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lclark0624
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lclark0624
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lclark0624
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stupid autozone clerk checked their book and he thought it said .025. He probabild read it wrong.
still waikting for the books by snail mail, i guess.
let you all know how this comes out after proper gapping. I'll have to go to ace to get a new gapper. feeler guage topps at .027.
still waikting for the books by snail mail, i guess.
let you all know how this comes out after proper gapping. I'll have to go to ace to get a new gapper. feeler guage topps at .027.
Nunyas
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I'm running in the plug gap around .045 to .050 (according to a very cheap key chain plug gap thingie (you know the round ones they sell at AZ) in my '76 'B with electronic ignition and Bosche Platinums. I haven't used my feeler guage on them to verify, but the spark seems to be strong enough to bridge that gap and keep the engine running smooth for me.
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lclark0624
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got a new gapper, set all at .035, drove up a hill near the house. idle is smoth as always, but it takes almost full go-petal to move in 2nd and 3rd on the level and still no power on the hill. white smoke is back too.
i pulled the air breather filter to expose the air throat and started at idle. when i lifted the choke? (blocking the throat, the engine died. This i assumed was what should happen.
wish i had my books! snot!
guess i'll revisit your previous suggestions. i think i either have a too rich air/fuel mixture or poor ignition.
any more suggestions would be appriciated.
i pulled the air breather filter to expose the air throat and started at idle. when i lifted the choke? (blocking the throat, the engine died. This i assumed was what should happen.
wish i had my books! snot!
guess i'll revisit your previous suggestions. i think i either have a too rich air/fuel mixture or poor ignition.
any more suggestions would be appriciated.
Nunyas
Yoda
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Is it white white smoke? or does it have a blueish tint? Assuming all else is in order, you might want to check the seals on your Carb. Is the dash pot holding it's oil? There's a tiny o-ring that goes on the fuel mixture adjustment screw that hardens when it gets old. If it fails then you'll end up with dash pot oil being sucked into your intake and end up burning oil.
You mentioned the float earlier. The float on a Stromberg carb is on the bottom. I do not suggest attempting to adjust it (the float) on the car. The only way I've been able to properly set the height is to remove the carb from the car, drain the bowl, and invert the carb on a work bench. There are 6 screws that hold the cover on the bowl.
Other things to check while the carb is off the car. The dash pot spring, if it's too weak your mixture will end up too rich when you press the accelorater. Due to the lack of resistence the piston will "float" up too high enriching the fuel mixture too much. Combine a weak dash pot spring with a bad dash oil o-ring seal and you have a combination that'll seemingly be ok at idle but way too rich while driving. No oil in the dash pot will leave the piston undamped and allow the piston to rise much too quickly.
Another thing to look at is the fuel mixture needle (it's on the bottom of the piston). Sometimes the needle assembly can disassemble itself and the needle springs up inside the assembly about 1/4 of an inch. When this happens you can never lean the car out enough; it will always run too rich (I had this problem when I bought my car, a 76 B). You can fix this by either ordering a new needle assembly, or pulling the needle assembly out of the piston and replacing the pin that holds the needle in its assembly. Be careful though. The needle is held in place by a spring under it and a pin above it. If the pin is broken, the needle can launch itself and put an eye out... or worse cause one of the smaller pieces to get lost! The pin in my assembly is really small, but I managed to fabricate a new one out of a straight pin.
If water is finding its way into your carburetion, well that can only be one thing that I know of... the choke. I'm not sure how to fix that as my car was converted to manual choke long before I bought it. I'm considering going back to an auto choke ZS, but haven't set my mind to doing it yet.
You mentioned the float earlier. The float on a Stromberg carb is on the bottom. I do not suggest attempting to adjust it (the float) on the car. The only way I've been able to properly set the height is to remove the carb from the car, drain the bowl, and invert the carb on a work bench. There are 6 screws that hold the cover on the bowl.
Other things to check while the carb is off the car. The dash pot spring, if it's too weak your mixture will end up too rich when you press the accelorater. Due to the lack of resistence the piston will "float" up too high enriching the fuel mixture too much. Combine a weak dash pot spring with a bad dash oil o-ring seal and you have a combination that'll seemingly be ok at idle but way too rich while driving. No oil in the dash pot will leave the piston undamped and allow the piston to rise much too quickly.
