Club 80-90 Forums

Thought I would reward the camper for two weeks trouble free, if sluggish motoring in France with new plugs, leads and rotor arm. Having gone well first time out it is now dying after every five minutes or so - in between goes fine. It 'feels' electrical - I wish I had left it alone.
Have put all the originals back in now out of desperation and it got me home, just. What on earth can I have done? Should I have replaced distributor cap along with rotor arm? The original plugs were three pronged jobs (Bosch), new ones NGK single electrodes (correct gap)
I have now lost faith... again, in both my meagre mechanics and van. Any suggestions most welcome. Cheers

I know it dosent help but I know exactly how you feel I've ended up with very similar problems afer trying to make improvements.

If its running ok with the old stuff back on, put your new bits on one at a time and try running the van, you have probably bought a duff component.
If you run the van after each change, you'll find out whats playing up.

Sounds like a plan, thanks. Only trouble is each time out involves van dying (not just chugging) and coming to a standstill (traffic, junctions, overtaking, well perhaps not overtaking)...

Have you checked that there is a spark coming through all ht leads? These can easily be damaged if there a little old when replacing spark plugs.I can remember doing a service on me polo a few years back and manged to pull the lead out of socket end, oops.

Simon

Have you put a limited rotor arm on instead of unlimited? Rotor arm on the wrong way? Dizzy cap on wrong way round? Plug leads coming loose on one or more spark plugs? Plugs are definitely set at right gap? Plug leads going to the wrong pin on dizzy cap?

Just a few suggestions based on mistakes that I've made in the past!

Tony

Tinker wrote:Should I have replaced distributor cap along with rotor arm?

May as well. Did you get your new bits from somewhere reliable? Best off using Brickwerks imho.

Tony

Thanks. Only thing from your list I'm not sure about is the 'limited' rotor arm? I just got a replacement one from JK - looks the same as the old one.
The reason I ask about the dizzy cap is that the electrodes do seem quite corroded - maybe the old rotor arm had sort of bedded into this. I'll get a new one...one less thing to blame

Just looked it up - no its not a limited one - same as old one

matey -

sorry to hear of your woes - just the highs and lows of owning and running one of these creatures -
i'm sure every poster on the forum would have similar stories -

hope you get back to smiling behind the wheel soon as -

as above - working through a list of why not starting/or driving sluggishly is the way to go -

somewhere down the road - having been through this - you might feel strong and knowing when it comes to a similar fix -
hope these are of some use to you -

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Pe ... flow_chart" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Al ... t_starting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1 more idea if you've changed the leads they need to be pushed on to the spark plug really I mean really hard so that they don't wobble

Thanks for all the replies its great to know you are not alone...
I have put all the original gear back in (plugs,leads and arm) and after a few hiccups its now running fine
Is it at all possible that when changing plugs some crud got pulled in and has now blown thru?
I will try changing things over item by item as suggested - just to try and get to the bottom of it

Tinker wrote:Is it at all possible that when changing plugs some crud got pulled in and has now blown thru?

Did you use a small brush to get rid of any debris around the spark plugs before removing them?

More likely to be dodgy parts off jk again imho.

Tony

When I try to use a smilie from the "view more smilies" link nothing happens Used to work OK. Any ideas?
Should mention that the small screen with more smilies comes up but as soon as I click on it the selected one the cursor disappears from message screen.
Sorry wrong topic!!

Nicola&Tony wrote:
More likely to be dodgy parts off jk again imho.

Tony

mmm - suspicions now arroused re. parts
("a bad workman always blames his tools" has been a principle I have always sworn by )