Club 80-90 Forums

I've tried searching for the answer but can't find it. Yesterday I was again trying to figure out the problem with my van keeping cutting out. With everything cold, I stared with the fuel system thinking it could be fuel starvation. I checked the 2 filters I have and the one straight out of the tank was good but did have some crud in it, but the one I have in the engine bay was clean as a whistle. I opened up the carb and checked the float bowl heights and made a slight adjustment to set it to 38mm (I've got the single Weber btw!). I checked the condition of the plugs and they were all ok (recently fitted new ones anyway). I then got my GF to turn her over whilst I checked for a spark, and that was good, although yellow and not blue, but at least there was something. I then put everything back and fired her up. She ran ok but a bit rough (probably the mixture as I've reset to 2 turns out for now) for about 5 mins. I adjusted the mixture whislt she was running and ended up at about 1 3/4 turns out and this was better. She was quite lumpy though and the engine does bang around a bit more than it should (not firing on all cylinders??).
Anyway, after about 5 mins she died like always, by losing power and just cutting out. So I took plug 1 out and checked for a spark again....and hey, no spark!!
I checked all leads (which I replaced with the plugs recently too) by gently tugging each one near the elbow connectors, and the king lead seemed to have movement in the end at the dizzy cap. It was like something was disconnecting and reconnecting as I pulled and pushed it if that makes sence.
So......what do you think? It looks like the king lead is duff, but I couldn't get her to start no matter where I held the lead. So I'm thinking this could be a duff coil that stops working as it warms up. Each time this happens, she runs fine for 5 mins than I can't start her again. If I leave her for an hour or so, she'll fire up straight away again.....for 5 mins!!!

PLEASE HELP

All help appreciated, and if someone can recommend good quality replacements that would really help. I can't seem to find the right coil on the normal websites, and I thought the leads I'd bought were good! (they came from Halfords and were about £25)

I see your van is a 1980 year, but you do not state what engine and ignition system you have

Assuming air-cooled (on the year 1980) = I know little about air-cooleds, but if it uses an ignition amp like the later vans, the small black box mounted on the rear(ish) of the inner left hand side bodywork in the engine bay, then your symptoms could certainly be that failing. If it was me, I would be trying that theory by substituting it with a known good one.

I don't think your van will have an "idle stabilisation" unit (tho you or someone else will say ?)

Next I would suspect the hall sensor in the dizzy (assuming you don't have the not very good points dizzy fitted). This is trickier to test by substitution and the part is a bit expensive to buy if it turns out to not be that ! However, a call to someone on here with the same dizzy might work for this.

Sorry mate, yes I have the 2.0l Aircooled with standard dizzy and electronic ignition. Yes I have 2 black boxes on the left hand engine bay wall. One with a large flat plug (bit like a serial port on a computer) and another next to it with 2 round plugs going into it.

OK, the box with the round plugs is the idle stabilisation unit. This can be temporarily removed from the equation by removing the 2 plugs and then plugging them into each other. The idling will not be as steady as before. It is less likely that this is the culprit though.

The other black box, with the flat plug is the ignition amp. These have been known to fail and cause symptoms like yours.

Other than that, my comments above stand.

Let us know what you find.

E D I T = jfyi - from another post this morning = a link to the amp on Brickwerks = http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/i ... -0-cu.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the info mate. I'll let you know how I get on