I need help with a weird situation that arose as I tried to bring my 1980
Spitfire back to life after 3 years in the garage. The last time it ran, the
engine would cycle between excessive rpms and then a near stall under no load.
Under load, it almost always stalled. I had a lot going on at the time and
devoted whatever free time I had to my TR6 (Herman van den Akker's transmission
conversion). So, this past week I put time in with the Spit. I took off the
Stromberg carb and the manifolds, cleaned everything up, replaced gaskets
(including the manifold gasket), checked all the vacuum lines, and even
repaired the vacuum retard unit. I drained out the old oil and replaced it
with new and put on a new filter. I pulled the old spark plugs and squirted
some light oil into the cylinders. Over the next few days I was able to rotate
the engine by hand a few degrees and then completely with the starter. I
checked compression, and though it wasn't great, it seemed good enough to get
it started (120, 105, 110, 110). The carb is one with the auto choke. It
actually seemed very clean inside, but I did find that the auto choke body was
a little loose. I figured that must be my problem, and I made sure it was
tight after replacing the gasket there. I put everything back on (with some
gas in the float chamber), drained the little bit of old gas out of the tank
and replaced with new and a new fuel filter, got new spark plugs and checked
the ignition for sparks (fine).
On my first attempt at a start, I really thought I had it. I got a good
sputter. But after that, I never came close. Today, in total exasperation, I
checked the distributor (with cylinder 1 at tdc for sure) and found it to be
180 degrees out of phase. That surprised me because I don't ever remember
taking it out before. But, my memory isn't what it used to be, and I figured I
must have looked at it 3 years ago. Now, absolutely sure that I was close to
getting it started, I tried to put the distributor back in the right way.
After 90 minutes of not being able to seat it, I was near crazy. At that point
I rotated it 180 degrees to the WRONG orientation, and it went right in, no
trouble at all! So, I removed the outer channel that the distributor shaft
slides into, and that allowed me to clearly see the slot I was trying to hit.
I could see that the distributor dog was NEVER going to fit the slot the right
way; it was nearly 1/8" off. That means that it NEVER was in the slot in that
orientation!
So, I've reached two conclusions, one that I'm sure of but very surprised at.
There is only one way to put in my distributor, a Lucas electronic ignition
model. Was it made to go in only one way?! The other conclusion is that
somehow the timing chain must have slipped, maybe on my first attempt to start
the engine, to where it ended up just about 180 degrees out of phase. That
would account for my problem, right?
So, am I thinking straight here? If so, I need to go after the timing chain
next.
Thanks for listening,
Tim Gaines
Clinton, SC
1974 TR6
1980 Spitfire
** triumphs@autox.team.net **
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|