Car fixage by Committee: shiters drink tea, suck teeth, and fook about with KILLY ELECTRIC DEATH. NOW with Bonus informed* speculation

[Guest Breadvan72]

No Triumph Fest for me tomorrow.  The car is still off its feed.  My usual mobile mech is hors de combat and likely to remain so for some time.  The garage in my village does not like old cars.  The nearest garage that likes old cars is eight miles away.  I might have to limp the car over there, or get it towed behind the Landy.   Hey ho.  Many thanks to PB and Beko, who are top blerks. 

[Skizzer]

 

Just so I'm clear, you bought two cars last week and this week they're both out of action.  The potential solutions for this are 1. a leaf sprung Land Rover that's held together with gaffer tape, and 2. maybe buying a Rover SD1 for reliable* daily use.

 

Excellent!

 

 

Edit:  This isn't sarcasm, I really do think that's excellent.  Spirit of Autoshite, right there.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Pretty  much, although the Lotus is now  working again, but is in a shed fifty miles away.  So, yeah.

 

Note to self: do not sell (relatively) reliable (I shit you not) Alfa 156.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Will go out for dinner at local gastropub, scenic drive there in Mrs BV's 14 year old Pug 206 CC, with the top down, so not all is lost.

[purplebargeken]

Brilliant day fettling old shite and meeting jolly AS folk.

 

As already mentioned the following occurred:

 

Yellow Sprint is having running problems as follows:

She struggles to maintain a reasonable idle when cold. Backfiring/spluttering at times when accelerator used. Loss of power/reduced speed+/hesitation.

We replaced the following items: plugs. The old ones were quite sooty. We also replaced various fuel hoses and so on as there were small leaks here and there. The battery leads were loose, one had a bolt missing. This has been rectified. The

There is an electric fan fitted and it has some kind of electronic ignition module fitted (unsure of the make).

 

We have fitted a new rotor arm and a couple of HT leads, we were hindered as two of the HT securing lead screws snapped in situ, so we could not replace all of the leads. I topped up the dashpot reservoirs and cleaned out both of the carb float chambers, there was a small amount of crud in there but nothing major. It could do with having the float chamber gaskets renewed and one is actually missing.
 

I am of the belief that this might be a mixture of carb and timing issues, both of which are out of my comfort zone.

 

On the plus side I had a go in the Alfalfa (a first for me) which is bloody ace and hopefully persuaded BV to retain the car instead of selling it for feck all. His Landie is ace, I love these things and have lustful wantage feelings for this particular example. The engine on this Landie was lovely, it quickly settled into a gentle and almost perfect tickover and seemed to run like a Swiss watch. It is wonderfully tatty in a lovely sort of way.

 

The journey back was totally uneventful but the journey in was misery due to crap traffic on the North Circ.

 

All in all a good day but frustrating that the work we did had little real benefit to the Dolly (which is lovely by the way and would take feck all to make it into a stunner of more stunningness.

 

Bonus item: the landlord of the local pub has what appears to be a tidy K10 Micra for sale. No deals obtained but I am sure BV could look into this if anyone has lustings. 

[beko1987]

It sounded like it idled really nicely at the end but ive never heard one idle before so possibly not the best opinion.

 

The 2 front plugs were bastard tight, not been out in a long while I dont think.

 

Dolly looked amazeballs with the roof open too!

 

Papped this from the backup car behind on the shakedown test afterwards...

 

[purplebargeken]

Ha, forgot to add that as I was about to pull away from BV's place he cautioned me about the tyranny of Audi drivers approaching at speed. I was just letting the clutch up when an Audi 4x4 comes lurching around the corner. 

 

How we laughed.

 

The Alfalfa was a bloody hoot to drive - thanks for the experience mate.

[Guest Breadvan72]

It was a fun day, and, even though this particular skirmish in the endless war of humankind against the motor car, its agents, minions, and familiars ended in a strategic withdrawal by the forces of bloke, leaving the enemy in (temporary) possession of the field of combat, the struggle continues.

