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'77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one
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Author:  bluetriumphsteve [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:11 am ]
Post subject:  '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Right hears for anyone who wants to give me a few ideas of WTF is wrong with my Dolly?

Ok as some of you may know I brought my dolly back a few years ago after selling it. So hears the problem, It ran from South Wales to Northamptonshire with a smell of petrol and a slight missfire noisy gearbox and a few other issues, but it got home, It was on electronic ignition at the time, no idea what electronic ignition as I bined this later down the line

So after buying it back and only having had it a week I wanted to take it to TRGB with my local TR group as they had an open day for us, again same issues it was sluggish but it got there and back.

Right I thought it would be a good idea to sort out the missfire, compression was good, so new HT leads, Lumenition Optical MS4 and coil was brought and installed, and wired direct to the live feed of the fuse box making the original wiring redundant. A new WOSP starter motor was installed much better but I've still not got round to rewiring in the hot start wire, I do have the one way diode wire, just haven't got round to installing it. A new battery as the old was was just sh*te and kept dying, converted the carbs with the penny trick to replace the waxstart and a nut filed down to 5mm to take up the other gap of the cylinder under the jets. Also changed the dics to solid one and have got solid carb mounts from the club fitted. New fuel pump, new fuel lines. Solved the fuel smell was a rubber washer missing from the sender unit in the petrol tank. And now nothing but problems!

So I can get the car to idle perfectly, get the fuel to air mix spot on, the needles and jets look fine and everything works as it should do, rev it up in the garage no issues. Its timing up spot on with the lumenition. Take the car out on the road and don't forget the RAC card and a fully charged mobile phone because every time I need one. Now what happens is the car runs fine at low revs, but if you give it the beans it dies and if you try and restart it it was coff and spluttler and then die again until its ice cold so the next day before it wants to start up again. I've been out a few times always the same careful driving low revs anything up to 2-3 thou revs its ok. Give it full throttle to accelerate onto the duel carriageway or someone like that and forget it it dies and wont start up again until its ice cold the next day.

It got me so fed up that I locked the car up in my mums garage and left it for a year, I wont give up but I'm getting really p155 off and depressed every time I look at it. I went out it it the yesterday day now its tax exempt, still MOT'd and it made it less than a mile before I gave it the beans and the same it died. Attempt to restart coff splutter for a few seconds it'll start then die. Annoying thing is when it was in the garage it idled ok after another breakdown. Anyone got any ideas, I'm really struggling with this one

Cheers

Steve

Author:  dollyman [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

It sounds like a fuel problem Steve. Have you checked if there is fuel at the carbs when it croaks?

Tony.

Author:  bluetriumphsteve [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Not straight after it dies no, as I get fed up with the rac phone call. But I did suspect a fuel issue and this was the reason for renewing the fuel pump with a new one from robsport. Checking the fuel lines and renewing them for copper ones. Also converting the carbs to solid discs and fixed jets and sold mounts for reliability

Cheers

Steve

Author:  MIG Wielder [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 1:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Quote:
Right hears for anyone who wants to give me a few ideas of WTF is wrong with my Dolly?


Right I thought it would be a good idea to sort out the missfire, compression was good, so new HT leads, Lumenition Optical MS4 and coil was brought and installed, and wired direct to the live feed of the fuse box making the original wiring redundant. A new WOSP starter motor was installed much better but I've still not got round to rewiring in the hot start wire, I do have the one way diode wire, just haven't got round to installing it.
New fuel pump, new fuel lines. Solved the fuel smell was a rubber washer missing from the sender unit in the petrol tank. And now nothing but problems!

Give it full throttle to accelerate onto the duel carriageway or someone like that and forget it it dies and wont start up again until its ice cold the next day.


Cheers

Steve
Hi Steve, A couple of things come to mind. I think you need to to run that coil with its ballast resistor.
http://www.gsparkplug.com/ignition-coil ... -coil.html.
It doesn't actually say that you have to have the ballast resistor but it is shown as being supplied with one. So my reckoning is that it needs it. Does the coil run hot ?
Can you measure its d.c. resistance please when cold.

Can you put up a diagram of this "diode mod" please ?

When it stops running if you go round to the fuel cap at the back and remove it do you get a shloooop sound of sucking in air ?
Does the rev; counter drop to zero when the engine dies as the car runs down ? If so I'd suspect L.T. ignition electrics.
Or does the rev; counter bounce all over the place ?

Tony.

Author:  bluetriumphsteve [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Rev counter just goes to 0 when it dies.

It did suffer at one point with overcharging, I replaced the alternator with a spare I had from my TR6, so it now charges about right.

The lumention kit didn't have a ballest so I brought one from AutoCar and wired it it, as I said its wired direct from the fuse box. The ballest does get hot but the coil only gets warm.

I've not tried that with the fuel cap but its a thought, if its not breathing then logic may say that it

When its running at idle its no different to my TR6 or any other BL car Ive worked on just seems fine

I'll see if I can get some pics of it uploaded, I just want to enjoy the bl**dy thing rather than having it locked away in the garge

Cheers

Steve

Author:  Galileo [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

My money's on a blocked breather as Tony alludes.

