Cold Nature Carb: Weber 34ICH

[crankin]

This is my first winter with the rover fully up and running. As the temps have began to drop my carb seems to be lousy. My father (who is always full of semi-useful advice) suggested that it could be the carb needing to be rebuilt or that the adjustments are off....

So, what do I do? Apparently, screw things up! I began with adjusting the mixture screw... followed the instructions that are found at: http://www.redlineweber.com/html/Tech/34_ICT_tunning.htm
However, I went back to the start of it all and set the mixture screw "back to zero"....(Turn the Mixture Screw in until it “LIGHTLY” seats, then back out the screw 2 full turns.).

Now no matter how much I adjust the mixture screw I can not get it to start. I thought that the carb could be just cold. So, I set a heater in the garage and ran the temp back up to summer degrees....still nothing.

What have I done?! In addition, I am not really sure how long I wait for the fuel fumes to disappear between each try....
I'm stupid...and not being born in the age of mechanical engines has ruined me.

[73series88]

when the weather was warm it ran fine?
i would go through the igntion first
points cap rotor plugs wire
i was chasing down a fuel problem a couple of weeks ago
turned out to be a bad condenser
ignition has to be dead on before you start tuning the carb.

have you had it apart at all to clean it
my weber is pretty tempermental to getting anything in the jets.
first thing i would clean out the jets
this is the link i used for cleaning and overhaul
http://www.aloharovers.com/tech/ichoverhaul.htm

and this is what i used for tuning
http://www.redlineweber.com/html/Tech/34_ICT_tunning.htm
good luck
aaron

[crankin]

Yeah, It ran fine in warm weather and before I started messing with it. The only issue was that it started to take forever to start up in 50 degree mornings (and yes, I used the choke). Once it reached 70 or so it would start right up.

[artpeck]

I had exactly the issue you describe and assumed it was the carb but before I stated in on the carb I did the following. Timed the engine to spec after making sure the points were clean and gapped. It was also my first few months with the truck and it started to get cool here in Nor Cal. I thought then truck was running fine but timing it made all the difference. Now starts on the first crank, accelerates smoothly etc. As a side bar I also read up on the choke and found out that the choke partially out riches up the mixture and fully out also opens the throttle. I had been assuming that more choke was better but found that about a third out was the trick when it was needed.
You may have a fuel problem when all is said and done but you might to check the timing etc as well if you haven't.

[crankin]

I had thought that my timing was spot on before I started messing with everything. I had timed by ear as well as the beer test.

My frustration is that everything was working fine but was hard to start when cold. Now since I have messed with the mixture screw I can not get it to fire up at all! Once i get it to fire up, I will set a timing gun to it, tune by ear, and all that.

[printjunky]

Might be a longshot (and I agree with the preceding "check the timing/ignition first" comments), but I've been doing the final work to get the Rover ready to be my daily driver this winter (after 8 years in a Wisconsin barn and 3 in my driveway), and I have a VERY rich running carb, which after just a couple of hours of running carbon-fouled the plugs enough to cause a no-start condition. It was a "ran great one day, not at all the next" scenario) So perhaps when you first adjusted the carb you were running way too rich and got the same result? Easy and cheap to throw a new set of plugs in to check (or at least pull the plugs and check for dry black soot on the ends).

Now I have to figure out what's up with the Zenith dumping so much fuel!

[crankin]

Might be a longshot (and I agree with the preceding "check the timing/ignition first" comments), but I've been doing the final work to get the Rover ready to be my daily driver this winter (after 8 years in a Wisconsin barn and 3 in my driveway), and I have a VERY rich running carb, which after just a couple of hours of running carbon-fouled the plugs enough to cause a no-start condition. It was a "ran great one day, not at all the next" scenario) So perhaps when you first adjusted the carb you were running way too rich and got the same result? Easy and cheap to throw a new set of plugs in to check (or at least pull the plugs and check for dry black soot on the ends).

Now I have to figure out what's up with the Zenith dumping so much fuel!

There is an idea!

[yorker]

Did you check for spark etc? Maybe you accidently unhooked a coil wire or something while playing witht he carb.

[crankin]

Did you check for spark etc? Maybe you accidently unhooked a coil wire or something while playing witht he carb.

I did check for unhooked wires last night....but I didn't check the carbon build up on the spark plugs.

[yorker]

so you had spark from the sparkplug wires?

[crankin]

I checked to make sure that everything is connected. I was unable to check for sparks, because its just me...and all I am able to do is turn it over...

EDIT: I do believe its the spark plugs...I will change them out and see what happens. They are black and a little wet from gas. Engine must have flooded

[stomper]

Is it a IIA? you can turn on the key, and then lay a screwdriver over the contacts of the starter selenoid under the hood to crank it over. Then you will be able to check the spark plugs for spark by yourself. Can't help you on the series III models though.