Hi all, As you may have seen from my other thread, I am using my van this weekend for my sisters wedding in Wales. The good news is that we have made it to to venue ready for the wedding on Saturday. The bad news is that I had to call for recovery. Twice! The van was fine for the first 120 miles from London and there were no issues until we got to the Toll on the M4 after the Severn bridge. I slowed the van, stopped, paid the Fee and drove off. After a few hundred meters I lost power, couldn't accelerate at all and coasted to the hard shoulder where the engine died. I then couldn't start the van at all. It turned over fine but wouldn't fire. Waited for a while with no joy so called the breakdown firm. They took about 30 mins to get to me where after a few checks, the guy used a can of easy start on the carb. The van then fired up and all was good. We went on our way merrily. That was for about 50 mins on fast duel carriageways until we reached a village. We then had the usual start and stop in a village situation and all of a sudden the same thing happend with loss of power and cutting out. Then it wouldn't start again. I had the forsight to buy the can of easy start from the last recovery man just in case. I tried this straight away and it fired briefly and then stoped. I left the van and had some lunch and let it cool as I suspected the heat had something to do with it. Tried after half an hour and it still didn't work so I called the breakdown service again. 10 mins later I decided to try with the easy start and it worked. I then made it the final 7 miles to our destination! Any ideas on the issue?
Yeh fraid your getting it too hot , what sort of speed you doing ? have you checked your cooling ,carb mixture , timing ?? assume its working now .
Well it should be ok at 55 but if your timing or carb is a tad out it will get hot or if your fan cooling isnt working right , have you got a oil temp gauge ? They do take a while to cool down when their hot . Half an hour is not enuff . Should be ok for wedding just take it easy , but have a good look round n put the timing gun on it .
Not sure on the carb or timing to be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if the carb wasn't set up correctly by the previous owner. I'm thinking to just Change it back to standard. Anything I can do for the 170 mile trip home except take regular stops? Edit - no oil temp guage
just do that few stops and dont cane it , is it easily doing 55 ? you should hardly be touching the accelorator on the flat for that , and change down on long hills . Drop the speed down a bit 10 miles before you stop n let it tick over with lid open a bit before you turn off . You def need to get to route of why its getting hot . Have you got hot start relay ? Dont worry about it too much for the wedding , should be ok but you need to find out whats causing it , its happened to me but only once n donkeys n that was coz i caned it .
Sounds like fuel tank vacuum to me. Are the breathers connected properly? If it does it again, open the fuel filler slowly and listen for a hiss. Bet it starts up again straight away. Mech fuel pump at high revs delivers enough pressure to suck fuel from tank. When you slow down, the vacuum in the tank cannot be overcome by mech pump at low revs. Leave for a while and the vacuum pressure dissipates and it starts again. That is my theory! Hopefully helpful. EDIT - take fuel hose off carb end. Get paper cup (it's a camper, you should have a cup somewhere). Get someone to crank it over. See if there is fuel coming out of pipe.
Yes, easily doing 55, was edging up to 60 when I wasn't paying attention. No hot start relay fitted. I've just been out to pick up an Indian takeaway and it was fine both ways.
Very interesting.....I've replaced all the breather rubbers so they will now be air tight. I havnt finished the connection into the carb yet so they still have a screw in the T piece (courtesy of the PO). I also noticed when I filled up this morning that there was a loud hiss and pressure release when I opened the cap! Could be this
Blocked fuel breather causing tank vacuum, easy start is incidental, it's the time scale. Will be worse with tank full due to less air space. Tired fuel pump, my old Westy used to do exactly this when warm, never when cold. Was worse when tank was emptier as less gravity feed.
It is a fuel issue that is why it starts with easy start... next time it does it ,take air filter off and pull accelerator cable on carbe ,if it hisses then petrol is getting in and should start.... For the price of a fuel pump I would change that.. just enough in the bowl (in the carbe)to get you there ,probably the vacuum pulling the petrol through the pump when you stopped
Thanks for your replies guys. I'm thinking the breather system needs sorting ASAP. Then fuel pump. You TLBers are awesome!
