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Spitfire Mk4 stalling and then not starting


John L

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Steve P

Unlikely to be floating debris in tank, I had this problem soon after I got the Spartan about 10 years ago.  It would stop running every 4 miles or so.  It always got me home, but in a series of short hops, restarting after 10 mins at the roadside.  I removed the tank and cleaned out plenty of gunge then modified the outlet pipe.  I fitted a metal outlet pipe that stood up into the tank approx 25mm.  I cross drilled the pipe in the tank with 1.5mm holes so any floaters in the tank would need to balance on the standing pipe or be small enough to get through the cross drilled holes.  I have an inline filter in the flex hose between tank and fuel pump that has never collected any gunge.

No problem getting fuel to the carbs since.

Alan

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On 29/04/2024 at 19:58, Alan J said:

From what you say Pete the springs may help with the pancake filters, so I will try and get a run out soon, have a leisurely coffee break, then see how she starts before messing with mixtur

Alan, read my post in Fuel topic re Vitesse needles and springs. It's put years on me.....!

Iain.

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Well, well, started cold fine, had a good run out today, stopped for coffee and cake (back at home again I'm not reckless) and 45 mins later she would not start.

Started eventually but was missing and a couple of back fires. Was wondering about that new distributor cap so whipped it off, studied the inside which looked fine but noticed a bit of soot on rotor arm spring contact to coil.  Put a used rotor arm in from spares box, showed it the ignition key and it burst into life.  Roared around the lanes again.  Back home for more coffee and cake and she started again first spin of the starter 45 mins later.

That spare rotor arm was in the car when the trouble first occurred.  Ah well, the ignition circuit has had some love and attention and a reassuring compression test has been done.  Thankfully I did not start messing around with those needles and the mixture!

Thanks to all, happy motoring.

Alan

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