Just recently subscribed to list and think its great. I've just been lurking
around reading about other peoples problems, and I figured I'd give it a go
and see if anyone out there can help me with a few nagging problems with my
daily driven 74 Spit. I bought it over a year ago for $750 Can. and got road
worthy for another $1500 (not including about 2 months of nightly tinkering!).
1) Stalling intermittently - once my Spit gets warmed up it tends to stall,
not a lot, but still bothersome. It tends to happen more when coming to a
fairly abrupt stop and going uphill (a common occurrence in my hometown of
Vancouver). Another little piece of info is that prior to a tune-up for a
smog test last year (tried to get through with my tinkering twice, but
failed, so I gave up and went to a professional) I would have a problem
starting the car if I parked uphill, but after the tune-up no problem. Is
the stalling related to this old problem, any other suggestions or
solutions? - extra info. just in case oil pressure and compression great,
appears that the PDO did a rebuild.
2) My horn works only intermittently (hello Lucas). To get the horn to work
I have to turn the steering wheel 1/4 to a 1/2 turn, otherwise it won't
work. I done some testing with it, and everything seems to be good except
that the steering column (under the bonnet) appears to intermittently lose
ground. If I ground out the column when the horn will not work, I can get
the horn to work by pushing the horn push. The only thing I can think of is
that at the connection for the steering column to the rack, some "gunk" is
preventing a proper ground to occur when the column is in certain positions.
Am I off base with this? Any other ideas on what could be causing this? If
I'm right does it mean I have to disconnect the rack and clean it to get the
horn to work properly? I have checked the ground cable that sits on top of
the rack and cleaned it - it seems to be okay.
3) My reverse lights do not work (hello Lucas again), I'm not sure it is the
reverse switch, or what, but I have noticed that my turn signals won't work
either when I'm in reverse (unfortunately the reverse lights still don't
work with the turn signals on either - darn), any ideas?
Thanks in advance from a novice but eager backyard mechanic,
Jim Cullen
74 British Racing Green Spit (a.k.a. Jade)
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