 

My Landy is scabby, but does indeed have a very smooth Rover P4 stylee engine, and the Alfa really isn't a bad old shed.  Thanks again to Beko and PB.

[purplebargeken]

Have you seen the PM about the bits mate?

[Guest Breadvan72]

Yes, many thanks, just replying.  Was oot at dinner.  Just got back with flies in teeth thanks to evening rural convertible driveage.

[Albert Ross]

P4 60 or 80 unit?

[Guest Breadvan72]

It's not actually from a P4.  It's the original engine, AFAIK,  which is derived from the P4 unit, IIRC.  A Series 3 when new would have had about 72 BHP.

[purplebargeken]

It looks original to be honest. It runs beautifully

[Junkman]

I still think it's the valve clearance needing adjustage.

[derskine]

Have a look under the rocker cover, I had a similar problem on a petrol Renault 18, would only run on 3 cylinders and couldn't work out why.

Took that off and found an inlet pushrod had fallen out!

[purplebargeken]

Just heard from a knowledgeable Dolomite guru that it sounds (from my crap description) like a blocked jet on one carb.

 

Hopefully the garage folk will be able to restore superb Dolomite Sprint happiness

[Guest Breadvan72]

Speculation mucho fun, especially when coming at eighth hand from people who haven't seen or heard the car, but I will report back after a professional (old) car fixulator has looked at the jalope.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Next suggestion:-

 

 

[purplebargeken]

Damn, why didn't we see that on the day, die alien scum die. It's always the bloody aliens.

 

My neighbours cousins 2nd wife has a daughter who has a boyfriend who knew someone who had a car older than the i10 once. He reckons it might be a weird time/space anomoly. I see how it could be linked tbh.

[castros_bro]

Stick an exhaust gas analyser probe up its exhaust and a timing light on its timing  they'll show you where it's at man!! 

 

Obviously this expert* comment is of no use if you don't have them or are off your head on Absinth.

[purplebargeken]

analyser probe.......................... that's alien technology! 

[michael1703]

Does it have HIF carbs?

 

They are a bit humpy compared to the HS series.

 

Do the carbs have flat bottoms or a big brass nut and spring underneath?

[purplebargeken]

Ah, sorry. My bad that's anal probe.

 

Twin SU's mon ami. With standard air filtration device.

[Skizzer]

Now, if he had a gas analyser and a timing strobe, do we really think the Breadman would have been asking for random blokes off the internet to come round with a plug spanner?

 

I will report back after a professional (old) car fixulator has looked at the jalope.

 

Good plan.

 

Patience, shiters, patience.

[michael1703]

Ah, sorry. My bad that's anal probe.

 

Twin SU's mon ami. With standard air filtration device.

 

HIF or HS?

[purplebargeken]

We tried to fix it. Honest! 

 

I dream of a gas analyser and my timing light has been either taken hostage by Dafs or is somewhere in the garage. Just wish I had the confidence to use the bugger when I eventually find it. 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Deploy Plan Absinthe!

[purplebargeken]

Not sure, will say on the wee tab on the float bowl poss? Poss waxstat jobbies but I'll be buggered if I can recall, soz. 

 

Absinthe - insanity juice 

[michael1703]

Ahh, they are HS if you can see the floatbowls, HIF are shitbags, HS are a piece of piss.

 

Take the dash pots off, take the pistons out, look down at the jet, wind the nut until the jet is level with the bridge and then turn the nut two turns out and then youve got a starting point for tweakage.

 

Could be punctured floats or leaky float valves also.

[purplebargeken]

The floats looked ok but I did not have my 'nearby things' specs with me. The floats and valves are not pricey from RB if needed. 

 

I am very hopeful that the classic garage folk can sort it ASAP as the Dolly deserves to be driven