Classic 1.3 needs a new carb every 30,000 miles.

I rely on my 1983 CL. Its done great over the last 5 years and has been my main car.

I bought it at 39,000 miles and it started cutting out within the first year. I'd read a lot and decided to go for the webber 34 ict. It ran great.



Recently the whole front exhaust system started falling to bits, but I had to run it from Newcastle to Edinburgh a couple of times a week. (Very ill family member.)

It started bogging down at speed so I got new manifold gaskets, down pipe gaskets etc. and cut out the carb warming pipe and blanked the ends. (sounds like a good job, but its a little rough)

Anyway last time coming back up it was bogging down mid-range, then on full throttle too, then at idle. If I stopped for 10 mins it would fire off again and repeat the process over a couple of miles. I had been borrowing cars until I had time to fix it properly but managed to do a few miles locally here and there if desperate. At that point the exhaust was leaking again

I figured it may be a fuelling problem, as seems common on these, so I had a look in the carb and the 'in-carb' pre filter was filthy. Cleaned, thought it was fixed and tried to go a few miles the following day for it to only be worse than ever. jeese.

Last night I took the carb off and took it to bits as much as I could, looking at various diagrams. Found perished rubber bits in the mixture screw…foolishly thought that was the problem solved. I've cleaned the whole thing with carb cleaner, using it to blow out everything. Tried it tonight and seemed to run better, 'tuned'* a bit…then took for a spin and was bogging down again. Sounds really low under acceleration if that makes sense. I'm pretty happy the exhaust is tight at this point

*first time I have tuned a carb… started with the mixture screw fully in and two full rotations back, let it heat up and moved until it ran smooth.

I'm just confused as to why it appeared to be running badly from the leaky manifold gasket, now that's okay a fuelling issue seems to be there.


So it has had -

new filler neck
cleaned the in-tank pick up out
cleaned the carb (filthy)
had ignition leads about 3000 miles ago if not less
Very new coil
running electronic ignition
rotor arm and cap very recent
webber 34 ich about 4 years old
all rubber fuel pipes replaced 5 years ago
carb heating pipe removed

My next thing to do is to blow out the rigid fuel lines and replace the in line fuel filter…but that has definitely been dirtier in the past. Maybe do the Y splitter too.

Could there be junk in the fuel pump? That's 3 years old.


Any help much appreciated…


 

Are you sure that the remains from the o-ring have been fully cleared out? I had a major idling issue which was a result of the mixture screw oring going, i used compressed air and also a trick where you keep the engine revs high and stick your hand over the car breifly which sucks through anything that is trapped within the carb and seamed to clear it out really well.

Although that doesnt sound like it is a solution to your issue… also possibly if you have been usign a lot of carb cleaner, it can perish things (the oring for example) so possibly a rebuild kit could help? but i would wait till someone else gives better advice on what to do  
Good luck!  
Matt