I got a few quizzical glances while topping up. It even started with a gentle kick for the journey home. 6 miles later I was still enjoying the wind on my face when I pulled in the driveway.
I figured I should take a quick glance around the machine and make sure no leaks or loose bolts were developing. I let it sit for a few minutes and then figured I'd go out again!
That's when the trouble started. She wouldn't start. I had to put the strangler on, and then when I turned it off when the black smoke started, the engine would sputter and stall. What's going on? It ran fine for 6 miles and even up hill both ways!
I surmise that either the engine is simply running lean, or that the carb is vapor locking after sitting next to those hot exhaust pipes. I coaxed it around the house and closed the garage door behind me. Further investigation is required. I can't believe that its running lean since when its relatively cold it runs great. Its gotta be the heat off that exhaust header, even with the fiberglass exhaust wrap. I wonder what I could use to insulate? Maybe a piece of the exhaust wrap around the bowl and around the fuel line?
I put a VW Beetle spark coil in and saved the original Lucas coil. The beetle coil is surely producing a stronger spark, but I don't think the original coil was at fault. I was still able to reproduce the sputtering after getting the engine good and hot. It ran fine until I turned the engine off and tried to restart it.
ReplyDeleteI moved the carb needle up one notch to see if that improves it. It was too rainy today to take it out for a test. Maybe later this week. I have a feeling I'll be moving that carb needle back where it was. More testing is needed.
I checked the ignition timing again. Set statically, the points open at TDC per the manual. When running and observing with a timing light the actual fire occurs a few degrees BTDC. Not sure if that's right or not.