XR3 warm start issue resolved

[SambaS]

The Ford will not start without a LOT of carry on. Once going it usually starts on one then two then all cylinders.

 

between 0 and 2000 RPM it misses a lot.

 

over 2000 rpm it is perfect.

 

if you then turn it off it is even more difficult to start.

 

Eventually it just pops and bangs from the carb. and wont start.

 

I had a video but can only upload on my phone, and 64Mb takes AGES.

 

I had a small engine fire in Jan... the petrol pipe came off the filter, petrol accumulated in the lip of the rocker cover, and subsequently burned off. Lucky me still having an XR3 eh? Well the only visible damage was the paint on the rocker cover, no damage to bonnet or any fuel lines etc.

 

Once started the car will idle and I drove it round the carpark, to my garage to put air in the tyre, turned it off whilst doing so and that was the last time it ran today.

 

I was intending taking it up the road, I thought it may just need a run out.

[ashmicro]

Is it possible your small fire has singed one or more of your plug leads, and it/they are arcing off the camshaft cover? Try getting someone to crank it over when it's dark, and you have a look under the bonnet.

[SambaS]

Good idea but the plug leads are out of the range of the fire. they are all okay. Now it just turns over and over and over

[SambaS]

Today is a bad day for me. I've been thinking is any of this worthwhile, I enjoyed the car for 3 years now it needs 2, or 3 thousand spending on it really. The mood I'm in I'd get rid of all 4 car and start again.

[Cavcraft]

Autochoke?

[red5]

What distributor does it have on it? Motorcraft or Bosch? (Brown cap or blue?)

 

Check the little black box on the distributor - unscrew it, clean contact and refit.

 

Sam

[SambaS]

Tried that, no luck. It's got a black cap with silver contacts inside of it - not the usual copper ones. I already had this off and cleaned everything up. I just don't understand why it started ran fine then when I turned if off got worse and worse until it wouldn't even start.

[SambaS]

[SambaS]

Should i try a new ignition module?

[red5]

I would. Checked everything else? Coil/leads etc etc? Fuel?

[Station]

Check the rotor arm first, it sounds very much like an ignition component out.

[SambaS]

So news..... I went up the scrapyard and got a replacement ignition module. Once fitted the car fired straight up. I turned it off, and with a little press of the go pedal it went. I turned it off and repeated a few times. Happy that it was fixed I drove to the garage to put some air in the tyres, about 1.5 miles away. It performed perfectly the whole way. I was happy. I turned it off pumped the tyres up and had a chat to a mate about the car, who was getting fuel about how it has been off the road 3 months and now is fixed and how HAPPY I was. I laughed and said watch it not go..........

 

The car just turned over and over before a huge bang out of the carb.

 

Repeat and same thing until the battery finally died. It is still up there now.

[SambaS]

Could the new Bosch Super 4 plugs I put in be causing this? It felt like a new car after fitting them but has been problematic since

[red5]

Non start when hot was usuallly a sign of the module failing. Is the 'new' one right? or a duff one? Try it now it's cooled down?

[The Moog]

All my saabs have only liked NGK plugs. I once fitted the 4 electrode ones and it caused it to run terribly. Put old ones back in and it was fine but it didnt cause the non starting.

 

Does it have a hall sensor or something like that?

[Bren]

I remember my mate had an x reg mk 3 (not an xr3), it was a base 1.3 that was a bastard to start and felt like it was misfiring. He spent a fortune on it - leads, dizzy etc.

 

A brand new carb sorted it - it was like a different car.

[ashmicro]

Can't see it being the plugs TBH, the old CVH will run on nearly any old plug (mine certainly did!). For the record, the Motorcraft plug for that is the AGPR22C equiv. to Bosch FR5DC or the good old NGK BCPR6ES. We used to flog thousands of these a month when I was at East Antrim Motor Factors.

[SambaS]

I'll have to try it tomorrow. I abandoned it at the petrol station

Non start when hot was usuallly a sign of the module failing. Is the 'new' one right? or a duff one? Try it now it's cooled down?

[Guest Tony Hayers]

As you have changed the module the silicone heat dissapating grease between the dizzy and the module has gone so thats not going to help. You can see the remainder of the old residue on the picture you posted up

 

Smear some vasaline on it as a tempoary measure to see if this improves things* If so get down to Maplins and buy the speial stuff only a couple of quid for a tube of it.

