refuses to idle!

[Rubce]

Hi All

With the weather being so glorious today we decided to have a day trip to Llandudno with the outward run being cross country via Wrexham, Ruthin and Denbigh. However, the plan to use the Stag did not come to fruition

Usually our stag is a dream to start. However, last Saturday it was a git which I put this down to it having been un-used in the garage for 2 weeks. This morning the same thing happened but slightly worse. Anyway, after persuading(!) her out of the garage we loaded up and set off. Well, she broke down three times in the first mile. Each time we came to a junction and the revs dropped she simply died. With the choke out or the revs were up she seemed to run okay. We limped home and went off on our day trip in the trusty Nissan and left the Stag to sulk back in her garage.

To-date since I completed her resto last Christmas she has not yet failed to get me home. During that time she has broken down 3 times at the side of the road. The first two were simple electrical faults which I was able to fix within 5 minutes, Today's incident was the closest yet to having a failure and destroying that good track record.

Gresley has kindly suggested it may be a diaphragm or a sticking air valve. I doubt its the diaphragms as the dash pots retain their oil. I suspect that its a problem with just one carb as that would explain her running with revs but not on idle. The fuel pump is an electronic type and ticking away happily. If it is a sticking air valve is it likely a sharp tap on the carb and a blast of carb cleaner do the trick or is it a case of taking the damn things apart?

Any further suggestions on what to check for tomorrow morning?

Thanks in anticipation.

Bruce

[Ian Durrant]

Hi All
Gresley has kindly suggested it may be a diaphragm or a sticking air valve. I doubt its the diaphragms as the dash pots retain their oil.

Hi Bruce,
The diaphragm being split would not affect the dashpot oil, as this is retained by an o-ring on the needle adjuster. However he could be right that a split diaphragm would cause poor starting and idling, but there are a stack load of other possible issues that would cause similar symptoms too!

kind regards
Ian

[Stagdad]

I had those sympoms when one of the breather pipes came off and that carb went too lean .

Cheers Steve

[StagnJag]

Sounds like it might be an air leak to me. As Steve suggested, check your breather pipes and make sure the oil filler cap is sealing ok.

Rgds

Dave

[redstag]

Check your carb linkages to make sure both carbs are actually working.

I had a similar problem and drove all the way back from France on one carb before finding out what was wrong.

Pete

[Rubce]

Hi Guys

Thanks for all your suggestions. The linkages, air hoses and diaphragms were all okay. So I gave the whole lot a good clean with some carb cleaner and that seems to have done the trick

Whilst investigating the situation this morning I took a look inside the distributor cap and discovered that the centre spindle had worn its hole elongated by about 3mm and was wobbling around. So a new cap and rotor have also been fitted.

Regards

Bruce