Higher idle RPm & temp gauge

[Iain T]

If you can idle the car from cold without the choke it indicates its too rich? 

First off screw idle back to say 700rpm. Ensure the choke screw is still clear of the cam. 

The only way you have increased revs at a constant speed now as to say last week is slipping clutch or some electrical wizardry wrongly indicating on the counter. If you say the revs are higher now it must be the clutch? 

However this sounds like a multitude of issues indicated higher revs being just one. 

[Quack]

Starting car:

Warmed up and reached idle:

Watch these and let me know what you think if this is how it should normally be to start

[Quack]

Okay will bring it back to 700rpm idle with the screw

[Pete Lewis]

well the battery is in a poor state thats making the starter labour badly

its has to be far too rich as cold you should need choke certainly the first 1/2" of pull to help a cold idle  you should not need to wag the throttle about it does little to help  or change anything on a strombergs carb cold starting .

she kicks back when cranking so the timing is far too advanced 

still reckon the climb in revs and temp readings are controlled by voltage problems and readings increase as you charge up the battery on a run 

as the rev counter is getting its pulse from the coil do check the coil 12v polarity is correct 

white to +ve  and dizzy lead to the -ve  with the rev counter take off i would think on the -ve terminal 

( do you have the wiring diag for the rev counter ??) 

Pete

[Pete Lewis]

when its up to running temp  and you have it at 700 ish  its simple to adjust the mixture 

use a washer or a penny to locate in the slot in the brass jet holder under the float chamber

wind it down makes rich  wind it up make lean 

so just turn it till the revs improve and any lumpiness disappears  do this is 1/4  to 1/2 turns  dont just harang it 

its a quite touchy feely job  then rest the idle back to 700

timing is more involved  what do you have to check this ???

Pete

[Iain T]

Not sure if the link worked

Adjusting a Stromberg carburettor | How a Car Works

[Quack]

Okay will read through the above comments thoroughly and see what I can do and get back, thanks. Cheers for the link.

as  for the battery, when I first bought it the guy said it just had a new battery put in. It then was knackered a few weeks later and I replaced it with a brand new good spec battery. So if the battery is knackered again then something is going very wrong, damaging the battery..

no diag for the Rev counter, it’s just one cable going in to the harness which I assume goes to coil.

for timing I borrowed a timing light before I moved back south. Got it central between the two white marks on the pulley. The marks were already there on the car before I had it.

[Josef]

26 minutes ago, Quack said:

Okay will read through the above comments thoroughly and see what I can do and get back, thanks. Cheers for the link.

as  for the battery, when I first bought it the guy said it just had a new battery put in. It then was knackered a few weeks later and I replaced it with a brand new good spec battery. So if the battery is knackered again then something is going very wrong, damaging the battery..

no diag for the Rev counter, it’s just one cable going in to the harness which I assume goes to coil.

for timing I borrowed a timing light before I moved back south. Got it central between the two white marks on the pulley. The marks were already there on the car before I had it.

Check the voltage at the battery when running / revving the car. Should be 14V ish. Over or under and your alternator is playing up and knackering the battery (I think similar for dynamo and control box?)

What connections do you have at the coil? There will likely be an extra one on the negative terminal for the rev counter. I’d probably disconnect it and ignore it for now. A broken RVC type rev counter can cause issues with running. So easy enough to eliminate it for now. 

[Jeffds1360]

Yea, I'm with all the above. Choke needed, even at 14-16 degrees we are getting here just now, for at least 5 mins, slowly feed it back in when driving away, you may need to pull it out a bit if the engine stutters. You get used to doing it between gear changes! You should not need throttle on startups as the choke cam should open the throttle sufficiently

I would guess your car is running way too rich. Your air filter is non spec I have found those pancakes to be rubbish and I recommend the original if available. 

Ignore the rev counter. Use your ears As stated, revs do not vary at a set speed. Unless clutch slipping.

Get the warm tickover to 750/800. Set timing by ear or book and ditto the mixture. Do you have points or electronic ignition?

