my first stranding and tow..lol any ideas?

[ghettoct]

well the tinker toy tinkered out on the way home from a friday nite cruise in.... drove fine all nite till the long and dark road in middle of nowhere. started to sputter and blow black smoke and fire balls out the exhaust. was a sight for the car behind me esp since it was getting dark..lol

motor died but had enought momentum to coast into a BBQ place, where the car behind me turned in as well, had to push it into a parking place, and tried to start it but it just cranked over and over. then a lady with a cell phone came up to me and wanted to know it i needed to use it to call someone. (kinda neat that she pulled over to help, she even said it was a cool ride) i thanked her and told her i had a cell.

tried to start it again and it fired up and ran fine. attempted to drive out and it made it a 1/4 mile and did the same thing again. pulled into the weeds and called a tow truck. while waiting i tinkered wth carb, and leaned it out a full turn and it ran still.

tow arrived and he said neat land rover, his brother was into land rovers and had 2 88's but sold them. he even gave me break on the tow on the flat bed, kinda cool. even though it broke down it was nice to find people who were interested in the land rover, and knew someone who had one.

also on the way to the cruise in i was followed by a range rover and he drove into the cruise in to say hi. i told him i hoped that my exhaust fumes didnt kill him, he said it looked to be running rich, and saw the exhaust cough a few black hair balls out while following. he suggested to check dwell, and timing them adjust carb. which i was going to tomorrow...until the murphy's law wrench was thrown..lol

it always had a black exhaust, an occasional cough between shifting between 1 to 2nd gear. i leaned carb out prior to this and it still had a black exhaust when getting on it. would have thought it jumped timing but it ran normal when started up again. just took a few cranks longer. fuel bowl has gas in it, filter has gas in it. some rust scales but not that much on the new filter.

any ideas?? though its a bummer iam looking forward to attempting to fix it..lol (it ran great off the flat bed, across the yard to the back garage) really weird.

thanks
james

ps hope the world doesnt end in 1 min, i am looking forward to working on the land rover..

[ghettoct]

forgot

well the world didnt end yet, forgot to mention its a 1980 ex-mod S111 109, with 2.25 petrol. 24V converted to 12V.

[Nium]

Have you adjusted the points lately? Do you have points? Don't forget adjusting the air fuel mixture screw only adjusts the air/fuel mixture for idle. You have to change out jets and emulsion tubes to effect air/fuel mixture above idle. My humble suggestion is to make sure the ignition is solid (points, condensor, cap, rotor, sparkplugs, and condition of the distributor) before adjusting the carb.

Another suggestion is that if your using one of the fuel filters that is a clear glass cylinder with a white filter element in the middle of it to get rid of it. It takes an insignificant amount of crud to clog one. Get a tin can filter to place in line before the carb and a larger filter placed before the fuel pump.

Happy Rovering.

[LaneRover]

If it has been running rich I would pull a spark plug - maybe they have black soot all over them and aren't sparking much.

[ghettoct]

thanks for the suggestions, ill try them and see what happens. read a few other posts and will make one change at a time. starting with plugs and back towards distributor and coil.

iam running a fram fuel filter, its the big plastic one that you can see through. there was a glass one with the plastic filter that i took off from previous owner (dont like glass and fuel together) there is a small amount of debris on bottom but not that significant.

gotta figure out how to get my timing light to the positive post on battery that rides next to drivers seat. thanks again for the help!!

[LaneRover]

gotta figure out how to get my timing light to the positive post on battery that rides next to drivers seat. thanks again for the help!!

There should be something (powered side of the starter solenoid?) that is a direct line to the positive terminal of the battery in the engine bay.

[ghettoct]

thanks, found it while scratching my head on trying to figure out the situation, didnt get time to time it but did start at spark plugs and made my way backwards.

#1-3 plugs were in ok condition, kinda tan but white. #4 was covered in soot and carbon deposits, but electrode was not grounded on its self. replaced all 4. (also did a compression check: each cylinder rose in psi quickly)

cylinder 1: 155 psi
cylinder 2: 148 psi
cylinder 3: 135 psi
cylinder 4: 142 psi

wires were ok but had a new set in bag and replaced, correctly wired.

cap replaced, rotor button replaced, condenser replaced, points were worn slightly and smoothed out with emory cloth. ( i thought i had a matching point in parts box but it did not have the pivot point under the point.) set gap to .030 and put all the above back together. replaced the coil with a new one and cleaned all contacts. wished and crossed fingers and turned over motor....ran for a few mins then died out.

i did notice that the clear plastic fuel filter was half full with gas, not sure if that could be a part of problem? the glass bowl on fuel pump was full of fuel.

while it was running i did notice when the choke was part on, you could hear a slight thump thump in exhaust, almost like it was missing or back firing very slightly.

decided to get away and took wife out for dinner. will hit back tomorrow and try timing if i can get it to run long enough.

i also noticed its a GM rochester carb on the land rover, i dont think they came with GM carbs.

day one with out the land rover sucked... =(

though it didnt change the outcome i did notice that a few of the components did need changing out. just wished it would have solved the problem..lol

thanks for everones input and suggestions. please keep them coming lol.

There should be something (powered side of the starter solenoid?) that is a direct line to the positive terminal of the battery in the engine bay.

[ghettoct]

points

i was looking at points at rovers north and the one that i have in my rover is the "blue" sliding late lucas blue plastic Part#:RNF232. it has a plastic horse shoe on the bottom, but i did notice that the horse show on mine would rotate easily and looked to be unglued/seperated ftom the coiled metal area. is this normal?

http://www.roversnorth.com/store/p-6037-point-set-4-cyl-sliding-late-lucas-blue-plastic.aspx

mine is rotated approx 90deg to the left of the one in the pic. it was on the metal pin that comes up from the dist. it just sits there with no tension or anything.

