Dead in the water... all help appreciated!

[CottageAndCountry]

I'm at a bit of a loss here. A week ago, our 1988 T3 1.9 Petrol gave up the ghost on a hill thankfully not too far from home. With the wife's help, we towed her onto level ground and had a fiddle. This was to no avail and we ended up coming home on a wagon.

I suspected the fuel line may have clogged as I'm trying to lower the level in preparation for a tank change and it's maybe let her sup some crap into the fuel line. A quick check at home seems to confirm this, fuel lines dry and nothing being supped when I try to start. Cleared the lines and seem to be getting fuel now but she still won't start. Not even with the eggcup trick, that usually clears her right out.

Before I go down the route of 'bugger it must be something else too', is there anywhere else that might have furred up from muck in the fuel?

I thought the blockage was likely between the tank and filter but could it have passed further and gotten into the pump or elsewhere?

If anyone's local to Liversedge WF15 and fancies a Sunday afternoon tinkering, please let me know!

TIA,

Mick

[Mocki]

Have you removed and cleaned the cone filter in the carb ? ( you dont say what engine, so I’m assuming its a DG with the 2e3 carb ?)

[nicktennear]

Sorry - "With the wife's help, we towed her onto level ground and had a fiddle." Surely you should have fixed the van first?

[Mocki]

Ohhh matron !

[CottageAndCountry]

I knew someone would pick up on that! I'm starting to wish we'd just had a "fiddle" and left the van there...

@Mocki, I've had another look at the carb this morning, decided to replace the old feed pipe too, and there is apparently no cone filter at all. This sort of surprises me and doesn't all at once... The engine is a DG, can't find any ID on the carb itself but a previous owner did put this engine in as a replacement. So it may not have the expected carb. Though a quick look at the wiki seems to confirm it is that model.

At this point I'm not really sure where to go. I have a slot at the garage on March 7th but it's going to cost me another tow just to get it there. And that's if they're even happy taking a non-starter. It's a good garage but they're very busy and were a bit reluctant to take the fuel tank job in the first place. This may be the beginning of the end for our foray into 'little old vans'. Now I'm back working full time we really something... reliable. Which isn't a regular quality of these old dubs!

[Stesaw]

They are reliable assuming its been taken care of

Mines my daily and have no issue with it.. although I've done pretty much every job you can on it.

Sometimes the carbs don't have a cone filter in them.. which won't matter all that much assuming the fuel line filter is checked / replaced on a regular basis.

If you dont get it to fire up with sticking fuel down the carb.. then id check for spark and go from there.

[Mocki]

Are you looking in the correct place?? Inside the inlet spigot ?

[TONYT25T25]

Has the fuel pump been checked for delivering fuel to the carb? Presuming it is a mechanical one running off the engine cam.

[jrt]

Just to recap. You have now fuel being delivered but it won’t fire even with a bit down the carb’?
Have you tested for a spark ?
David.

[CottageAndCountry]

Good morning all,

Apologies for the delay in responding, I've been working and trying to prepare the house for decorating, and trying to tinker with the van when time permitted! Thank you for the advice, it's been very useful and I have great news...

The engine lives!

I finally had time for a proper root around the electricals this morning (before 9am, golly), and traced the problem to the distributor. Luckily, I had the spare from my last service and swapped it out. Started on the first turn!

I do have one last question, the rotor arm in the new (failed) dizzy is thinner than the old one I've put back on, which almost looks to have a wide counterbalance on one end. When I look at replacement rotors on Brickwerks or elsewhere, they all seem to be the thin type. Can you still get the counterbalance types? Do they make any difference to performance?

It could be a dud batch, but that failed dizzie is less than a year old and hasn't done a lot of miles. But the old one even looks less worn out... I could be reading too much into it, either way I'm getting a spare!

[Stesaw]

It could be just the rotor arm in the other distributor that has failed.
Where did you buy the dissy from?

[R0B]

Sounds like one of the rotor arms is a rev-limiting one. You can use either. But I would stick with the non limiting one if I were you. Type rev-limiting rotor arm into the search box. There are a few posts about them.

 vw t3 t25 rev limiting rotor arm for sale | eBay

[jrt]

I had the rev limited one and it burnt out so replaced it with another but it left me stranded in the middle of nowhere a fortnight later. I carry a spare bog standard one and that got me going again. It’s always good to try the simple things before diving in head first even if it’s a recently purchased new part.
David.

[CottageAndCountry]

From further research, it does look like a rev-limiting rotor arm that I've got. They're a bit pricey compared to a standard one. I'm going to grab a spare basic arm to add to the parts bag in case it goes again.

I think the replacement that's worn out was a JustKampers purchase... I live about twenty minutes from Brickwerks so I'll pick one up there with some service bits I need for next month.