Technical Help needed by non petrol head! - car lurching

[JacquieC]

Please help as I have no knowledge of cars at all.

My car has a FIRE engine with manual choke. Recently it started chugging when the engine had warmed up with no choke on and sometimes you could smell fuel. Yesterday, it was lurching really badly, like a kangaroo going up the road. I had been driving it for a short while so the engine was warm. It was a nightmare to start and then I just lurched all the way home.

I have taken pictures of the engine and the most obvious thing is a hose at the front which is hanging off and further down to the left, there is a thin pipe which seems to be holding on by a thin wire.

I have also attached a picture of the whole of the engine so that if I should be checking elsewhere, maybe someone can give me some pointers.

I won't be fixing it myself (goes without saying!) but as a female in a chauvinistic country, I don't want to take it to a garage with no idea at all of the problem.

Please help!

Thanks in advance,
Jacquie

 

[unomad]

hi the pipe at front is not your problem sounds like your choke is not going off fully get a friend to move leaver in car and you look in at carb which is located under black box on top of engine ,if you can remove this it will make sorting it much simpler ,its held on with one nut on top (10 mm spanner ,socket vice grips) any of these will open it it wont be tight .then on either side you will see two clips open them and you should be able to flip it to left hand side of engine bay ,then you will be able to see a gold colour flap at top of carb when choke on flap will be closing top of carb when off it should be vertical allowing more air flow if not this is your problem it may just be stuck or cable slipped . have a look at it first hope this helps

 

[a73uk]

Welcome to the forum Jacquie,

It could also be a slipped timing belt, tired fuel pump, dirt in carb, blocked fuel lines, bad fuel, failed vacuum advance among other things.

Heres a pic of the nut (& clip) you need to remove to check if the chokes disengaging properly:



If you lift it from the right hand side, it will swivel round the 2 pipes at the top left corner & then you`ll see the carburettor underneath.

This is the choke flap on the carburettor:



When the choke fully out (on), the flap will be closed, like in the picture above, when the choke is fully in (off) then it rotates 90 degrees (so its completely vertical) & you can see all the way down inside.

 

[unomad]

you guys have waaay to much time on your hands with the pics of carbs .only jolkin picture is worth a thousand words :slayer:.and dont mean to be negative but should you not refer to right hand side of car as you sit in it the same when you looking under the bonnet ?? left is your right and vice versa ???

 

[Chas Uno]

you guys have waaay to much time on your hands with the pics of carbs .only jolkin picture is worth a thousand words :slayer:.and dont mean to be negative but should you not refer to right hand side of car as you sit in it the same when you looking under the bonnet ?? left is your right and vice versa ???

Ideally one should refer to the "nearside" and "offside", that way it doesn't matter what end of the car you are facing

 

[a73uk]

I dont know if you noticed, but the lady said she wasnt a petrol head. Many non-mechanically minded people dont have a clue which side NS or OS is, the lady also implied she`s in another country, possibly causing more confusion (although her English is perect so she may just feel the UK is chauvinistic country).

I was trying just to make it as easy for a non-petrol head to understand as possible, hopefully without being patronising, which is why I also did the pics with directions.

 

[JacquieC]

Thanks for all your responses. I would reassure a73uk that if you spoke to me like a 2 year old, you still wouldn't be patronising as I have as much engine knowledge as a toddler

I am English but live in Malta where if anyone has visited will know that not only do we have the worst drivers in the world but also the most badly maintained cars. Women here should be at the kitchen sink not with their head under a bonnet. A lot of men won't even let their wives drive if it's raining, not that the men know how to drive when it's wet anyway.

My dad has told me a thousand times about nearside and offside but it's like there's a donkey sleeping under a tree in my brain pushing the information out as soon as it goes in.

It's raining here at the moment so I can't follow your instructions but will print them out and give it a go.

I was so pleased yesterday when I saw the broken hose at the front as I thought that would be an easy thing to fix but after more research, I think it's something to do with the heater/fan? If only life were that easy!

Thanks again and I'll let you know what I find. By the way, another stupid question, presumably when my friend moves the choke lever in and out, the engine should be off? Yes, that's how clueless I am.

 

[unomad]

you can leave engine off its safer and be carefull not to drop anything down the carb if you do make sure to get it out if you cant dont start engine find some one to get it out as some thing hard like the nut you remove to take off the cover would not be good for your engine just be carefull to put everything away it wont be a problem .and as for ladies not having heads stuck under bonnets ,my wife races in the same sport i do and regularly works on her own carlots of things she has no problem sorting others i show her once and away she goes

 

[jo0lz]

Welcome to the forum
In answer to your latest question
YuP . . . check the choke while the engine is off

BTW the chugging combined with the smell of fuel would lead me to checking the operation of the choke first . . . then if that is OK move on to other things

Let us know what you find

Best of luck!
Jo0Lz

 

[btmaldon]

Looking at the colour of the air box, I was wondering if the air filter may be clogged up and needs replacing.

