Mk1 Astra, Weber carbed 1.3s bosch ignition.
Sooo following my previous thread on possible fuel starvation, turned out to be the coil! Where the lead plugs in, was really dirty. So I had stuffed some sand paper in there, whole bunch of dust came out. All back on, and engine was running spot on! Really impressed.
Couple weeks later (Friday just gone), coasting down a hill in third I hear a little puff/put...total loss of power, no throttle no nothing. Dip the clutch , engine stalls and I roll into a fuel station. Queue waiting for AA, during in this time I check plugs, leads, cap, rotor arm, points, fuel...all seems fine! My mind settles on it being the coil.
Engine would turn over happy as you like, but doesn't fire at all. It's like this all evening, AA man came and checked everything over as well, his little spark testers were lighting up so he was happy I was getting spark. He couldn't get her going, we were both stumped. Queue a tow home!
Spent all day saturday under the bonnet, mainly scratching my head and drinking tea. Before anything, I had cam cover off and cam belt cover off. Turned over by hand freely, cam was working the lifters fine, Cyl1 pressurised as the timing marks were lining up...happy with the timing.
Swapped out the plugs with my previous set, in good condition. Turned the key and immediately fired but would not start. Spent the rest of the day checking everything was as it should be, points opening ok, rotor arm & cap were renewed only a couple weeks before, tried a different set of leads...still not starting. If you stayed on the starter motor and opened the throttle it would fire and rev up a little, but as soon as you came off the starter she'd die.
Queue Sunday and fixing the problem, a coil from a metro comes round, bodged it on and she fires straight up! Idles pretty rough, put a spare set of ht leads on but no difference still rough. Put it down to the Metro's engine being a 1L!
Monday evening, new coil is delivered...bolted on. Not expecting her to be perfect, following a weekend of trying to get her to start! Buuuuuut she ran terribly...retarded the ignition slightly as was pinking...but the pinking became worse!? Retarded slightly more but no difference. I then advanced from original position, but engine would barely idle then. Engine was running rather hotter than usual. Checked the plugs, they were clean.
And we arrive to today...0615 this morning with my coffee...I noticed the brand new set of points sat ON MY DESK. Wait, I'd fit them weeks ago hadn't I? OH. Oops. Quickly get them on, set a good gap and away I go. Alot of improvement, but still lack of power, juddery and pinking. Barely held 55mh. Running cooler though, so I'm happy to drive to work.
What confuses me...is that the engine was running perfectly Friday morning, and indeed on the way home!
Plugs are clean enough, and set to correct gap of .7.
Points brand new on this morning, set to about .3.
Rotor arm & dizzy cap in good condition.
Leads been swapped with another set (albeit from a Landrover
), but no difference.
Alas I do not have a timing gun
Sooo following my previous thread on possible fuel starvation, turned out to be the coil! Where the lead plugs in, was really dirty. So I had stuffed some sand paper in there, whole bunch of dust came out. All back on, and engine was running spot on! Really impressed.
Couple weeks later (Friday just gone), coasting down a hill in third I hear a little puff/put...total loss of power, no throttle no nothing. Dip the clutch , engine stalls and I roll into a fuel station. Queue waiting for AA, during in this time I check plugs, leads, cap, rotor arm, points, fuel...all seems fine! My mind settles on it being the coil.
Engine would turn over happy as you like, but doesn't fire at all. It's like this all evening, AA man came and checked everything over as well, his little spark testers were lighting up so he was happy I was getting spark. He couldn't get her going, we were both stumped. Queue a tow home!
Spent all day saturday under the bonnet, mainly scratching my head and drinking tea. Before anything, I had cam cover off and cam belt cover off. Turned over by hand freely, cam was working the lifters fine, Cyl1 pressurised as the timing marks were lining up...happy with the timing.
Swapped out the plugs with my previous set, in good condition. Turned the key and immediately fired but would not start. Spent the rest of the day checking everything was as it should be, points opening ok, rotor arm & cap were renewed only a couple weeks before, tried a different set of leads...still not starting. If you stayed on the starter motor and opened the throttle it would fire and rev up a little, but as soon as you came off the starter she'd die.
Queue Sunday and fixing the problem, a coil from a metro comes round, bodged it on and she fires straight up! Idles pretty rough, put a spare set of ht leads on but no difference still rough. Put it down to the Metro's engine being a 1L!
Monday evening, new coil is delivered...bolted on. Not expecting her to be perfect, following a weekend of trying to get her to start! Buuuuuut she ran terribly...retarded the ignition slightly as was pinking...but the pinking became worse!? Retarded slightly more but no difference. I then advanced from original position, but engine would barely idle then. Engine was running rather hotter than usual. Checked the plugs, they were clean.
And we arrive to today...0615 this morning with my coffee...I noticed the brand new set of points sat ON MY DESK. Wait, I'd fit them weeks ago hadn't I? OH. Oops. Quickly get them on, set a good gap and away I go. Alot of improvement, but still lack of power, juddery and pinking. Barely held 55mh. Running cooler though, so I'm happy to drive to work.
What confuses me...is that the engine was running perfectly Friday morning, and indeed on the way home!
Plugs are clean enough, and set to correct gap of .7.
Points brand new on this morning, set to about .3.
Rotor arm & dizzy cap in good condition.
Leads been swapped with another set (albeit from a Landrover
), but no difference.Alas I do not have a timing gun
. As soon as she came up to temp, would idle ok, albeit hunting. Not much power either.
