Big hesitation.

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D366Y
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Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

Major_Tom wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 6:03 pm What do your plugs look like Danny? Can be a useful metric for gauging mixture before you go adjusting it.
I didn't think they looked that bad??
I've also never adjusted the mixture before and the only thing that has changed recently that I could think affected it is the new rubbish fuel we have
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by Major_Tom »

They seem fine πŸ€”
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D366Y
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Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

Major_Tom wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 7:47 pm They seem fine πŸ€”
That's what I thought!
Points are only a few months old as well
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by Major_Tom »

When my old coil started breaking down it had some of these symptoms... not sure though. Let me see if I have an old coil kicking around you can try.
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D366Y
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1993 Fiesta 1.1

Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

Let me borrow the one off the laser and see if that makes a difference πŸ‘
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by Major_Tom »

D366Y wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 7:21 am Let me borrow the one off the laser and see if that makes a difference πŸ‘
Oh yeah forgot you had three Capris :lol: well, two and two thirds πŸ™ƒ
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by pbar »

Might be worth trying different HT leads too Danny if you haven't already done so, if one of those is problematic it may cause a misfire I guess.
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D366Y
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Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

Thanks guys, today (without changing anything) it ran a treat! Then I tried it again five hours later and it ran like a pig πŸ€¦πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ
Will just have to keep swapping bits off one at a time and seeing what causes it!

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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by pbar »

Crud in the carb maybe? It can move around meaning the car can randomly run fine, or not. Martin (Bug) gave me a method once of putting the palm of your hand over the top of the carb and revving it briefly to suck/displace the crud. Might be worth a try, easy to do.
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1993 Fiesta 1.1

Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

pbar wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 10:55 pm Crud in the carb maybe? It can move around meaning the car can randomly run fine, or not. Martin (Bug) gave me a method once of putting the palm of your hand over the top of the carb and revving it briefly to suck/displace the crud. Might be worth a try, easy to do.
I also thought this could be the case actually so was planning to while the head off and clean the jets out and then I can give this technique a whirl and see what the outcome is
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by Bug »

pbar wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 10:55 pm Crud in the carb maybe? It can move around meaning the car can randomly run fine, or not. Martin (Bug) gave me a method once of putting the palm of your hand over the top of the carb and revving it briefly to suck/displace the crud. Might be worth a try, easy to do.
To clarify, you need to rev it up first, then put your palm over the top to create a vacuum. Only a second or two at a time or it'll stall.
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D366Y
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1980 3.0S, crash damage resto
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Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

Bug wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 4:11 pm
pbar wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 10:55 pm Crud in the carb maybe? It can move around meaning the car can randomly run fine, or not. Martin (Bug) gave me a method once of putting the palm of your hand over the top of the carb and revving it briefly to suck/displace the crud. Might be worth a try, easy to do.
To clarify, you need to rev it up first, then put your palm over the top to create a vacuum. Only a second or two at a time or it'll stall.
Found that out the hard way πŸ˜‚
Did it yesterday and revved it up then held my hand over the top for a couple of seconds and it stalled and covered my hand in fuel

When I took the top of the carb off (thanks to Peter's teachings) the float chamber did have crud in it, but was very fine so I wonder if it has just pulled through some crap from the bottom of the tank which won't have helped. When I get the new fuel lines I was thinking about adding in a filter as there isn't one currently
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by pbar »

Can't quite understand why you got covered in fuel Danny, seems very odd! You did just put your hand over the top of the carb, the choke flaps, and revved as you did it, I assume. Can suck/dislodge the crud in there.
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by SCP440 »

What is the voltage at the coil plus terminal while it is running? Could the ballast be the problem? A weak spark? It will start OK as the Ballast is bypassed on start.
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1980 3.0S, crash damage resto
1993 Fiesta 1.1

Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

pbar wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 9:12 am Can't quite understand why you got covered in fuel Danny, seems very odd! You did just put your hand over the top of the carb, the choke flaps, and revved as you did it, I assume. Can suck/dislodge the crud in there.
When I put my hand over the carb and revved it I let it stall by mistake so when it stalled it threw fuel all over my hand. Sucked my hand onto the top of the carb and I suffocated it so that's my bad :lol:
SCP440 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 6:13 pm What is the voltage at the coil plus terminal while it is running? Could the ballast be the problem? A weak spark? It will start OK as the Ballast is bypassed on start.


When I measured last it was about 13.7V at the battery, the other one was running at about 13.9V.

Took it out again today and after cleaning it all up and slightly adjusting the timing it seems to be running OK now without skipping beats at any level so maybe clearing the fine dust of crap out of the carb and adjusting the carb has sorted it.....
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by pbar »

Hi Danny, SPC440 is suggesting that you check the voltage at the coil, not the battery, with the car running, depending on your result this will determine that the ballast resistor is working ok.

Sounds like you are making progress though, magic!
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Re: Big hesitation.

Post by SCP440 »

Yes exactly, I have seen several classics recently with exactly this problem, a ballast that is failing can be down to 6 volts or even less in one case. Hesitation and an erratic idle are usually the first things to show.
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1980 3.0S, crash damage resto
1993 Fiesta 1.1

Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Big hesitation.

Post by D366Y »

Thanks guys, the last two times I've used it at the end of last week it was running a lovely little treat!
Wil still measure the voltage across the coil as you've uggeated though, would be interesting to see

Cheers
Danny
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