Club 80-90 Forums

T25 (F reg) water cooled 1.9 petrol, carburettor. Despite a new battery plus a reserve battery paralleled up, sometimes and usually when the weather is damp the engine will not start. It turns over fast but does not start for a long while then might come to life on one or two cylinders before fully starting. Last week at the top of the Long Mynd after a misty moisty night I had to accept the help of a car drive to jump start with his engine going just to be able to crank the starter motor for several minutes (resting to avoid damage to starter motor). I had dried the plug leads, distributor cap, spark plugs and covers.

My local garage man suggests the ignition advance/retard with the weights and vacuum might be to blame but I don't think this 2.5 has such an old distributor - it has a form of electronic ignition.

It does have a carburettor with an automatic choke which was a source of problem in another vw I once had.

I am tempted to replace distributor cover, leads, plugs and see if this helps at all. But does somebody else have any more intelligent insight please?

More likely to be the HT leads insulation is breaking down and leaking the spark when damp.

Yes me too. but a trick from the days of condensers and borrowing lady person's nail file to clean points:
Close all the plug gaps down to 0.015" and if that gets it running straight away it it may well be the leads or distributor cap.

I do miss those uncomplicated engines but then all day 70 mph cruising in a two ton plus vehicle with everything including the kitchen sink on board and a boat in tow...

They changed the packs but at one time the cardboard strip in the back of a packet of rizlas was spot on for beetle plug gaps.

If the issue is ignition related the easiest way to find it is to use a spray bottle filled with water on the mist setting, spray over distributor cap, leads etc the problem will soon make itself known.

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MGP wrote:If the issue is ignition related the easiest way to find it is to use a spray bottle filled with water on the mist setting, spray over distributor cap, leads etc the problem will soon make itself known.

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Is that in the same genre as covering the engine bay with a lightproof cover and bravely poking your head under to look for tracking?

Not at all, if the issue seems to show itself when it's damp, then make it damp and actually trace the issue rather than guess, throw parts at it and hope it starts when you need it to, if making it damp makes no difference then you.know you need to keep looking.

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Thank you everybody for your good advice. The local garage man concurs that the first step should be to change HT leads (never changed in 30 years) and plugs (did change once) so have ordered these parts from JustCampers since they seem to be exact for this 1900 cc with male connectors into the distributor and plug covers identical to the existing ones. Seems the most cost effective intervention and these parts are due for replacement.