engine not idling / stalling

[dplum]

Hi,

I have been driving my 1988 watercooled 1.9l t25 to work the last few days as my daily driver has been having some work done.
First couple of days it was running ok (at least as it good as it usually does anyway!)
last night and this morning however it has stopped idling i.e. i have to keep the revs up above 1500ish to keep it from stalling. it seems to be accelerating ok and when driving its ok, but as soon as you take it out of gear for any length of time, or slow it right down, the engine just cuts out.

Could this be the fuel filter? or something else?

Thanks

[eatcustard]

It could be

And remember you have 2 to change

[Ralf85]

That happened to me with my old air cooled van. It turned out to be a broken wire on the fuel cut off switch. It is only supposed to shut down when the ingnition is switched off. However, when travelling along there is enough pressure to push the fuel through. As soon as I stopped it cut out. Check your Haynes manual to see if this is a possibility.

Patrick

[kevtherev]

WHS ^^
the wire may have become disconnected or poorly connected
it will have a red connector.
with the ignition on
when you disconnect there will be an audible click from the carb.. and the same when you reconnect.

If it's not that report back and we'll discuss other options

[dplum]

hi, only just got around to having a look at this now. Might sound a bit stupid but where exactly is the fuel cut off switch? Haynes manual doesn't make it clear at all.

THanks

[kevtherev]

it's on the carb and has a black wire going to it..
OK here it is laid out
you have..

a manifold heater .........Thicker pink wire that disappears under the manifold
a fuel cut off solenoid
and a choke heater

the manifold heater will be the larger red/pink wire, with a white connector and needs to be through the sender switch( from thermostat housing on late cooling system) and relay No1..

the fuel cut ouff solenoid, the choke heater and the other black wire all loop into the same ignition live (black) wire on spade connectors. two female and a male

NOTE these pictures are from an earlier cooling system, so the coolant pipes will be confusing to you.
ALL you are interested in are the wires



here is the thicker wire with the white connector, then the black wire runs off too..



.... here connected to the cut off solenoid (white connector) and choke heater (yellow connector)

[dplum]

right finally had a look at this and yes the fuel cut off solenoid does make a 'click' when you pull the wire on and off - assuming thats ok then, what else could it be?
thanks for your help and great pictures

[kevtherev]

Well we have to assume you've changed plugs leads cap and arm, Airfilter and timing to exclude those
Then all we have left is fuelling.
You need to tell us in more detail when this occurs.
From cold
Warming up
Hot
All?

I suspect an air leak
there are various vacuum hoses that need to be checked and secured from the airbox and to the distributor, to the back of the carb
there's a hose from the choke pull down unit that needs to be checked, pull off the hose from the carb and suck, if you can keep sucking the unit has failed
and finally the brake servo hose has a history of perishing on these vans.

[dplum]

the van is stalling when i slow down to below about 1500rpm - basically as soon as I put the clutch down the rev's really drop and so unless I put it into another gear, the engine stalls, and as you need to keep the clutch depressed at traffic lights etc. there is no chance to keep the revs up unless i keep reving it.

it seems to be happening from cold and from hot, although before it started happening all the time, it did occasionally happen when cold but was fine once the engine had warmed up. now it is all the time?

checked all the hoses - all appear ok and are in fairly good condition.
I have taken lots of photos of the engine bay if any help.

Thanks again

[kevtherev]

OK
take off the pancake duct from the carb, with the engine cold.
You should see this ..



Now yours is not quite the same as this picture.. but the choke flap is, and should look the same, with a little gap
Also on the front is the choke pull down unit (black plastic, bottom of the picture ) see the black plastic hose?
pull it off the carb end and suck through it.
if you can suck easily and not stop, the pull down has failed and is causing the problem

[Novice in need]

Hi can i just recommend doing the fuel filters as i have had a host of problems with my van and after dealing with Choke pull down and Carb Gaskets etc (which all required doing and i appreciated the advise on here that i received) i was still getting intermittent stalling at junctions, filter changes done and problem resolved

[dplum]

I started up the van this morning and it wouldn't idle to start, but after a minute or so with very gentle revs, it was idling fine. So i took it out for a drive, but as soon as I put the clutch down to change gear, the revs drop so quickly the engine cuts out. it starts again fine but then won't tick over.
Now every time i go to change gear or the revs drop below around 1500 the revs drop to 0 and the engine cuts out.

I am fairly certain that the choke pull down unit from the carb may be buggered as I can suck through it for a good 5 seconds or until i run out of breath!

Brickwerks do a modified one for £33ish - is this ok?

Does this definitley sounds like the choke pull down unit then? if so, i'll get a new one, but don't want to pay out if it could be something else cheaper to check first!

Thanks

[kevtherev]

yep thats as sure as night follows day

your engine is running weak because of it

[dplum]

excellent thanks - i'll go for that and cross me fingers! thanks for all your help.

[bigherb]

You might have a blocked pilot jet, unscrew it an check the hole in the end.

The jet I've arrowed in kevs picture.