Author:  Richard the old one [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 5:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

I believe that our cars rely on having a petrol cap that allows air in as there is no specific breather into the tank. Some locking petrol caps are air tight, we have to have a vented type and they are not that common. I had a problem one winters night when it was very cold and it was after a lot of rain. Some rain must have gone into the petrol cap and froze blocking the vent. When I removed the petrol cap I heard air rush into the tank and the car started again.

Author:  bluetriumphsteve [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 7:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Right, just been over to the car. The fuel cap is an original style twist fit chrome no lock type. I took the vent off and left the cap on and blew down the vent blocking off the other side of the vent. The fuel tank just creaked and expanded, but didn't vent out the cap. Then I took the cap off and blew throu, of course everything blew out the filler neck ok. Could this be the issue, the fuel cap?

While I was blowing vent I did the same on the engine breather all ok there

Cheers

Steve

Author:  tony g [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Remove the cap and run it.That'll tell you if its the vent. I had a fuel delivery problem a while ago and i carried a plastic syringe and some fuel in the car. When it died my bowls were empty so I would syringe into the carbs direct and it would fire straight up and be ok for a while (even days). I put it down to either the stock type pump failing or crud in the tank blocking the feed pipe that sits inside the tank. I eliminated both and now have in tank pump and all new pipes.

Tony

Author:  Richard the old one [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

The interesting problem I had which took a long time to find was the petrol pipe where it goes up over the rear axle developed a small rust hole right at the highest point on one of the bends. This meant that when the car was standing it did not leak any petrol as the hole was above the petrol tank. When the engine was running petrol was being sucked by the pump and the hole that developed allowed the pump also to suck air in at this point, again no petrol leak. It only became a problem when the pump could not draw sufficient petrol to meet the engines needs because the hole had got larger. It would be O.K at tick over but was unable to meet the need during normal running speeds. I was just unlucky to have a rust hole at a high point in the pipe run as if it is at any other point petrol leaks out when the car is standing.

Author:  Carledo [ Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

If the rev counter dies with the engine, 99% certain to be coil. If you crank it over once it's died and the rev counter doesn't "kick" that brings the certainty to 100%

With all the work you've done on the fuel system, i'd tend to eliminate it as a cause but it might pay to rod out the fuel pipe in the bottom of the tank as these sometimes get very gunked up when standing. I find an opened up wire coat hanger is good for this!

Steve.

Author:  GTS290N [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Could be the electronic points - getting hot, car won't start until stone cold, seen this once......only in my case it was a horrific misfire when hot and then the engine wouldn't start until cold.

Author:  RobSun [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

I had similar problems to this using the Lumenitions system. It kept giving me hot coils, misfires and cutting out when hot needing the car to cool right down to restart. Problem persisted for three years from fitting it and everyone said it will not be the electronic ignition they are bullet proof and work 100% or not at all. Wired up like yours to a new supply from the fuse box everything was looked at and done, coils swopped, ballast swopped, red jets fitted, fuel pump, nothing worked. My local classic restorer scratched their heads and we even tried a replacement and doubled up earth. Dizzy caps and leads and plugs more than once nothing fixed it.

Then by pure accident I touched the unit in the distributer whilst trying to fix it and it burnt my finger causing a blister it was so hot. Took it out and the base plate was black underneath from tracking and arcing. The fixings were screwed down tight, being tightened often. Took it out and put in a new set of points and condenser. The problem was solved and has never come back. I thought the car runs much better without the Lumenition.

I did a google search to find out if others had had a similar experience and they had. The search suggested the problem appears to be caused by the fixing screws supplied being too long. They screw down tight but leave sufficient slack between the base plate and the distributer plate to cause the problem. Shorter screws are reportedly the fix. I didn't bother trying to fix mine, just binned the whole kit, and the car fires up first turn and runs great so point and condenser now for me.

Author:  matienzo [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

I had had this exact same problem with the screws to the electronic ignition unit being slightly too long allowing arcing. All is well on tick over but anything beyond that leads to misfiring. Took screw out, shortened it, refitted and the issue has never returned. Worth a look as its a quick fix.

Author:  bluetriumphsteve [ Tue May 01, 2018 5:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: '77 1850HL Absolutely baffled by this one

Right then an update,

Me and a friend with a toe rope took the dolly out today on a test, as expected it broke down. I had the fuel cap removed while all tests were being carried out to eliminate blockages in the breather or in the tank, there isn't, but I ran the car with the fuel cap off regardless to eliminate that possibility.

The car broke down within less than a mile, the lumenion ballast resister was red hot, the coil was warm. Took the floats off the carbs and there was adequate fuel in both. The car ran a treat in the garage and was warmed up before I road tested it, when it broke down as I was running with the air box off it was back firing from the rear carb. So ideas people? I'm going to convent back to points and see what happens but am still open to suggestions

Cheers

Steve

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