Another thing to look at is the fuel mixture needle (it's on the bottom of the piston). Sometimes the needle assembly can disassemble itself and the needle springs up inside the assembly about 1/4 of an inch. When this happens you can never lean the car out enough; it will always run too rich (I had this problem when I bought my car, a 76 B). You can fix this by either ordering a new needle assembly, or pulling the needle assembly out of the piston and replacing the pin that holds the needle in its assembly. Be careful though. The needle is held in place by a spring under it and a pin above it. If the pin is broken, the needle can launch itself and put an eye out... or worse cause one of the smaller pieces to get lost! The pin in my assembly is really small, but I managed to fabricate a new one out of a straight pin.
If water is finding its way into your carburetion, well that can only be one thing that I know of... the choke. I'm not sure how to fix that as my car was converted to manual choke long before I bought it. I'm considering going back to an auto choke ZS, but haven't set my mind to doing it yet.
Dozuki
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How many of the plugs are black and wet? Black Wet plugs are typical of flooding. Black, dry, powdery plugs are indicative of a rich mixture. With the way that you've explained your problem, it sounds more like an ignition problem not letting the car fire on all cylanders at all times. But, Not know the state of ALL the plugs it is hard for me to say. Can you provide more information on ALL the plugs? Also, did you try out your plug wire tester on your wires?
-D.
-D.
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lclark0624
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thanks for the reply.
the smoke is pure white, no tinting that these old eyes can see. I checked the pot and it appears to have oil. I'll check the edjusting screw for a good o-ring, but i doubt it if there is no dark tinting to the white cloud that follows me.
i think i'll wait a while to tackle the carb. since i don't have a repair manual.
the smoke is pure white, no tinting that these old eyes can see. I checked the pot and it appears to have oil. I'll check the edjusting screw for a good o-ring, but i doubt it if there is no dark tinting to the white cloud that follows me.
i think i'll wait a while to tackle the carb. since i don't have a repair manual.
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lclark0624
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d
i put 4 new plugs in, drove about 5 miles tops and the tips were black and seemed wet.
if you look at the pics i posted yesterday that what the old ones looked like before being replaced. all were wet.
by the way, i cleaned (filed) the dist. rotor and contacts in the cap to be sure there was no crud there.
i'm fixing to run the wire test this evening. I'll let you know what results i get.
i put 4 new plugs in, drove about 5 miles tops and the tips were black and seemed wet.
if you look at the pics i posted yesterday that what the old ones looked like before being replaced. all were wet.
by the way, i cleaned (filed) the dist. rotor and contacts in the cap to be sure there was no crud there.
i'm fixing to run the wire test this evening. I'll let you know what results i get.
Dozuki
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Hmm, I was suspecting that maybe one or two were wet. All of them being wet would make it APPEAR to be more fuel related, though don't count the ignition out. First to check is the air filter. If it clogs up the car can run overly rich. Does your car still have all the emission controls on it?, not sure if you are in California or Canada. As for you lifting the piston in the carb and the car dying, that is normal. The other thing that could cause the car to be overly rich would be the water choke stuck open. I would check the airfilter first, as a manual would be good to have before poking around in the carb too much. But, honestly, it's not that complicated of a carb. Keep us posted.
-D.
-D.
SilentUnicorn
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i have to keep asking a what if, the guy that did the brakes may have mis-adjusted something under there while filling the resoivor. Like possibly mis-routed a hose or two?
mark
mark
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lclark0624
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D, keep thinking.
The air filter looked clean.
I purposely looked for a 75 or older because there's no need for smog checks in CA for that age vehicle. I got this with the smog equipment, but in a box, not installed.
Mark,
he rebuild the calipers and put on new roters and pads, but what would he intentionally touch that would cause the rich fuel problem? I can't see him mixing hydrolic lines and water lines. Of course the brake fluid res. is next to the carb.
By the way, i ran the spark plug wire test. The gadget is a cheap wiar with a clip for ground and on the other end a plactic cyl. uith a light in a hole. the end is a horseshoe metal gismo. instructions said to clip to ground and run from the dist. to the plug. all four wires flashed all along their lingth showing them as good.
Now, getting into that water choke . . . just how should this operate? There are two hoses connected to a housing. The housing is loose, allowing the thing to move in about a 90 degree arc. I presume this is normal for this to move. on the housing, someone painted white lines presumabily for different positions. I can shoot a pic of this if someone thinks it would help.
Hey thanks to all. I figure we've eliminated most of the possibilities and we're getting close to the final answer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif
The air filter looked clean.
I purposely looked for a 75 or older because there's no need for smog checks in CA for that age vehicle. I got this with the smog equipment, but in a box, not installed.
Mark,
he rebuild the calipers and put on new roters and pads, but what would he intentionally touch that would cause the rich fuel problem? I can't see him mixing hydrolic lines and water lines. Of course the brake fluid res. is next to the carb.
