starting mystery.

[mishmosh]

I have a Mk4 1300 with a simonbbc ignition. standard twin 1 1/4 su  carbs.  Until I recently, it was an excellent starter , taking a quick spin of the starter and little choke. Now it needs a full battery  a good few spins and full choke.  I have changed the Plugs, checked the leads, checked the jets are seating.  Now  I did have it tuned at Donington but it didnt need much  really.

 

ideas?

[Pete Lewis]

Think I would check the feeds from the ign switch to coil are live when you are cranking it up

 

is this would have been a ballasted coil,?. Did you give the simon unit a 12v feed ??

 

as cold weather drops battery volts and ups the stater load ,

 

it could be with a ballast lower voltage than it likes

 

pete

[mishmosh]

Thanks, Ikinda knew you would be first in  Pete  ! I ts in the herald, so no ballast.  whats the best way to test the feeds

[Pete Lewis]

a cheap meter i guess,   

 

so no ballast that eliminates any old balls going on ,  this may be a death nell of the simon unit , some love em  some hate em !

 

Ive come across a couple of duff ones in my years but never fitted any 

 

if you pull a plug lead do you get a good spark jump to earth

 

whos rotor , black with a rivet or red one ??

 

Pete

[mishmosh]

rotor is standard BBC.  good clean spark.   I am starting to think its time to do a compression test. Yrs ago when I first bought it, It had a sticky valve. The AA would regularly towstart me. It fired instantly then.  I am  on a leaded head and have done over 40k on it. Maybe, its time.....

[Pete Lewis]

Make sure the jets do drop fully when pulling choke, and chsck there is no green stuff in any of the HT

connectors especialy the coil

Cold weather needs more choke ,

can you hand prime the pump, before cranking ?

pete

[mishmosh]

I think hand prime is the next test.  back to the coil test. can you explain how please . I have a meter.

[JohnD]

Quick crude test - spray KwikStart into the inlet.

A brief start and die indicates a fuelling problem, no start an ignition one.

 

That could exclude extending the enquiry to the fuel pump.