3T engine problems

[stidnam]

Hi

I have been having issues with my TA22 and was after some help. This is a bit of an essay but hopefully someone can provide some pointers.

Here is the history of issues that I've had with it. I put a 3t in it a bit over a year ago and the first problem a few months later was that it wouldn't idle without stalling below 1500 rpm and it just died in traffic before I could get it looked at. This was traced to being that the points were fubar and so these and the condenser were replaced and points gap and dwell angle were set by a workshop.

It then ran fine for a number of months and then it started to run real rough down low and so I took it to a workshop to get it looked at. They replaced the ignition leads, plugs, dissy cap and rotor button. The points and dwell angle were not touched. This worked great for a few weeks and then coming home from Newcastle one night the car just started to loose power to the point where it would come to a halt if I kept going. I stopped and jiggled the leads a bit and started it up again and seemed fine but a few km's down the road it did it again. This happened 5 - 6 times then just went away. I replaced the iginiton coil as it seemed ignition related and everything else had been replaced not to long before this.

This worked for a few weeks and then I had the current problems with starting my car. The symptoms are that it will start fine of a morning when it is cold but after driving it for a while and then stopping say for fuel at the servo or stopping at the shops where it is only a few minutes before you try to start it again it is a real struggle to start it. It will crank fine but does not kick over. Have tried ventilating out the carbie if it was flooded but didn't seem to work. After 20 mins of waiting and about 6 - 10 tries of starting it it will finally struggle back to life where it will run ok but does miss sometimes.

The plugs appear fine with a consistent grey colour on each tip and are not fouled so I'm thinking it is either a points/dwell problem again or a heat related problem with something. Now I can get the points gap and dwell checked and set again but don't want to spend the cash if I don't have to.

- The carbie has not been tuned at all since I bought the engine (1+ years) and I can't say how long before I bought it that it was tuned. Will getting it tuned help / fix my current starting issues?
- The plugs have not been checked for correct gap as I'm just using what gap they had out of the box as I have no feeler gauges

So any suggestions as what to check or try?

[jezza323]

have you got the correct heat range plugs in?

hot starting issues are often a fuel problem, and it sounds like youve pretty much got all new ignition components in there anyways...so id be getting the carby looked at

[Rodger]

Have you retained the original air cleaner box and its heat pipe that runs down to the exhaust manifold?

I reckon the key word here is cold.

Regards

Rodger

[stidnam]

Will check that I have the correct plugs tonight as I used what the parts guy looked up in his manual.

I have the original air cleaner unit & carby but do not have the stove pipe that is part of the original exhaust manifold connected as I have extractors and there is no provision for this.

The stove pipe has not been connected ever since I put in the engine in as I snapped off the stove pipe from the 2t exhaust manifold. I am now running the extractors which were put on 6 months + ago. There doesn't appear to be any pipes that are not connected.

Basically there have been no changes to this engine since it got put in other than the extractors and the mentioned parts that were replaced. It has run fine all other times.

[Rodger]

So Stidnam,

You are saying that it runs fine when the weather is warm?

Can you possibly do a couple of driving tests for me?

On a cold morning start the car as normal, drive it until it stops, perhaps a long run at 100k on the highway or as you have repoted.

When it starts to die, notice if you need to push more throttle until it simply stops.

Pull over off the road, quickly remove the filter top and look into the carby barels with a torch and tell me what you see.

Then do nothing for around five minutes.

Restart the car and see if it goes.

Do it all again on a cold night and report the findings.

I have a theroy that needs to be tested out and then I can help if it is what I suspect. Basically I have had problems with cold weather in the past when running pod filters on a 2T and a 2T-B set up. You may have the same problem.

Entertain me.

Thanks

Regards

Rodger

[stidnam]

ok I have only once had the problem where the car ground to a halt or would have if I had kept going. It doesn't seem to be doing it now after the coil was replaced but then again I have not driven a longish distance like sydney to newcastle since just to and from work which is about 15km.

Exact details of current not starting prob are.

I drove to pickies on last sunday not a drama and spent almost whole day wrestling out parts. Car was left for say 6 hours then I started it and drove to hungry jacks approx 5km. Was there for 15min and when I went to start it again just wouldn't go. Tried to roll start it to no avail as thought that might help. Spent 15-20 min trying to start ie try to start then leave for 3 mins and try again. I finally got it started and drove home

I drove to work on monday and home no issues. Car was not started for about 8hrs from when I got to work and when I went home without stopping.

Tuesday was the same as monday

Wednesday got to work fine but went out to lunch. distance travelled approx 1km and car had not fully warmed up. Was there for 30 - 40 min and when I went to start it again it did the same thing as sunday. Finally got it started after a lot of effort. When it did start it took a few tries where it would catch a bit but not start. When it did start it wasn't smooth for a few revs.

Drove to work and parked. Car started fine when I went home but I had to stop at the servo on the way home. The car was fully warmed up by this time. Was at servo for 5-10 min and it wouldn't start again. Tried the tricks I had used before ie jiggling leads blowing out carby, which did nothing. finally got it going about 25 min later and drove home.

Was fed up with it so rode the motorbike yesterday and today to work but I tried it tonite and it started fine and went for a drive and all seemed ok. I parked it and left it for 10 mins and tried to start it and it was fine.

So I am stumped as it doesn't always do it and runs good once started although I noticed the idle fluctuating between 500rpm and 1000rpm just now as I let it idle.

Will do some more test runs over the weekend to see if does it again but as I can't rely on it now I am worried to take it to work and would like to get to the bottom of the problem.

[TC1600]

Sounds to me like it is ignition related, but the best way to tell is, when it won't start, remove a lead from a spark plug, pull the boot back so that the metal end is exposed, then hold the end about 1cm from a bare metal part on the engine and get someone to crank the engine. If the ignition side is ok you should be able to see a spark jump the gap.

Have you fitted the right coil for the car? If you fit a coil that is supposed to use an external ballast resistor, without the resistor, it can burn out the coil fairly quickly, giving an open circuit which will initially show up when hot, and gradually get worse until it won't run at all.

[stidnam]

yeah I got the coil for the external ballast resistor. Maybe the resister is faulty, will dig out the factory workshop manual and see if I can find out how to check the resister.

Good point about testing leads to block will have to grab random person next time it does it.