Hi All, Wondered if anyone could help or point me in right direction, i have a 79 panel van conversion and recently its developed a problem that seems intermittent. Whilst it starts fine and drive fine after a while it starts running pretty rough makes a bit of a clattering noise and seems a bit under powered, its done this several times but ive started her back up and drove it like this fpr it to miraculously jump back into life like nothing was even wrong, a mechanic told me to replace Fuel pump which i have and also had it looked over by a specialist and he adjusted the valve clearances, it seems to be intermittent and cant really guess when it will do it i done 5 miles in her the other day and it done it then done 12 miles today and it done it too Your help would be appreciated Thanks
What engine? Standard carb/s ? Points or electronic ignition? When you say clattery, is it like a noisey tappet sort of noise?
Perhaps a good general service could help, valves (done) so plugs points clean and check, dizzy cap clean and brighten up the connection inside. Maybe a carb clean , air filter. Mine had similar ...it was valves and plugs. Now I keep them in good condition and gapped.
Its a standard 1600 engine, i would say it does sound like tappets it has points which were changed at a service last year along with HT Leads i havent checked fuel filter yet
Pop the rocker covers and check the valve clearances. Also try pushing the rocker arms away from the metal blocks. They shouldnt move much. Look for loose tinware. It shouldnt rattle. Look for loose ignition wires.6 Do a compression test .. this could be a valve seat falling out and then rattling back in to place. Also try pulling and pushing on the pulley at the back of the engine.. it shouldnt move more than a tiny imperceptible amount. You might hear a quiet clunk but you shouldnt see it move in and out. It could also be overheating like crazy because of an air leak in the inlet manifold rubber boot, or it might just have an the air leak... but 5 miles isnt enough to get really hot.. At techenders I worked on an engine that ran like junk. It had closed up valve clearances. A servo takeoff pipe left unblocked on the inlet manifold. A leaking split manifold boot following assembly damage. Timing not right. Recently refurbished/ installed by T2D I believe. It went away with those faults removed and running a lot better.
Thanks for info, recently had valve clearances adjusted im going to take all of advice given so far and give her an overhaul hopefully find the issue Just went out and started her up again from cold and she is still doing it, when she does it the idle is really rough and eventually she stalls
Is your choke unit closed at start and does it open as it warms up. Does it then stay open? Have you adjusted the choke for cooler weather recently?
When it is running rough, pull the plug leads out the dissy cap one at a time and listen to the engine revs drop. If one makes little or no difference, that will tell you which cylinder is playing up.
An extra thought for rough running. Using points and they have closed up or the condenser has failed. Using an electronic ignition which goes dodgy when it gets hot The run contacts on the ignition switch are worn out. Despite everything, a new coil is worse than the old one.
Its also possible to have a sticky/ leaking carburettor fuel metering float valve which lets through the correct amount of petrol for when the choke is on but when the choke comes off the engine goes burbly, fades out stumbles and stutters and floods, gets hard to start. Leave it a bit for the fuel to boil off and off it goes again.. This happens at idle or pootling speeds. This one may also lead to the "ever rising oil level" scenario where the spare petrol ends up in the oil. Sniff the oil for petrol smell. Too much as well as too little fuel can stop the engine.