[LaneRover]

Keep the Rochester carb. If it is the right one they are great!

Brent

[Nium]

Contact Point Gap

The gap on the points should be 0.014" - 0.016" or 0.36mm - 0.40mm. 0.030 maybe a little wide.

You may have a vacuum leak. Get a vacuum gauge and check what your vacuum readings tell you.

Links on using vacuum gauge

http://moodle.student.cnwl.ac.uk/moodledata_shared/cdx%20etextbook/dswmedia/toolsEquip/hpt/measuring/vacgauge.html

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm

Second on keeping the Rochester carb. Commonly suggested replacement carb.

[ghettoct]

thanks on the suggestions on carb and point gap! ill check and change them tomorrow.

i read somewhere that a 45 -50 sized jet would work on the rochester for the 2.25 petrol??

The gap on the points should be 0.014" - 0.016" or 0.36mm - 0.40mm. 0.030 maybe a little wide.

You may have a vacuum leak. Get a vacuum gauge and check what your vacuum readings tell you.

Links on using vacuum gauge

http://moodle.student.cnwl.ac.uk/moodledata_shared/cdx%20etextbook/dswmedia/toolsEquip/hpt/measuring/vacgauge.html

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm

Second on keeping the Rochester carb. Commonly suggested replacement carb.

[LR Max]

I'm just going to throw out a bunch of different ideas, and hopefully one of them will help you. If you've covered them, I apologize for covering the same ground twice.

Which Distributor do you have?

If you have the Ducieller (of however its spelled) then rip that POS out and put in a lucas (45d4, I believe). It'll cause nothing but trouble for you. Very finicky and they crap out anytime water gets within 5 miles of it.

If you had fire shooting out of your tailpipe, then it does sound like it is distributor related.

For my Rochester carb, I run a #49 jet with great success.

Also check inside your rotor cap, make sure the contacts there are still in good shape and don't have black stuff over them. Same with your rotor button. Had that happen once. This causes problems but is a simple fit.

Fuel wise, have you cleaned out the gas tanks recently? Crap getting stuck in the fuel lines causes all kinds of issues. If you clean out the tanks, blow out the lines as well since crap can get stuck in them too.

When your switch over valve (the thingie that allows you to switch between gas tanks) craps out, replace it with a marine grade valve. Cheaper, better design, won't leak.

[ghettoct]

thanks for the help,

as for dist? i dunno what type it is, iam a nob and still learning. ill try and see what it is. i do know it takes a sliding point (blue) not that is any help ID ing it..lol

before my problems started the rover would spit, cought or pop(pick one) when shifting between 1st to 2nd occasionally. and the exhaust would always have a black tinge to it. when the stranding ocured it was like 4th of july out the tail pipe, black smoke, fire and noise..lol

my rover did come with spare parts, and a there is a new dist in box (ill try and see any ID #'s etc. there was a box the carb came in and there is a #49 new jet in it. ill take out fuel tank and make my way to carb and clean it out. there is some rust sediment in tank. (thanks for the info on lines as well) and switch the jet if there not a 49 in there.

i had a typo on my previous post, points gap was 14 not 30, the plugs were gapped at .030."

rotor cap, and button was good on old one, and just replaced them since i had a new set already as well as plug wires.

fuel transfer valve was broken b4, previous owner just bypassed it to the one tank to fuel pump. (iam missing the drivers side tank.) ill have to get the marine grade you mentioned at west marine.

again thanks for the help!!! much appreciated to all who wrote!!

I'm just going to throw out a bunch of different ideas, and hopefully one of them will help you. If you've covered them, I apologize for covering the same ground twice.

Which Distributor do you have?

If you have the Ducieller (of however its spelled) then rip that POS out and put in a lucas (45d4, I believe). It'll cause nothing but trouble for you. Very finicky and they crap out anytime water gets within 5 miles of it.

If you had fire shooting out of your tailpipe, then it does sound like it is distributor related.

For my Rochester carb, I run a #49 jet with great success.

Also check inside your rotor cap, make sure the contacts there are still in good shape and don't have black stuff over them. Same with your rotor button. Had that happen once. This causes problems but is a simple fit.

Fuel wise, have you cleaned out the gas tanks recently? Crap getting stuck in the fuel lines causes all kinds of issues. If you clean out the tanks, blow out the lines as well since crap can get stuck in them too.

When your switch over valve (the thingie that allows you to switch between gas tanks) craps out, replace it with a marine grade valve. Cheaper, better design, won't leak.

[jimrr]

these died on the road issues are a sudden thing........ my engine swallowed a jet from some carb I had one time , i heard it go thru the engine........ don't recall the carb but it had a metering port in the throat.
look for something that'd happen quick, electrical ..............?

[ghettoct]

FIXXED!!! YEA!!!!!!!!

well after going throught all the items i posted, wouldnt you know it, it would be the very last thing i do that was the problem...lol got the timing gun hooked up, shot the timing and couldnt see any timing marks on the pulley and then went to loosen the distributor bolt and it was already loosen for me!! dang it... rotated the distributor slightly until motor sounded good and then hit timing light on it and there was the mark. tigntened the bolt and she runs. wow!

i did correct some problems that i ran into along the way, fuel lines had sediment in them, replaced the lines with new ones, changed out plugs, condenser, coil, plug wires, and ordered a new points set. have to wait till wife gets home b4 i test drive just incase...iam now gun shy on driving it..lol

figured out where my oil leak is at as well... any one know where to get the oil lines that connect the oil cooler to the motor. my return line to block weaps oil.

again thanks to all who posted!!!

james