Hi all, I've got a few threads dotted about the internet but I want to see if anyone can explain what happened to my camper yesterday. I've got a 1979 US Westy with 2L fuel injection. Been having problems. In a nutshell, starts first time and idles fine, then after 5 mins idle speed drops over about 1 to 2 mins and then it stalls. Starting after this stall means cranking the engine / started for a bout 20 to 30 secs until it reluctantly starts again. I did exactly the above on Sunday, and after the second start it ran perfectly for 30 mins. Idling on the driveway. The timing was slightly out so timed it to 7.5 BTDC and it remained running for another 20 mins while I set up an emissions tester. I wanted to see if it was running lean or what. This takes 15 mins or so to calibrate and another 10 for a reading. In all this time it was idling fine. I neighbour came over for a chat and during this chat of about 5 mins suddenly the idle speed picked up. It was going a bit faster and it had happened instantly. Weird we both thought. I got the timing gun out and the timing had slipped back to approx 10 BTDC while it was running and we were standing there. Please say this is nothing worse than a dodgy distributor! Or is it likely to be the dizzy drive shaft? Or worse, the cog that's inside driving the shaft? Help!
Is the dissy fully seated in the case? Easy to overlook. I've had engine that just stop after 5 mins due to the dissy drive dogs jumping out of the driveshaft in the case.
Ill be interested in what you find out. I have the same spec engine and just lately its being doing exactly what you've described.
Knackered dizzy clamp meaning its not holding the dizzy tight? I had one that although felt like it was tightening, actually had a snapped bolt.
Rev cut out rotor arm? Notorious for messing up timing. Worn/dirty dizzy inards. Its a strange one, I ll give you that.
... well I had an occasion when driving back from Devon and losing power, where I found the timing back at 26 BTDC! I was sure I had seated it right, and clamped it OK. I've been looking at this problem for weeks. Yesterday was just the first time it happened while I was there looking at it. I'm sure it was seated OK and I've examied the clamp and it's OK. I was trying to turn the dizzy when it was clamped into the engine and tightened up and could do nothing to move it. This was when the engine was running so I would have noticed a change in revs.
... ooo. I do have a cut out rotor! But only recently fitted when I was replacing all the dizzy innards with Accuspark ignition. Might change that and see what happens. The drive back from Devon was with a normal rotor and it dropped back to 26 BTDC though.
has the dizzy clamp got a 13 mil nut to hold it on to the case..? holding the rotor can you move the bottom of the dizzy?
Did you disconnect the vacuum advance pipe? Carbs or FI you still set the idle speed the same... time it, adjust the idle speed by the appropriate means!! On the FI engine, the big screw on the throttle body!!
Shot in the dark......is it a 009 dizzy, cos I had one of those quality chinese ones and it split it's own shaft causing the timing to keep advancing until it snapped totally ?
No, didn't disconnect the vacuum advance as my Bentley manual says not to at idle. Yes last time I timed it I set the idle using the big screw!
I thought about this last week so I checked the vacuum advance using my vacuum tester kit and it was fine. Advance kicked in about 8 inHg and stopped at 11 inHg. Slightly high vacuum when it kicked in but it wasn't stuck and returned to normal when the vacuum was removed.
First thing I did was change the TS2. I also bought in IR temp gun and rechecked the new TS2. It was completely fine. I haven't got the bit of paper with the exact values with me. I think it was something like 2300 ohms at 21.3 degrees
