Poor Running Rover

[suede]

Series IIa, 88inch, 1964, 2.25 petrol, 36K miles. My rover had been sitting for at least 12 years. I got it running this year (nothing done to the engine). The first 200-300 miles it seemed to run good. Then it started losing power intermittently (every 10-15 seconds). At slow speeds it felt like it was lurching-high speeds the momentum eased this feeling. During this time it never died. I turned the mixture screw on the carb and it started running better (w/o the power loss). Consequently it was smoking pretty bad (it would gag me at a stop light) and smelling pungantly like fuel. The other day after driving 20 miles it wouldn't start. It sat hours then started again. A complete tune-up will come paycheck to paycheck. Any ideas on where to start? Thanks

[Bostonian1976]

hoping you changed your fluids etc?

Could be a point/condensor issue....

[KevinNY]

New points, new plugs and wires, timing, valve clearances.

[scott]

clean fuel tank(s), pick up tube(s), lines, pump and carb. most import is to head to your local package store and get beer befor it completely stops running

[Momo]

Agree with Kevin/Bostonian. All the parts Kevin mentioned ought to be replaced anyway, and they are not too spendy. Throw in a new coil and inline plastic fuel filter too.

It does sound like you are getting alot of unburned fuel out the exhaust. Maybe when you first turned the mixture screw you were enriching it (which allowed it to run), but now it's far too rich. The intermittent bogging would be caused by the spark not being able to keep up with the amount of fuel being dumped into the cylinders and an improper fuel/air mix...

I guess if it were me, I would start with the ignition system, mainly because without first sorting out ignition faults, I've found that one can run in circles messing with a carburettor.

Check your distributor shaft for wobble by grabbing & shaking. Examine your points, rotor and inside cap contacts for pitting and burning, & check the breaker gap.

The rubbing block on the points, which rides on the shaft's cam, can wear down and cause your breaker gap to be out of spec(too narrow). Also, grab the rotor and twist the shaft. Release it. It is spring loaded and should snap back smartly. Weak springs will not snap back well. Bad condensor= weak spark. Best way to check it is to get a new one.

Pull your spark plugs and examine for carbon build up and check the gap.

Correct any faults. Then I would move on to the fuel system, checking any inline filter, the sediment bowl filter at the fuel pump, bowl float level,
and then the mixture. While running, lean the mixture until it begins to die, then turn the screw back until it's smooth again.

From that point you may have a better idea of what's wrong. Then once you have corrected anything you found, you can play with timing advance/retard. Then maybe look into a carb rebuild if need be.

After sitting even for 8 months to a year the old gas in the carb will have gummed everything up. When you first got it running you may have pushed that crap around inside the carb. Which carb does your Rover have?

Finally, what went wrong so that it was allowed to sit for twelve years?

[singingcamel]

clean fuel tank(s), pick up tube(s), lines, pump and carb. most import is to head to your local package store and get beer befor it completely stops running


tune it up and follow above info , i would have to say its a fuel issue and this should help.
also change or add a inline fuel filter and flush your gas tank.