By the way, i ran the spark plug wire test. The gadget is a cheap wiar with a clip for ground and on the other end a plactic cyl. uith a light in a hole. the end is a horseshoe metal gismo. instructions said to clip to ground and run from the dist. to the plug. all four wires flashed all along their lingth showing them as good.
Now, getting into that water choke . . . just how should this operate? There are two hoses connected to a housing. The housing is loose, allowing the thing to move in about a 90 degree arc. I presume this is normal for this to move. on the housing, someone painted white lines presumabily for different positions. I can shoot a pic of this if someone thinks it would help.
Hey thanks to all. I figure we've eliminated most of the possibilities and we're getting close to the final answer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif
mgbmedic
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the only thing that i could add is ...does the car have the Omni ignition? this is the first thing I wouls replace because it's worthless. A recall was made in Aug, 1976 to replace all omni ignitions with the newer ignitions. My B had no power at all, sometimes it would just shut down all power(usually in the middle of an intersection) and I'd have to wait about 5 minutes and the car would restart. Order a pertronix thru Moss for about a $100. Do as the others say, tune up, wires, rotor, cap, etc... this may not be the repair for your problem, but it won't hurt. bob
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lclark0624
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lclark0624
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lclark0624
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i'm not sure about the type. where do i check?
Dozuki
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Mgbmedic - the 75 still has the points system, unless some one has replaced it with an aftermarket ignition.
lc - looks to me from your pics (the first blurry one) that your choke needs to rotate about 90 degrees toward the engine. This is assuming that the white line on the housing with the hoses (choke temperature housing) is the original locating line. It should be a raised metal line on the housing. This should line up with the mark on the choke body of the carb which is hard to see, but is at the top of the carb. It looks like someone replaced the original housing, as I've not seen a housing configuration like that on a stromberg. Given that someone has marked different spots on the choke body, I would suspect that this is your problem, and with the choke temp housing rotated away from the engine the car will remain choked even when warmed up. I'll see if I can bet a good pic of my carb tomorrow.
I also noticed tonight that my car does blow whitish smoke till warmed up and blows carbon out of the tail pipe (rich from the choke). Once the choke is off (car warmed up) the smoke goes away for the most part and no more carbon.
lc - looks to me from your pics (the first blurry one) that your choke needs to rotate about 90 degrees toward the engine. This is assuming that the white line on the housing with the hoses (choke temperature housing) is the original locating line. It should be a raised metal line on the housing. This should line up with the mark on the choke body of the carb which is hard to see, but is at the top of the carb. It looks like someone replaced the original housing, as I've not seen a housing configuration like that on a stromberg. Given that someone has marked different spots on the choke body, I would suspect that this is your problem, and with the choke temp housing rotated away from the engine the car will remain choked even when warmed up. I'll see if I can bet a good pic of my carb tomorrow.
I also noticed tonight that my car does blow whitish smoke till warmed up and blows carbon out of the tail pipe (rich from the choke). Once the choke is off (car warmed up) the smoke goes away for the most part and no more carbon.
Dozuki
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Also, see if you can take a pic or two of the engine showing the emissions routing (what's left). It looks like the previous owner was trying to compensated for some other problem (lean condition) by adjusting your choke. You shouldn't have to do this (nor would you want too). I suspect that when some of the emissions came off they didn't re-route something correctly. Same thing happened with my car. It's not too hard to get sorted though.
-D.
-D.
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lclark0624
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here it is 1:30 am in CA. I was sound asleep a nd something awoke me.
As I lay there, I reviewed the MG problem. Since we were last discussing the WATER CHOKE, I thought about what I had done reciently to the car that might affect the choking mechanism.
about 10 days before the brake job, I replace a clogged radiator. The owner's manual says to fill the radiator with 50% water and antifreeze. I used antifreeze/coolant and didn't dilute it. Could this be the cause? Or is it possible that some rust or junk have traveled through the water line to the water choke and block it so it wouldn't close?
I'll try to go to sleep now. Can't wait to solve this mystry.
As I lay there, I reviewed the MG problem. Since we were last discussing the WATER CHOKE, I thought about what I had done reciently to the car that might affect the choking mechanism.
about 10 days before the brake job, I replace a clogged radiator. The owner's manual says to fill the radiator with 50% water and antifreeze. I used antifreeze/coolant and didn't dilute it. Could this be the cause? Or is it possible that some rust or junk have traveled through the water line to the water choke and block it so it wouldn't close?
I'll try to go to sleep now. Can't wait to solve this mystry.