Poor idle

Vacuum leak?  Or maybe a problem with fuel supply

Checked for leaks, and fuel pressure and volume good.

What carb is on it?

 

Battery and alternator good?

Is it running a Pertronics ignition?

I might also suspect the coil.

On either, once they start to get warm from operation, sometimes they screw up or open up the windings in the case of the coil.

I changed the coil. Points and condenser dist. Bat. and generator seem OK.

The carb is a stock solex 30/31 pict.

It seems to me that an air leak makes sense. I checked the old fashioned way 

by squirting starter fluid around the joints. Is there a better way?

That's a pretty good way to check for leaks. 

1. Adjust the valves

2. Set timming (if you can get it to run) and see if the dist is advancing or stuck

3. Make sure the electric shut off switch on the carb is good and or connected to the pos side of the coil.

4. Adjust the mix screew and idle on the carb

5. Make sure the choke is opening up and that the heater element is connected and in good shape. 

6. check back with us.

Did all those things. The only way I can get it to idle is turning the idle screw on 

the side of the carb almost al the way out to the fastest idle. Then using the choke

adj.screw turn it in until it hits the choke cam, and it seems to keep it idling.

Usually you only need to use the screw in the side of the carb to adj. the idle.

Not much to do with these carbs. This may have two adjustment screws on the left side. One is mixture and other is air. Sometimes you need to screw the large screw in until it dies or runs rough and then back it out until it smooths out and go another 1/2 turn or so. Also is your choke adjusted properly?    Are the brass tubes for the vacuum lines capped off. Are you using a 009 or stock vacuum advance distributor????

009 dist.

The upper screw, the big one , wants to be almost all the way out. I've never

had that happen before.

All tubes are sealed, chokes good. It's time to try to forget about it, and start fresh in the morning.

Anthony is on he right path.  Set the timing on the 009 to about 8btc.  And double check that the elec shut off is really working.  

Run the big idle screw in all the way and turn it out 3 turns.  Run the small screw (mixture adjustment) below the big brass idle screw in all the way and run that one out 3 turns.  See if it will idle.  Then you have to adjust both as needed.

If you can, post a pic of the carb so we can see the set up.  Sometimes a second pair of eyes can really help out.

I tried the conventional way of tuning the carb. and it wouldn't idle. The only way

I got any idle was to unscrew the big screw way out, and back out the mixture screw

to richen up the carb. Besides the bad idle, it's not running that good. At first I thought it was a clogged idle jet. After checking that, it felt like a weak accelerated pump.

I checked the stroke and volume, and added a little extra gas to see what it would do.

The engine seems to use up the acc. pump squirt, and then it bogs for a bit and 

recovers and accelerates. If I hadn't switched carbs I would swear it needed a carb.

Did the pics come through?

no pics.  What do you know about the motor?  If it has a perf cam you might need to bump up the idle yet size. 

Did the pics come through?

68 stock everything.  I can't seem to send the pics, I'm sure it's the stock carb.

I'm going to try a bigger idle jet.

Are the valves adjusted properly?

reading your posts it appears to be a vacuum leak, or the choke is not adjusted correctly or operating properly.   Is the air cleaner on while your working in it? 

Are the vacuum ports on the carb and manifold capped off? Is this a single or dual port? Check the booths on the dual port manifold.k

check to see if the manifold is tight at the head

You're just chasing your tail on this one.

If it were mine, I would get a carb rebuild kit and rebuild it.  That'll take, what?  About an Hour?  Time well spent.

While you've got it apart, make sure you blow out all of the passages with either compressed air or with carb cleaner through a pinpoint tube, especially the passage behind the mixture screw and behind the jet, because it sounds like a clogged passage somewhere (especially the "turning the screw all the way out" part).  While putting it back together, you can make sure that the float and accelerator pump are adjusted properly and you'll end up with a much better situation.

Its hard to tell without having the car in front, but if you changed carbs and you are having the same issue, I would go to check the Dist.  If you have another Dist around swap it out to see if there is any change. Really double check there is no vacuum leaks.  There is a vacuum port on one of the manifold end castings in some cases as well as on some manifold below the carb.  End casting to manifold boots can be loos, or end casting to head might be bad gasket or loose.  

Where are you located?  Maybe some is close by that can put a second pair of eye on it for you.  I've been there.  Looking for an issue and my buddy shows up and points out that I don't have the defunctifier gigamathing hooked up. 

 

The dist. might be a good idea. I had already put points an cond. in it. The advance

is good. If I remember right, I once had a bad cond. do something weird.

I'm going to change the points and cond. and see what happens.

If you rebuild the carbs keep a sharp eye out for flying brass thingies.

> On Jan 7, 2016, at 11:47 AM, SpeedsterOwners.com <**************> wrote:
>

Oh, in that case check timing first.  Set it at 8btc.  Low timing will cause your issue.  As it is a 009, setting the idle up as you are doing will advance the timing and it runs. 

Pics

I checked all the things I installed in the dist. Reset the timing to about 10 degrees.

Adj. the carb to a slightly higher idle, got it running decent, and letting it go.

I've already spent a whole day messing around with this thing. I'm going to 

have the car brought back in the spring, and I'll try another shot at it. Thanks

for all the help.

Does it just die? Or stumble a bunch? Doubt it will make a difference in this case, but do you have the little spring in the distributor gear?  I had erratic idle on one of my motors without that sucker.

Just throwing this out there...

Ted

It stumbles then dies. I didn't think of the spring.

Note on the pic: You have the fuel filter post fuel pump and is under pressure and over the dist wires.  I personally don't but the fuel filters in the engine compartment I keep them just as it comes out of the frame horn behind the engine.   I also like to put one under the gas tank for added filtering. 

A lot of bugs burn to the ground when that filter splits or leaks on the dist. 

My 2 cents. 

 

Best to always run a twisted wire around the fuel hose clamp to a screw on the carb just in case the brass nipple decides to pull out.... I've seen this way too often.

Both good tips. I don't usually put the fuel filter there, but it was there when 

the car showed up, and I didn't think about moving it. Also, I've also seen

those nipples pull out. The car had me so baffled, I missed a lot of good stuff.

What fun I had putting those Jegs 8mm wires on my speedster. It was a lot of 

fun getting them around the carb on the right side of the motor.

Fun job putting those Jegs wires around the right hand 44IDF's