I'm gonna need help.....

[floyd]

Hi all,
I,m back after taking a few years off to catch up on my housework. Nows it time to play!!
I recieved alot of help from you nice folks back then on getting my 75 TR6 started up after sitting for about 4-5 years. The p.o. picked it up for a father and son project which never happened. His son joined the Armed Forces and was sent off to Iraq. And now I have the privlage of bringing this car back to life....with your help.
The car has about 90k on it. After I got the car started it ran poorly so I thought a tune-up was due. I went ahead a put in a Pertronix electronic ignition with a flame thrower coil to match. New wires and plugs gapped at .030.
Drained the gas tank, changed the oil and it took off. THe only thing that concerned me was the smoke coming from the tailpipes. Sometimes alot...sometimes not so much. After reading up I did a leakdown down test to find.....

1 at 4%....2 at 6%....1 at 9%....and 2 at 14%.

I did hear air at the dipstick, carbs and the fill cap during all the cylinder test. Not hardly any from the exhaust pipes.
I proceeded to somewhat tune the carbs by a article off the Buckeye Triumph Site by Nelson Riedel. Which i found very helpful. The only part i did not do is set the float level. All went well except no change in idle when i tried to adjust the bypass valve. I did take the one off the front carb since it was to easist to get to. It did not seem to be stuck but the diaphragm was brittle but did seem to move just alittle.
The air valves do move freely with the "click" as it hits bottom. During the tune, as i lifted the air valve the 1/4", it did want to stall on both carbs. Lean?...so I kept turning 1/2 turn clockwise till both came to a stop. Now as i lift up the 1/4" it seems not to want to stall so badly but not idle steady. But hey...it sure idles alot better.
I went out tonite and got some carb cleaner to look for vacuum leaks. I did notice a change around the throttle shafts. Something else i did notice was there seemed not be as much smoke as before. Or an amount that I would not be embarrassed with following me down the neighborhood.
So...my questions... 1)How do i know if the smoke is oil burning due to bad rings or something else buring the oil.
Or it is from the carbs being to rich or too lean. And can someone tell from what i described which one it might be. 2) During the sync, to get the red bulb to float around the halfway mark in the tube, I had to nearly adjust the plate fully closed to get the bulb centered. And then it nearly stalled the car. Normal? i did not think so. And any other opinions what my next step should be. I thank you all for bearing with me my book i just wrote but I really excited about getting this car on the road. Thank you again.

 

[Banjo]

If I'm reading right, you meant you were turning the allen wrench tool that drops into the damper well 1/2 turn clockwise.
If I'm thinking right,Clockwise is leaning out the the mix by lowering the needle further down into the jets.
From my experience, if you have any adjustment on an SU or Zenith/ Stormberg carb all the way to one end or the other something else is wrong, and not allowing this adjustment to be made. A Vacuume leak would be a big culprit.
Throttle shafts are known issues on SU and ZS carbs. If the diaphragms are brittle, get some new ones. those pistons need to move freely, and the smallest crack in one will play havoc on all your settings.
On mixture, the result to look for is when you raise the piston that 1/4" ( or even a bit less) the RPMs should pick up just a tiny bit, then level back out.
Hope you're having fun getting back to playing.
GIve yourself some time with those carbs, and pay close attention to the results you get from what adjustments you make, and you'll be an old pro at them in no time.
I've never liked those carb balancing tools. I've found with a little practice the old piece of rubber hose works far better to get them balanced
P.S. Black smoke = fuel too rich
Blue smoke = oil burning.

 

[TR3driver]

Generally, the only sources of blue oil smoke are :
1) Bad rings
2) Intake valve stems
3) Oil mist in PCV system

#1 and #2 are fairly easy to distinguish by when the smoke appears; valve stems smoke primarily when manifold vacuum is high. The classic symptom is a puff of blue at every shift. Rings smoke more under heavy throttle.

Easiest way to be sure #3 isn't the problem is to disconnect the PCV system from the carbs/manifold (and cap the ports). It generally only smokes at or near wide open throttle.

Since you didn't mention it, I will. Before adjusting the carbs, be sure to check the valve clearances and ignition timing. If they are off, you'll never get the mixture to act right.

Also, although I don't have a CO meter to prove it; it's my belief that the factory idle adjustment on later emission controlled cars was lean enough that you won't get a rise in idle rpm (or only a very small one) when lifting the piston. It certainly won't hurt to set them a bit richer than that, but don't be surprised if that is near the end of the adjustment.

Another cause of lean idle can be the brake booster. If it's valve is stuck or diaphragm cracked, it can act as a vacuum leak all the time.

 

[floyd]

Thanks for the reply...everybit helps. And yes, I'm having fun.

On the rubber hose trick for adjusting the carbs, can you describe the process. Did the problem I was having with having to adjust it nearly closed to get the bulb to float halfway sound normal?
Yes the timing and valves have been set. To my knowledge I think I did it correctly.

 

[SpannerMan]

Thanks for the reply...everybit helps. And yes, I'm having fun.

On the rubber hose trick for adjusting the carbs, can you describe the process. Did the problem I was having with having to adjust it nearly closed to get the bulb to float halfway sound normal?

In my experience, you have to open the throttles to use the unisyn. Unlock one of the throttle shaft clips, and screw in both throttle idle screws to get to around 2k rpm, then fine tune to get them drawing equally. Then lock it up and set the idle to 800 or so. Pete

 

[TR3driver]

The "rubber hose trick" is basically to use a rubber hose as a stethoscope, to listen to the hiss at the carb mouth. The hiss gets louder with more air flow, so if the hiss is equal, the air flow is equal. It actually does work pretty good.

I took another look at Nelson's mixture instructions; IMO they aren't quite right. 1/4" is too far to lift the pistons, should be more like 1/8". And, the optimum mixture is when the idle speed rises just a bit and then settles back to where it was before. If it rises and stays up, the mixture is too rich; and if it immediately falls, the mixture is too lean.

 

[TR6oldtimer]

The "rubber hose trick" is basically to use a rubber hose as a stethoscope, to listen to the hiss at the carb mouth.

<span style="color: #FF0000"> WARNING!</span> Do not put the hose in your ear! Or you could damage your ear drum.

Place the hose opening pointing up next to the ear just enough to hear the hiss.

The method actually works quite well.

 

[floyd]

The ole rubber hose trick huh? I'll give it a shot. It was such a nice day i thought I'd take one of the ZS's off and clean it and check the float height, which was 16mm. I got it all back together and was looking at the manifold gasket to line it up and noticed that it's a round hole with no notch for what i think is the port from the bypass valve to the manifold. Before i cut into I thought I'd get some opinions.

 

[TR3driver]

was looking at the manifold gasket to line it up and noticed that it's a round hole with no notch for what i think is the port from the bypass valve to the manifold. Before i cut into I thought I'd get some opinions.

The port should definitely be open to the manifold. I believe there should be a slot in the spacer as well.