Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,

I have been getting a 1980 2.0l A/C camper back on the road after being sat for 6 years or so, and despite sounding mechanically good and revving nicely in neutral, the engine is causing me trouble. I took it out for a run today for the first time, and have two issues.

Firstly, and most seriously, it seems to have a big lack of power. 40mph in 3rd gear was about the best we could get, and often full throttle did not yield a noticeable increase in power. The front brakes are still binding slightly, but not enough to account for this. The condition felt similar to fuel starvation, even though I've replaced all the fuel lines from the tank, filter, and added a new facet type electric pump. I have heard that this pump is more likely to over-fuel than under-fuel. It is powered by the battery via a relay triggered from the coil.

Could this problem be caused by a distributor fault or blocked carbs? I am totally new to both of these and don't yet have a good understanding of them.


The second issue, which may or may not be related, is that the idle is quite poor, and it will often stall. This is the same hot and cold, and is made no different with or without the idle stabilising unit active. I can't seem to find any (more) vacuum leaks, and don't want to rush in and meddle with carbs unless it's the only option.

Once all this is done I only have to replace the clutch hose, replace the front calipers and then do a ton of other stuff, but then... with a little help ... I can go to Europe!

Cheers,

Neil

I take it you have cleaned out the carb? lots of crap in the float chamber n jets , had the same prbs with my 2cv having replaced the engine with one that had stood for a while (blocked n dirty carb). Im almost certen its the jets I would strip and clean the carb.. or if you have a spare try it
but check the points plugs too and any signs of compresson loss just to be safe

Old petrol, long shot..........

Petrol is all new with a hint of Redex.

I have a feeling you could be right about needing to clean the carb. If I want to clean floats/needles do I need to get a whole carb refurbishment kit, or can I get away without? And will the carbs have to be re-tuned/adjusted again afterwards?

fuel pump ok? good spark? timing right? advance working?

start with the electrics then work towards the fuel....

Eh Up Dutch,
Go steady on the red X as the Grumpy Midget used it on his air cooled and it now burns oil like the Torey Canyon.

Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,

PS, eliminate all suggestions one by one or you will never know what was causing your problem.

Well today I have tried to check a few more components. The coil is a little (10%) over the Haynes spec. on both LT and HT coils, and was not a concern but easy to measure. The sparks look very strong, camera flash-like in fact.

The Gunson's budget timing light I have does not attach to either HT lead or spark plug as they are of an unusual type (to me), with thinner connections which look like they are threaded. This means I cannot precisely measure the timing yet.

I tried running with the air filter assembly removed, and found that blocking either of the two distributor vacuum pipes affected the idle, so I assume these systems are working to some extent.

The top half of the distributor all looks good, and I can feel the spring action of the centrifugal part OK, but did not open it up fully. Are there other parts there that can play up?

All in all the engine has only done 59,000 miles so I am not expecting parts to be worn out, just stuck, or perished if rubber.

I still am leaning towards the carb being at fault. I am a bit daunted by the black magic of carbs though, and wonder whether I should leave it to a professional. Can anyone tell me if I'll need a refurb kit to clean floats + needles? Is the rebuild process very complicated, or is tuning the hard bit??

Please fill me with confidence,

Neil

ps. Only added a few capfuls of Redex to tank

pps. pump is good, replaced by facet type electric one

Long as you have a carb kit its no real struggle. A fun job on the kitchen table!

CovKid wrote:Long as you have a carb kit its no real struggle. A fun job on the kitchen table!

yup thats true , strangly relaxing too or is that just me!