Club 80-90 Forums

Hello all,

Just had alternator reconditioned on my 1982 Aircooled petrol van. And just returned from latest camping trip. Stil having probs! The alternator was faulty (one of the benefits of recon instead of bin and new!).

The problem seems to be after a fairly long journey, say 2 hours. The tick of the engine seems to fade away to nothing, and if I come to a standstill (traffic queue, lights) the engine cuts out. Luckily on way back it started again first time, so avoided too many hoots!. But when I arrived at site, an left standing for a few minutes while I checked in, it wouldn't start again. The only way I could get it going was to put my foot to the floor and then turn the ignition.

I vaguely recall from my first car that this happened when flooding the engine. But not used to these things now. How can I sort this out? What does it mean?

Found what I thought was similar issue on earlier post, but this seemed to be for watercooled.

Thanks

Well it sounds pretty much like a carb problem (though not 100%).
The odd bit it only does it after a long run.
Some may suggest a fuel tank breather problem because of this, but that doesn't normally happen when ticking over, more like at full throttle.

The next time it stops, whip one of the plugs out and have a look at what colour it is.

White(ish) = fuel shortage.
Black and sooty = fuel flooding.

What carb(s) does it have fitted ?

If you have (or can borrow) a fuel pump, they only take 10 mins to fit and that would take that out of the equation.
Take great care with securing fuel pipes etc, we don't want to hear you engine bay blew up !!!!!

.

Hello again, still not managed to get hold of and spark plug spanners, but they look pretty old, so will replace them. Such a shame I missed a local meet this weekend, as they went to Just Kampers which had a Techender. Would have been so useful.

My carbs are Solex. The connections here are a bit wobbly - should they be solid?