When I took my '80 Spitfire of three months to a friend's house to do the rear
brakes, he noticed the previous owner had disconnected the air pump. (The PO has
made a *lot* of modifications to the engine, including a Weber carb, and it
looks like the emission system was altered.)
In any event, we put the hose back on the air pump. A couple of things happened
almost immediately. First, there was a noticable increase in power.
Unfortunately it also started to backfire and kick out rose colored smoke when I
changed gears, run rough, change idle speeds, run hot, (more than usual) stall,
and become very hard to start. (Prior to this, it would fire up almost
instantly. Now it takes several tries to keep her running.
I disconnected the air pump this afternoon, and the backfire ceased immediately.
Any ideas? Will it hurt to run the car without it?
-- Conn (conn@wctc.net)
History shows again and again,
how nature points out the folly of man.
|