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First of all, I feel self conscious wading into the rarefied water of those of you who treat their healeys with more respect. My 58 BN6 has been in my garage for 30+ years, and has not had any work done since the half a$$ restoration I did when I bought her in college. Now we only get out maybe once or twice/year. Despite the neglect, though, she has always been reliable(and fun).
Today was an exception. She started easily, purred at idle, revved freely and sounded ready to go. Once on the road, it accelerated nicely through first and second gear, but about mid-way through the range on third gear....sputter sputter...cough cough... slow to a crawl...trying desperately to keep the engine running while I look for a place to turn around. I was able to limp back to the house. Once there, the idle smoothed out again and sounded fine again.
After a brief inspection under the hood, I noticed one problem that may or may not have been related. The wire running down to firewall that carries power to the fuel pump showed a bit of exposed copper and the insulation crumbled on touch. Checking under the car, I found the same condition for the length of the wire, so I ran a new length of wire all the way from the fuse block to the fuel pump. My thinking was that maybe the wire had been damaged under the car and had started to short to the frame leading to high current/high temp/melting wire. However, my next attempt to enjoy Sunday afternoon had the exact same result. (Ran fine at idle, revved freely without a load, drove through 1st and 2nd but half way through 3rd started sputtering, backfiring (exhaust and in the carbs), stalled, but once limped back to the house the idle returned back to normal)
I am now thinking that the fuel pump itself may be the culprit for the cooked wire. It is not the original SU. It is a small cube shaped electric pump obtained from an auto parts store back in 1984. It sounds like it is running correctly and the wire is not noticeably hot, but .....
This is the limit of my troubleshooting ability for today. I was hoping someone more in-touch with their inner "beast" could save me some time by pointing me in the right direction. It would be much appreciated
Rich
Today was an exception. She started easily, purred at idle, revved freely and sounded ready to go. Once on the road, it accelerated nicely through first and second gear, but about mid-way through the range on third gear....sputter sputter...cough cough... slow to a crawl...trying desperately to keep the engine running while I look for a place to turn around. I was able to limp back to the house. Once there, the idle smoothed out again and sounded fine again.
After a brief inspection under the hood, I noticed one problem that may or may not have been related. The wire running down to firewall that carries power to the fuel pump showed a bit of exposed copper and the insulation crumbled on touch. Checking under the car, I found the same condition for the length of the wire, so I ran a new length of wire all the way from the fuse block to the fuel pump. My thinking was that maybe the wire had been damaged under the car and had started to short to the frame leading to high current/high temp/melting wire. However, my next attempt to enjoy Sunday afternoon had the exact same result. (Ran fine at idle, revved freely without a load, drove through 1st and 2nd but half way through 3rd started sputtering, backfiring (exhaust and in the carbs), stalled, but once limped back to the house the idle returned back to normal)
I am now thinking that the fuel pump itself may be the culprit for the cooked wire. It is not the original SU. It is a small cube shaped electric pump obtained from an auto parts store back in 1984. It sounds like it is running correctly and the wire is not noticeably hot, but .....
This is the limit of my troubleshooting ability for today. I was hoping someone more in-touch with their inner "beast" could save me some time by pointing me in the right direction. It would be much appreciated
Rich
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