Help, intermittently losing power then cuts out.

Guys would be great for some thoughts.
 
got a problem with my 1989 clipper cabriolet has a weber carb conversion.
Ive been driving it in quite low revs lately in case that has anything to do with it.
Having problems with losing power an as if its not firing properly but its only intermittent, once it starts i can stop it and end up slowing down until i stop. Then i restart with choke and pump the accellerator loads and it will start and then ok for a another 20 miles or so?

Any thoughts??????

sound like crap in your fuel system pal

so whats the best thing to fix it with, would the REDEX stuff do the job?

you will have to clean out all the fuel system mate, BIG JOB
go look through the fuel system section, foxy

cheers Foxy,

Had a look through and found some useful stuff, im going to wait until my tank is low then check for crud with a magnet.

What do you think to this? This morn it was really bad. kept cutting out at idle then suddenly started misfiring and would only drive properly with the accellerator down hard. Also a mate behind said black smoke was coming out when it was spluttering.

Ive recently had a water leak and i remembered one of my spark plugs got covered in water, so later today i sprayed my spark plugs with WD40 to drive out moisture, and this evening it was fine but the problem has always been intermittent anyway.

Do you think it could be moisture? or do you still think fuel?

cheers

james

soon find out if it does it again

yea your right… stupid question. I will post the result!

Cheers

James

Right, i drove it again today after it being good on the way home yeaterday it was cuttingo out again this morning then started running on 3 cylinders again and puffing out black smoke.

Broke down and some dude stopped and checked my distributor for me, and the rotor arm had some corrosion on, so we scraped it off but it is still cutting out on idle although not running on three.

Does anyone think that this is the prob, looked at the service records and the current distributor cap and rotor arm have done 40,000 miles.

Does this seem like a likely time for them to fail?>

y dnt you give it some new plugs leads, dizzy cap, roatery arm, so you know youv eliminated all other possibilitys

yea cheers foxy, got my girlfriend on the case at gsf while im at work. Do you reckon they should wear out after 40,000 miles?

cheers

they can break at any time mate

oh rite fair play, ill just fit them then and will post up results! Whatever the problem is im going to post up my full conclusions!!!!

Does anybody know if there are points under the rotor arm which need maintenance on the 1989 carbs?

Guys,

I have just replaced rotor arm dizzy cap and spark plugs and its still the same.

It will intermittently struggle at idle and intermittently the timing seems to go out or its losing power and will have to pull over, wait for a couple of mins then restart. It seems to be much worse in mornings and evenings when damp and so i dont think its fuel!

Any ideas???????

It could be your plug leads. Have you changed these?? They may be 'breaking down'. One way to check these is to run the car in the dark and look under the bonnet to see if there is any 'arcing' ie, sparking coming from the leads.

They may be doing this intermitently as they may be worse when hot or damp.

For the cost it is worth a try.

Cheers

I think the black smoke is the clue here. Black smoke relates to unburnt fuel. Best idea is to strip the carb down, clean out all jets and rebuild. While your at it change your in-line fuel filter and do the magnet thing in the tank from where the pipe enters into the tank or from the fuel sender unit (below rear seat). Spray all your leads and dist with WD40 or similar, leave for 5 minutes and dry off. Let us know how you get on from there.

cheers

cheers, i will take a look at those things, however i have just been looking at the wiring for the ignition and found some dodgy insulation tape covering some solder joint. See pic. Does anybody think this could be the problem?

IMG]http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/whitesta83/DSC00152.jpg

hi just want to say that i had the esact same problem and found there to be dirt blocking the ideling jets, it seamed to be able to "flap" about causing the problem to be intermitant, hope this help, my clipper is running perfect now

Hi bud,
          Had this on my mk1 recently, went throught process of eliminating dizzy, plugs etc, checked timing and it advances etc with dizzy so ruled it out.
Pointed to fuel related, after a day break and some thinking i found the problem.
On big block carb engines, at the front where you can see the fuel pump, directly above that is another filter, it has 3 feeds, one to carb, 2 in/out from tank, it is attached by 2 nuts on rocker cover, it's call the petrol vapour separator part number from VW 026 127 177.
On yours it will be metal, mine was a black plastic one as block is a 1.5, i removed this and tapped it onto my hand and black bits were coming out i.e. blocked thus stopping the correct amount of fuel getting to the carb, i had one spare metal type like yours from my original citi engine and fitted it, runs perfect again.
But also as regards black smoke your defo running rich fella, get co's sorted on carb aswell.
Anyway here's pic of part i am talking about, you can get them also at GSF if you wish.
Pete :wink: