Dave Chu wrote:
>
> Worked on the Spit today trying to find and fix the problem with a
> friend. We started with cleaning and filing the Bosch plugs. The
> car started fine and I took a for a drive to warm it up. It started
> to miss fire about a block from the house. Limp the car home and
> proceed to install a new set of Champion plugs. The car started right
> up but idled at 2000rpm. Couldn't bring down the idle with the fast
> and regular idle screw. Also, the car was making a funning noise, it
> turned out to be a vaccum noise from the emission control (crank case
> breather) valve..
>
> The vaccum was so high it was difficult to remove the oil cap on
> the valve cover. With the cap off the idle when down but all adjustments
> seems to have no effact on the idel. Tried moving the car but the
> engine just stalls and back fires, which also poped the emission control
> valve off. The car finally stopped running and wouldn't start..
>
> The engine would catch and then just died while trying to start it..
> Decided to check the float level and the front bowl was empty, reset
> float level and try to start the car, same thing happens. Check the
> front bowl again, it's empty, check the rear bowl, also empty. Look
> at fuel gauge, it shows empty.
>
> When to the garage and grap gas container use for the lawmower that
> had some fuel. Added a couple of liters of gas into the spit, cranked it
> for about 5 seconds and the car started right up. Reconnected everything
> and was able to adjust the idle and mixture. The car now purrs, and drives
> better than it ever has..
>
> So, the moral of this story is to leave well enought alone and not to
> let the fuel level go below 1/4 tank on the Spitfire. The only
> explanation for my troubles is bad gas. The car was running on "bottom
> of the tank" gas while I was making the initial carb adjustment, and
> I guess it didn't like it. I still don't know why the idle when up
> so high and cause such a large vaccum in the valve cover. If anyone
> has a good explanation, I would like to hear it..
>
> I would like to thank Trevor, Michael, Atwell, Stu-Jo and Charlie for
> their help. The info on the Lucas sports coil was also very useful..
> The best advise I can give to anyone after this ordeal is to work on
> your car with someone who has no emotional attachment to your car so
> rational decision can be made. In my case I had a friend over to give
> me a hand which help a lot..
>
> Dave |\ | | |
> _______________________________________/\ /\ /\_____| \|_____| |____________
> Dave Chu \/ \/ | /| | |
> Dept. of Elec. & Comp. Eng. |/ | | |
> Concordia University Voice:(514)848-3115 Fax:(514)848-2802
> 1455 de Maisonneuve W. H915 Email:dave@ece.concordia.ca
> Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8 http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/addr.html
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just a suggestion that worked for me. When my gas guage didn't work
(just after buying the car), I took out the sender from the tank. I
connected the sender up to the wires and turned on the igition. When the
float was at the bottom of travel, I adjusted the metal tab to get an
Empty reading. Works great now from full to empty!
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