If it does have points look for any burning or blueing any doubt change them and the condenser

 

[jackwhoo]

Is the electronic conversion points free?

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Thanks. This one was converted to electronic. It's not 100% gremlin free electrics wise though

Is the electronic conversion points free?

Yes. Same set up as the 4x4.

 

[jackwhoo]

Thanks. This one was converted to electronic. It's not 100% gremlin free electrics wise though

Yes. Same set up as the 4x4.

Rotor arm insulation can break down .
Distributor cap.
Sprung carbon contact in distributor cap.
HT leads .
Ignition coil.
Spark plugs- But they would have to be really bad with decent electronic ignition working correctly.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Rotor arm insulation can break down .
Distributor cap.
Sprung carbon contact in distributor cap.
HT leads .
Ignition coil.
Spark plugs- But they would have to be really bad with decent electronic ignition working correctly.

Thanks. New plugs and dizzy cap. I do have another set of HT leads I can try.

 

[jackwhoo]

Thanks. New plugs and dizzy cap. I do have another set of HT leads I can try.

Rotor arm ?

Do a spark gap jump test. You should see a very good spark jump a 6mm gap easily.

If you get a good spark from the coil lead to engine metal but no spark or a poor spark from plug lead to engine then the fault is almost certainly rotor arm.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Rotor arm ?

Do a spark gap jump test. You should see a very good spark jump a 6mm gap easily.

If you get a good spark from the coil lead to engine metal but no spark or a poor spark from plug lead to engine then the fault is almost certainly rotor arm.

Thanks. Will check this out.

 

[Dragon Man]

sounds to me like that ignition module.. unscrew it from the distributor and let it hang on the wires.. the heat of the engine travels through the distributor and into the module causing it to break a connection internally. think of a flickering LED.. it only does that because its heating up and cooling down..

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Thanks Jon. I spoke to Vernon and he suspects the same. Are you saying the same module might work if it's not heating up so much? I have a few spares in the garage so was going to try one of them. Do you put heat sink paste on the back?

 

[Dragon Man]

nahh.. i just took mine away from the distributor so its in free space. its a solid state device with no moving parts.. parts only move when it gets hot.. remove the heat and it will live forever heh. just try to keep it water resistant

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Hm. I've swapped the module and set out on a test run. Same thing happened. I put a new rotor arm, with no improvement, and then a new dizzy cap. None of these things have fixed it. Going to try coil next.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

A quick update for information. Looks like it was the coil. No problems on a first test run anyway.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Well... After doing 400 miles with no problems with the new coil fitted, it did it again, on the way to a funeral on Friday. I'm beginning to wonder whether it might be a fuel issue after all. It was suggested to me by my other half's brother - and former Panda owner - that he thought it was carb icing. Anyone have thoughts on this? The fault does sound like it could be icing, but wouldn't it start up again pretty quickly if that were the case? I'm not entirely sure it was very cold each time I've broken down either. On Friday I got a tow to a garage and it still wouldn't start about two hours later. Surely if it's icing it would clear much quicker? I've just had a chat to the mechanic who has today started it and driven it for 10 miles including hard uphill and it didn't miss a beat. It is warmer today... Running out of ideas now. Crap in the fuel tank? Dodgy wiring? Interested to hear thoughts on icing.

 

[RalphM]

Every time I have encountered carb icing it as cleared after 10 min or so.

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Every time I have encountered carb icing it as cleared after 10 min or so.

Thanks. This is what I would expect. What kind of fault would clear after two hours...?

 

[RalphM]

It does sound electrical, take a plug with you when it does it again plug it into one of the leads see if you get a good spark.
Also a bit of tube and a bottle turn it over see if it's pumping fuel, I had a ford do something similar it was a label floating
in the fuel tank and it would get sucked over the pick up, don't have the fuel pipe off wile testing for a spark.

 

[mwjb]

A quick update for information. Looks like it was the coil. No problems on a first test run anyway.

Hi sorry to ask by coil do you mean the cap? Im having an issue similar at the moment... Have ordered a new fuel pump up try and go from there