• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Winter Wake Up

Share this page

C

carrottop

Senior Member
Offline
Almost a great day here in Chicago. Sun in the AM, 40 degrees and I thought of starting her up. It's cloudy again and cold, back to hibernation. BUT, I it always takes 10+ minutes to get her started from winter sleep, choke out, not too much gas. Maybe 20+ tries. When warm, no problem. Even in the summer, after a week of non-use it could take a minute or two of several attempts. Any secrets out there?

Getting itchy for Spring,

Eric
 
A couple of things come to mind. It wouldn't be unusual for one or more of the carb float bowls to be dry after sitting for a while. However, the electric fuel pump should pump fast until the bowls are refilled & then stop pumping.

I have had this happen on cars with engine driven pumps & it takes a lot of cranking to refill the carb.

At the times when it is hard to start, what is the pump doing after you turn the key on? If the pump is not doing the above there is a clue.

There are other possibilities but start with the simple. Maybe your pump just isn't working very well.
D
 
Mine is pretty ornery to start after sitting for a few months as well. Everything is working ok, just cranks and sputters a bit before firing and smoothing out. Wanted to take it out with the decent weather here, but had to pick up some parts and put the transmission back in my truck.
 
Dave,

The pump works fine with plenty of clicks and then stops. I leave the choke open and pump the pedal. Maybe it's just normal but I feel I'm really stressing the starter.

Eric
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by carrottop:
Dave,

The pump works fine with plenty of clicks and then stops. I leave the choke open and pump the pedal. Maybe it's just normal but I feel I'm really stressing the starter.

Eric<hr></blockquote>

Pumping the pedal has little effect with the SU Carbs (unless you're modulating the airflow once it's running). SU's don't have an accelerator pump to squirt raw fuel into the manifold(s).

With Webers, on the other hand, you do have to be careful to not pump the pedal more than a couple of times or you'll flood it for sure.
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by carrottop:
Dave,
The pump works fine with plenty of clicks and then stops. I leave the choke open and pump the pedal. Maybe it's just normal but I feel I'm really stressing the starter.
Eric<hr></blockquote>
What do you mean by "leave the choke open". If you mean that the choke is not applied & you are trying to cold start, no wonder it takes so long. Is the choke knob pulled out or pushed in. As has already been said, pumping the pedal does practically nothing on a SU carb. Pull the knob out, back, toward you, to cold start. Excuse me if I just don't understand.
D

[ 02-22-2004: Message edited by: Dave Russell ]</p>
 
Dave,

The pump works fine with plenty of clicks and then stops. I leave the choke open and pump the pedal. Maybe it's just normal but I feel I'm really stressing the starter.

Eric
 
The choke is pulled all the way out and stopped. Didn't realize pumping the pedal had little effect. Any else I can do?

Thanks,

Eric
 
Eric: My cars always show a reluctance to start after a cold winter's rest. I can usually tell because when I turn the ignition on, the fuel pump does a veritable dance to pressurize the system! I often use some carburetor cleaner or gasoline in the carbs to help provide an extra bit of incentive to start. Other than that, it is pull the choke out and crank until it turns over, then starts and runs reliably. They are tough cars and the starters are large enough to power smaller cars, so don't worry unduly about the starter being overloaded. AL Bradley
 
It's possible that your choke cable needs to be adjusted. make sure with the choke pulled all the towards you, with the gas pedal slightly depressed. You should not be able to operate either carbs choke lever anymore. I've seen people pour gasoline directly into the air filters on first start up's. They swear by that technique, I'm not supporting that method however. All of this of course is assuming your engine is in good tune.
rolleyes.gif
 
Johnny makes an excellent suggestion for the next step. The chokes are not so easy to setup on the triple HS4 carb setup. I hope that you have a shop manual for the car.
D
 
Thanks everyone. I do have a shop manual and will have to check the choke cable which is real tight. Should I consider gas in the are cleaners?

Regards,

Eric
 
There is a choke cable that goes into a linkage & then three more cables branching to the carbs. Quite a bit of checking to do.
D
 
I'm not the best at this but I'd re-check to see if you are getting fuel in the throat of the carbs. Pull off the air cleaners and use a flashlight to see of there is fuel comming up the opening the needles slid into when the fuel pump is on (move the throttle by hand). With 10+ minutes of cranking you may have flooded the carbs I would think. You may just need to re-adjust the carbs. My BJ8 starts in less than 5 seconds with the air temps in the low 20's. When did you last adjust the carbs? It may be a seasonal thing there as it is here.
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by carrottop:
Thanks everyone. I do have a shop manual and will have to check the choke cable which is real tight. Should I consider gas in the are cleaners?
<hr></blockquote>
Pouring Gas in the carbs probably would start the car, but, do you really wish to do this all the time? Then of course there is the chance of fire.
I'd start by removing the choke cable and lubricate thoroughly. Then reinstall and following the manual adjust the carbs choke. If memory serves there are stops on the choke, sometimes you have to pull "way out" to engage properly on a tri carb. On a side note, I just started my car after not running since Thanksgiving. Started after second try. I never allow the starter to operate more than 6 or 7 seconds. I agree, pumping the gas pedal does nothing. Good Luck Eric.


driving.gif
 
Did you stabilize the gas when you "stored" her for the winter? If not, the gas could just be "old" and not be quite as volatile as "fresh" gas. That, plus the lower temp and dry carbs can result in slow initial startup coming out of storage.
 
Back
Top