 

*Happened to us with the Orion, fine when cold but a bastard once its warmed up.

[jakebullet]

Sounds like the timing is out if it's spitting back thru the carb. Can you borrow a timing light?

[Pete-M]

Sounds like the timing is out if it's spitting back thru the carb. Can you borrow a timing light?

 

That'd be my guess too, although the ignition modules Ford used in the early '80s were utter bollocks. I've lost count of the number of those I've had pack up on me.

[retrogeezer]

Definitely need to get some thermal paste between the module and dizzy body. I had a slight misfire on my bluebird and traced it to a small crack in the rotor arm, it it took a while to find as the new cap I bought and fitted also had a hairline crack in it!

[SambaS]

Fired straight up this morning and got me home without skipping a beat!

[SambaS]

At least it's being consistant now. Wont start

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

It could be the module - but it could just as likely be a broken coil winding in the distributor that opens up as it heats up, and closes again as it cools down. Did lots and lots and lots of these in the eighties. The module was the first port of call and if that didn't fix it, a new distributor. UK built cars had the blue or black cap units and German ones had the brown cap Bosch unit which never went wrong. Well, I never changed one. The blue cap ones were Lucas rubbish and the black cap ones were Motorcraft's own - it's been 25 years since I changed one. But this has all the hallmarks of a faulty distributor.

 

This is what you need - take the bull by the horns!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-FIESTA-X ... 6917436337

 

The XR3 didn't have the Ford VV carburettor but some weird Weber twin choke.

[meggersdog]

So after leaving it to go cold the car starts and runs fine.Then when the coil gets hot it won't start.Have you checked the spark from the coil ?

Reading your original post about the car running fine above 2000rmp would sort of rule out the coil does sound like a timing issue though.

I see a vacuum unit on the side of the distributor, due to a lack of use could the advance and retard mechanism be seized and this is causing the problem ?

You might just be unlucky that the second hand module you fitted is also borked.

[SambaS]

The missfire and ropey running I put down to it not having been started for 4 weeks. Just won't run when warm. My car should be a German built one, it says on the V5 something about being from overseas. But no brown cap. It has a black one. 30 years old she is tho, quite possible it has been changed, the distributor

[retrogeezer]

It could be the module - but it could just as likely be a broken coil winding in the distributor that opens up as it heats up, and closes again as it cools down. Did lots and lots and lots of these in the eighties. The module was the first port of call and if that didn't fix it, a new distributor. UK built cars had the blue or black cap units and German ones had the brown cap Bosch unit which never went wrong. Well, I never changed one. The blue cap ones were Lucas rubbish and the black cap ones were Motorcraft's own - it's been 25 years since I changed one. But this has all the hallmarks of a faulty distributor.

 

This is what you need - take the bull by the horns!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-FIESTA-X ... 6917436337

 

The XR3 didn't have the Ford VV carburettor but some weird Weber twin choke.

 

 

My 84 Ghia is definitely a German built car and has a blue cap dizzy on it.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

It could be the module - but it could just as likely be a broken coil winding in the distributor that opens up as it heats up, and closes again as it cools down. Did lots and lots and lots of these in the eighties. The module was the first port of call and if that didn't fix it, a new distributor. UK built cars had the blue or black cap units and German ones had the brown cap Bosch unit which never went wrong. Well, I never changed one. The blue cap ones were Lucas rubbish and the black cap ones were Motorcraft's own - it's been 25 years since I changed one. But this has all the hallmarks of a faulty distributor.

 

This is what you need - take the bull by the horns!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-FIESTA-X ... 6917436337

 

The XR3 didn't have the Ford VV carburettor but some weird Weber twin choke.

 

 

My 84 Ghia is definitely a German built car and has a blue cap dizzy on it.

 

 

Could have had another distributor - but all CVH engines were built at Bridgend and shipped out so I could be wrong on that one. The German ones have Ford Werke Aktiengesellschaft on the VIN plate. Brown cap Bosch units were rare, the blue ones the most common.

[SambaS]

I've been pilfering bits off this: It has new looking everything. It's a 1.4 but same distributor and the rest. Manual choke tho. I'm not going for a manual choke mod. No way!