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regularman

regularman

Yoda
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Drove my midget to work at 0500 and it was cold on the ears. Down the interstate and then down the highway and just as I ma getting near work, I feel the engine hunch and die away and then come back. Then its all crazy and I pull the choke out and it smooths out some and I manage to get to work and into a parking space. Its still dark and I think to myself I will go out and check it during a lunch break or whatever. All that morning I think it over and I think it must be that filter in the DGV stopped up and starving the carb again. I go out during lunch and clean the filter and it has some it it but not that bad. I try to start it and it will only barely run with the choke on. I finally take the top off the carb in the parking lot and check it over and it all looks ok. Whew, I put it back together and still barely it will run. I just quit and think things through, upset now. I decide to check fuel pump, take the line loose and turn the switch on, plenty of fuel and pressure. Then I just look down the carb and work the throttle. The force pump is shooting out gas, I know it is getting gas, then what the heck! I start it and it runs like hades and then quits and I cannot restart. Lunch break is over, no food and no running midget :madder: I think it over for the rest of the day. It rains but not hard with just the tonneau on but not hard so I don't put the top up (which I normally would have done but still upset). After work I decide to check the basics. Clean the points and condenser. I sand clean and do all that and then check spark, nothing. I do it all again and still nothing. Whew. I get my meter out and the wiring diagram in the manual and check the coil for +12 when switch is on, nothing. I check wiring connectors under the dash, look good. I check fuse that feeds coil, looks and checks fine. Finally I pull on the + wore going into the coil and find the wire is broken but still up under the sleeve of the terminal. All the strands of the wire had broken and it was making intermittent contact. I stripped this wire and put on a new terminal and it fired right up and I then had to put the carb idle mixture screw back where I had fiddled with it. Nothing wrong with the carb at all, but somehow pulling the choke out and having a richer mixture allowed it to run with that poor connection where normally it wouldn't. That is one to remember. At home now and time for a beer.
 
I thought maybe it was out of gas this morning because the gauge was down to 1/4 even though I had calibrated it several times. After I left work I filled it up and it took 4.5 gallons. The trip meter said I had gone 111 miles. I don't know if the odometer is right yet or not, but that was only 25 mpg. Still not too bad for break in and hot rodding around and lots of time idling and checking the fuel mixture with the gas tester, etc. Plus I did a lot of in town driving just to see how it would do during lots of stop and go as far as overheating. Many jack rabbit starts too, plus jet changing and test runs etc. I expect this next tank full to be better and I will try and test the odometer. The speedo was 7mph off at 45, so the odometer might be off the same.
 
Glad you found the issue, Kim. I'm sure there will be lots of those little gotchas as you get everything sussed out.
 
Glad to hear you worked it out Kim.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]The speedo was 7mph off at 45, so the odometer might be off the same.[/QUOTE]

That should read: The speedo was 7mph off at 45, so the odometer <span style="font-weight: bold">IS</span> off the same.

Unless you have some ultra cool digital speedometer. :wink:
 
True, my bad for making an assumption.
Would both cases produce a gradation in mph error all the way across? I assume the faster you go the bigger would be the difference? If it's just the needle then I suppose the odo could be correct.
Do you have those mileage checker mile posts along the freeway out there?
 
We have it measured off in miles, so I can just use that in a 10 mile stretch or something like that. With the bigger tires, Datsun tran, and 3:55 to 1 ratio diff, I am sure it must be off quite a bit. My speedo is right at 60 but is really 73 at 70 and actually reads high now at lower speeds but should be close enough for me. I could probably check the odometer with the GPS if I really tried. Oh, hey, (light bulb comes on) I know the exact distance to work with the gps, I could just check it on the odometer and then find the error that way. Hmmnnn.
 
You can check speed and distance with a GPS -- I've used that to calibrate a motorcycle speedo before. All you need is a straight, level stretch of road.
 
Heh - since I have neither speedo nor odo working I use the distance to work to judge my gas mileage.

Yesterday I put in 6 gallons (it got really full) after 5 round trips to work plus a few trips to the store.
Probably 165 - 170 miles. So that's something between 25 - 30 mpg which works fine for me at present.

Aint bad considering the Nissan 1500 & Hitchi downdraft.
 
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