 

[JacquieC]

Well, I came to work this morning in the car and apart from the few seconds struggling to get started which is normal, the car ran well. I only work about 2minutes drive from home so the choke was still out some and the engine more or less cold.

The more I think about it the more I think that the choke getting stuck is the problem, as sometimes the engine will rev like crazy when the car is stopped and when I move the choke in and out a bit, it calms down.

So, tomorrow's the big day I've got the tools and printed all the answers out and I'm quite confident about it (or delusional!). However, if it turns out that the choke is sticking or stuck on, what do I do then? Is it something I can fix whilst I've got it apart or is that when I call the pros in?

Thanks again for all your help and patience.

 

[Ucof]

Have you tried turning it off an on again?

Oh wait, thats computers.. not cars.
Sorry.

Oh crap - I've just realised I asked someone this morning to make sure there was petrol in their PC.

 

[unomad]

im sure a73uk will come to the rescue with a side on pic of carb showing cable that might need to be adjusted to solve problem

 

[JacquieC]

Well, the clutch plate isn't sticking. Once I'd worked out how to use the ratchet set (!), it was really easy to check so thanks to everyone, especially a73uk and unomad. Unomad mentions a gold plate and the pictures from a73uk show it as gold coloured albeit on a picture of a new part but mine was thick with black so I don't know if that's a problem.

Been reading about using carb cleaner whilst researching this problem. Do you think that's the next step?

Can anyone advise me of the next step?

Thanks as always.

 

[Ucof]

Could be so clogged up that it is stopping the flap from opening and closing properly.

I'd take a piece of kitche towel to it first and see how much crud you can remove, before using the cleaning fluids.

 

[JacquieC]

Thanks ucof. Flap opened and closed fine when tested it using the lever (manual choke) but think I should clean it up a bit anyway. Maybe when it gets warm (tested when cold) the gunk thickens up and affects it?

It's raining again now so I'll do it later. Anybody got any other suggestions?

 

[unomad]

carb cleaner is ok to use on it but buy a good one may cost more but you use less of it too much down the carb and it might flood and fowl plugs .just few squirts should do and a clean rag along with old thoot brush works a treat ,be carefull carb cleaner is strong stuff best not to inhale fumes and wear gloves "like one would use for washin up ". if a few sprays wont clear it start car for a min to clear what you sprayed in stop engine and start cleanin again

 

[Ucof]

Umm.. just use some Reddex carb cleaner which you can pick up at Tescos petrol stations.


Half the bottle in a full fuel tank, and the rest into the carb itself (slowly) whilst the engine is running.

 

[Chas Uno]

Well, I came to work this morning in the car and apart from the few seconds struggling to get started which is normal, the car ran well. I only work about 2minutes drive from home so the choke was still out some and the engine more or less cold.

The more I think about it the more I think that the choke getting stuck is the problem, as sometimes the engine will rev like crazy when the car is stopped and when I move the choke in and out a bit, it calms down.

What I've highlighted above I feel to be most of your problem. You are only running the engine on choke and it's quite simply not getting up to operating temperature on your 2 minute commute to work. This means that the spark plugs are likely to get fouled and can lead the problems you mentioned earlier. In effect your engine is choking itself because you are only running it on the choke and it's never getting up to temperature to make the engine run well enough without it. If on a longer run your car reaches 70 - 90 degrees on the temperature gauge and doesn't have the short journey running problems, then this pretty much identifies the too short journey as the problem.

There is no real answer as no engine of that age will warm up quick enough within 2 minutes to run at its optimum operating temperature. I would suggest that if you work only a two minutes drive away then perhaps you really ought to consider walking to work. It will give you some exercise and will save a lot of wear and tear on your car! Cold running also causes the most wear on an engine, plus it will be at it's least fuel efficient.

Your engine bay does look very dirty, when was the last time the engine had a service? A dirty air cleaner can cause all sorts of running problems, more so with the choke out as a blocked air filter will in effect double the choke effect. New plugs and an air filter may well help with your running problems.

Lastly be careful with carb cleanner if the outside of the carburettor is very dirty. You want to clean the inside of the carburettor and you must make sure that no gunk from the outside gets into the carburettor choke body. If it does you're likely to cause more problems than you're trying to solve.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[Chas Uno]

Thanks ucof. Flap opened and closed fine when tested it using the lever (manual choke) but think I should clean it up a bit anyway. Maybe when it gets warm (tested when cold) the gunk thickens up and affects it?

More likely to be the opposite. Gunk will become softer with heat, just like oil is thicker cold and thinner hot. A sticking choke on the carburettor is often caused by the choke cable itself sticking. Does the choke lever feel easy to operate or is it stiff when you use it? If the latter then the cable itself may be seizing up and causing the choke to stay on.