Engine mystery

Posted by Paul Reasenberg on February 16, 1998 at 16:09:24

Here's a mystery...

I had finally gotten to the stage where my 1930 Coupe had a rebuilt Zenith carb, a rebuilt generator and a new distributor with new, modern points/condenser, and new plugs. Everything was gapped, timed. I went with great anticipation to start her up, and...she started right away and ran smoother than ever before!! Nice, even, slow idle. Engine was happiest when timing lever was down about 1/3 down for slow idle, 2/3 down for fast idle. I was so happy.

But...next day I go to start her again, and no luck. A lot of cranking, no action. Sometimes backfires in the carb. Sometimes a cylinder would catch, but not keep going. The starter motor would get thrown out, tho. I rechecked the timing at this point: perfect (#1 cylinder gets a spark at its TDC when the timing lever is fully retarded - all the way up). Points screws, etc. all tight. Distributor does not seem in any way loose, except the head, a little. Strong, blue sparks were being delivered to the plugs. After much cranking, it started, and ran very rough,with only 1-2 cylinders firing, probably. After about 60 seconds of very rough running, it suddenly went smooth and settled into a slow, smooth idle. After that (while it was warm) restarting it was very easy - just touch the starter. I mentioned the temperature; by the time it had finally started, the engine was probably somewhat warm from all the firings in the false starts. When it was running well, wiggling the distributor head had no effect.

On the following day (today) -- a colder day (~50 deg. here in California) -- I tried again. No action. No false starts. Nothing. Again, timing looked fine, and sparks were being delivered. I didn't try very long.

While there is a bit of valve clack noise when the engine runs, I suspect it is a normal amount, although I've not heard other A's running.

So...automotive sleuths. What does it sound like is wrong? I think probably all the clues are here, but I'm not enough of a mechanical Sherlock Holmes to recognize them.


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