20 replies to this topic

[Ethel]

4 seconds does sound a bit long for an ignition fault. You could splash a bit of fuel in the carb throat, to counter fuel starvation, as a test.

Remove the dashpot and piston (be careful with the spring and have somewhere you can sit the piston upright to avoid bashing the needle) or spilling the damper oil. Then blow down the carb vent pipe on look for petrol emerging from the jet to confirm vent & jet aren't blocked. If that's good, pull the fuel hose from the carb, stick it in a can to catch the fuel and crank the engine for a few seconds to see that some is actually being pumped.

[Cooperman]

Sounds like the condenser to me, if it has one. I fitted a new one just over a year ago and that was dodgy as well.

[Ethel]

How would a condenser fail & recover? I can only imagine it doing that by overheating. Unless it cuts out when the rpm's raised to a point where the dwell is too short to reenergise the coil?

[unfixable_mini]

4 seconds does sound a bit long for an ignition fault. You could splash a bit of fuel in the carb throat, to counter fuel starvation, as a test.

Remove the dashpot and piston (be careful with the spring and have somewhere you can sit the piston upright to avoid bashing the needle) or spilling the damper oil. Then blow down the carb vent pipe on look for petrol emerging from the jet to confirm vent & jet aren't blocked. If that's good, pull the fuel hose from the carb, stick it in a can to catch the fuel and crank the engine for a few seconds to see that some is actually being pumped.

 

I'll give this a try tomorrow. Is the carb throat the air intake bit? Where the air filter goes? I put fuel directly down there? The carb vent pipe. Is that the bit where the black hose connects to? and I have no idea what the jet is. Sorry about this, I was hoping it wouldn't be a carb issue, will take a look at the manual.

[unfixable_mini]

4 seconds does sound a bit long for an ignition fault. You could splash a bit of fuel in the carb throat, to counter fuel starvation, as a test.

Remove the dashpot and piston (be careful with the spring and have somewhere you can sit the piston upright to avoid bashing the needle) or spilling the damper oil. Then blow down the carb vent pipe on look for petrol emerging from the jet to confirm vent & jet aren't blocked. If that's good, pull the fuel hose from the carb, stick it in a can to catch the fuel and crank the engine for a few seconds to see that some is actually being pumped.

 

It worked! I splashed fuel down the carb throat and the engine started and ran fine after a couple of goes. It seems to loose power when I accelerate so I am guessing some sediment may be blocking the jet. At least I know what the problem is now.

 

Appreciate all the help from everyone.

[Ethel]

Pleased you got somewhere with it.

It won't totally rule out an ignition fault. Fuel & ignition are intimately related altering one can affect the other. That's why you should always start with the ignition - it can be tested against specification with a timing light etc.