[Quack]

4 minutes ago, Jeffds1360 said:

Yea, I'm with all the above. Choke needed, even at 14-26 degrees we are getting here, for at least 5 mins, slowly feed it back in, you may need to pull it out a bit of engine stutters. You get used to doing it between gear changes! You should not need throttle as the choke cam should open the throttle sufficiently

I would guess your running way too rich. Your air filter is non spec and I recommend the original if available. 

Ignore the rev counter. Use your ears As stated, revs do not vary at a set speed. Unless clutch slipping.

Get the warm tickover to 750/800. Set timing by ear or book and ditto the mixture. Do you have points or electronic?

I have an electronic ignition, just running through all the info above now

[Jeffds1360]

Ahhh. I'm not familiar with electronic.  Maybe it can 'move' and upset everything. Someone will know

[Quack]

just checked battery, putting out 12.6 turned off and on about 14.6, turned it off and then tried to turn on again and…
 

Complete disaster turn of events! car won’t start at all, smoke coming from somewhere, seems like coil?!

god what is going on with this vehicle…no idea what to do now

 

 

[Jeffds1360]

Ohhh boy. Problems!

That smoke may have started below the coil. Is the starter motor straight below?

[Quack]

It is yeah but it didn’t seem like it was coming from there, you can see the starter in the video 

[Jeffds1360]

I studied your video and the smoke seems to start lower down. Mind I have a slight cataract too

Good luck duck, I mean Quack. You need a knowledkableowledge  ??? What??* predictive

Where abouts down South are you Local group may have a guru.

[Pete Lewis]

well something is loading the starter   , smoke comes from a number of ideas

the starter itself

the leads 

the earths

does the choke or speedo cables get hot when cranking which would indicate a engine earthing problem

the starter is certainly in big trouble , and i suggest the smoke is a winding failure 

the engine does still kick back  so timing is advanced too far

i would undo the dizzy clamp and rotate the dizzy anticlockwise 1/2" 

but until the starter is  solved youre not going anywhere and yes try your local group

for a second pair of eyes  ,

youre too far from Luton no matter how good a bacon buttie 

were in the south are you ???

Pete

 

[Paul H]

10 minutes ago, Quack said:

It is yeah but it didn’t seem like it was coming from there, you can see the starter in the video 

Where area are you ? 
Paul 

[Quack]

I’m based in Salisbury.

tried voltmeter on coil, no response from either pos or neg so it’s dead.

also my alarm I installed now makes much lower pitch noises when I lock the car. The alarm only connects directly to the main battery’s positive lead as seen in the pic below…

[Quack]

This is beyond comprehension now. The battery reads 12.8, so it’s got plenty of charge. How can the alarm which is only connected to the battery possibly be screwing up…I thought it was the coil but then why is this happening? Honestly losing the plot over here.

[Iain T]

You need some hands on help. Have you contacted your local tssc group?

[Quack]

Nearest one to me is andover, i'll try get in contact with them now

[Pete Lewis]

the grot around the terminals on the solenoid look pretty awful 

time for a serious clean up of replace the sol.

Pete

[Quack]

2 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

the grot around the terminals on the solenoid look pretty awful 

time for a serious clean up of replace the sol.

Pete

Yes just came back here to say I removed the coil to access solenoid, seems like the smoke came from here as it’s pretty messy. Think I’m going to straight up replace.

[Quack]

Connected my alarm to the battery just standalone, and its still completely buggered, makes weird sounds, then none at all.

Any ideas how this could've happened? The alarm simply cut in to the big positive wire going from the battery to the solenoid. Has it been fried by the current going from the battery to the solenoid maybe? Cause this makes me concerned that other things have broken when whatever happened, happened.

I checked the ohms on the coil, they're reading fine so thats ok.

The solenoid i'm going to replace. Hopefully i dont need to replace the starter motor too but, im imagining i probably will...

[NonMember]

I thought that smoke looked like it came from the solenoid. If the solenoid was on its way out then that would explain the slow cranking. If the connections are all poor then you can get other issues. If the engine earth strap is not properly attached you'll get slow cranking, high wear on the starter and the solenoid, and probably very strange behaviour from the rev counter.

As to the alarm, I would remove it. Completely. Just dump it. They're far more trouble than benefit.