Club 80-90 Forums

hi there all, i have a very annoying problem with my 1986 1.9 petrol van. When driving my van everything can be fine one minute , everything working perfectly then suddenly the van will start pulling back and power will come in fits and bursts. Then sometimes it will just cut out completely and wont start again for a few minutes (engine cranks but no ignition) . Usually it will cut out when low revs in second or first at a junction etc. I have replaced all of the fuel lines and cleaned the carb and fettled with the timeing a little bit and it seemed to have sorted it , we did around 250 miles over last weekend with no problem at all, then today i used it and it cut out within a few miles. any help would be greatly recieved as the van is being used for our honeymoon in 7 weeks cheers

Have you checked the advance/retard hoses ? Fuel filters (inline next to the tank outlet AND the cone filter on the inlet to the Pierburg) clear ? If it starts to miss under load it just could be the coil breaking up or the petrol pump not delivering sufficient fuel ... worn pushrod ? MUST be 100mm long or a tired pump ? Fresh petrol NOT old ? Good petrol ? NOT cheap supermarket crap .. don't laugh, Sainsbury's 'petrol' stopped our van running just before a holiday

Ian

Hi there thanks for your reply. I have replaced both of the fuel filters and when everything was drained i took the pump off and tried it manualy and it seemed to work. I have not measured the pushrod so will do this tomorrow. I am lead to believe it only has to be a couple of mm out to cause problems. so should it be 100mm exactly? cheers

transporter1986 wrote:so should it be 100mm exactly? cheers

Allegedly so.

Might also be worth considering; lots of petrol in the tank, or just a little bit in there?

Tony

transporter1986 wrote: . . . I have replaced both of the fuel filters . . .

Does that mean that you have 2 inline fuel filters or, as Ian describes, one inline and one in the carb?

The tank is 1/3rd full of bp petrol. I have 2 inline fuel filters. When the engine cuts out there is no delay ,no spluttering etc it just quitely cuts out. The only indication that it has cut out is the battery light being on, on the dash. Sometimes at low revs the oil pressure light flashes on. Oil level is spot on though. It is very frustrating as when it is running properly it runs like a dream. thanks for all your help

There should only be the single inline filter just after the tank.

Ian

transporter1986 wrote:I have 2 inline fuel filters. . .

Oh dear, it's time to get rid of one.

tci unit very often the culprit with cutting out when warm, cools down restarts ok, erratic behaviour becomes worse, fails
earths vip with electronic ignition too

I will take the filter out of the engine bay tonight. Is it just a case of 2 filters slowing the flow of petrol if I have 2. Why would a previous owner have 2 . I am just curious . I will also check all earths etc tonight. Thanks again for your help