While we were away for the weekend fireball started backfiring through the carby's then soon after I was having to use the choke to stop stalling on take off. Then ran smoothly up to about 70 mph but was running out of power there.
My initial thoughts were running too lean or plugs gunked up.

Being away from home with no old clothes for tinkering I perservered over the 3 days. By the time we were heading home Sunday I was dropping to about 40mph on any decent hill and thought Monday I would replace plugs,points, rotor,condenser and fuel filters then clean the carby's because all of the above were about due anyway.

First off I got into the boot to remove fuel filters finding them perfect so closed it up again. Then removed the plugs to find almost white plugs from running lean, so wondered across the road to my retired mechanic friend for his opinion of the plugs....."running lean,replace plugs points,rotor and condenser then I'll come over for a gander. Do that and we'll set her up on the scope and see what's going on"

Went to remove the air filter cover to find it had popped out of it's bottom holding rail, there is my lean mixture problem.
Did the parts replacing and off for quick road test, sweet for about 200 meters then biggest backfire and smoke from bonnet, so gave it some gas to suck any flame into the engine if there was any. Drove about 1 km then stopped to have a look. Air filter cover off again so refitted it and ran sweet until I got to my drive and it wouldn't get up the hill without the choke.

Having a look around to see what was going on I noticed the distributor was wobbling with the shaft turning, by this time the nieghbour had arrived with timing light and dwell metre in hand. Checked dwell first it was 44 but should be 32-38 so reset the points.
Timing at 14 deg, so went to reset it and found clamping bolt to engine had fallen out. We set the timing to 8 deg and put in a new bolt.

So not sure if the timing moving around caused the back fire blowing the cover off the air filter or if the cover coming off caused the back fire.

I learnt a lot about the ignition system today so all in all a productive day. Handy having a retired mechanic across the road. Probably going to connect Fireball to the scope tomorrow, old 70/80's looking thing with a black and white screen,lots of knobs and cables. It is tucked away at the back of his garage.

All parts were on the shelf at my local Repco shop too.

 

My old 351 Clevo would backfire through the carby if the ignition was too advanced.

Sounds like that was your problem.

 

Yep, backfire sorted the air cleaner, bolt sorted the timing.

Done deal.

SIMPLE.

 

My first thought would be timing as well. A carb backfire is generated by a cylinder firing at the wrong time during the stroke, blasting the charge back through the valve and the intake rather than containing it to thrust the piston down.
Loss of power and a big bang - unpleasant.

 

On the farm we used to get that once in a while when the timing chain slipped a tooth. No idea why it might have done that, truck only had about 3 million miles on it.
(';')

 

Got my "L" plate son to road test it today, no issues to report back on.
Scary thing is in about 3 weeks time he will be flying solo on his "P" plates if he passes the driving test.
Then there will be a bunch of teenage boys cruising in it for the 8 week summer break before they move on to university.

 

So then does that mean, Clarke, that you've turned it mostly over to him?
What a cool ride for a chip off the old block!
(';')

 

Clarke:


Scary isn't it!!! As men, we know what we did at a like age.....


I did it at a slightly older age. Just before our last year of college, a "last hurrah"
before full adulthood!!! Circa 1950.


Roy inherited his families' venerable 39 ford "Standard"' sedan. It saw them through the WWII years. Pristine, but with a well worn motor. It gulped oil. Ran great, though.


Roy, John and I went from El Paso, Texas to Long beach, California and back.
Many adventures.... I'll stop at that....


Carl


'

 

His when he needs a car as the Jeep is her indoors car and if his sisters Jazz isn't available Fireball will be it.
I don't mind as I've said all along we bought it to drive, I just may be getting less driving hours and more time for riding......not a bad trade off for me. The bike doesn't get out more than 3 or 4 times a week these days so looking forward to racking up some big k's on two wheels.

 

There has to be a movie in this somewhere. About the only thing missing is a sunroof to hang out of :-)

 

You've mentioned a couple times, that was your first love.
Stay safe, Clarke.
(';')

 

Scary indeed, but at least these kids have learned a lot more about driving than we when licences were given away.

If not a movie,certainly some stories to be told.

Been riding since 11 years old, longest I have ever gone since then without riding is 14 days(honeymoon in 1994). I used to ride everyday until I got the Jag ,it seems to keep me a bit drier on wet days too.
Until then I used put all my gear on and ride past my cars to pop down to the shop, but the Jag screams our "drive me" so the bike only gets out 3-4 rides a week compared to 2-3 times a day two years ago.

Might be sign of going soft and turning into a fairweather rider in my middle age.

 

That probably aids riding longevity a bit. We have a few riders in our car club, all men of a certain age (well past middle age) who happily admit to being fair weather riders.

A couple of weekends ago I came across an older gentleman who had gone slightly off piste on his nice new BMW 650 GS. A few of us dragged him and the bike out of a ditch. All good just a few bumps and scratches, he was OK too :-)

 

Yep, a little scary Clarke. You're sounding pretty comfortable though, so son must have earned your trust, and I'm sure you've taught him about consequences!

 

I thought I had it all sorted until today, driving home from work I got to the freeway and no power. By the time I got home it was cutting in and out so much I had to line up the garage door from across the street and get a run up to get up the hill,just made it in second try. I really need a flat drive way.



Need to sort this by next weekend for a forum run west of Brisbane or I'll be taking two wheels instead.
After some food and a couple of glasses of red I thought I might check the dwell angle, was set to 34 last week(book says 35 +/- 3), meter is reading 56.4.

from that I am assuming the points gap has closed up.

Project for tomorrow after we get her indoors a new dish washer, I have put 3 x $100 parts in it in the last 12 months so time to stop throwing coin at it and bite the bullet and buy a new one with 5 year warranty.

 

Clarke,

If your dizzy runs the GL19 points, the ones today are crappier than years ago, and they were rubbish then.

I would try and find the GL568. Same points, BUT, they are 2 piece, and used on the Mini Cooper S. They have a fibre cam contact, as versus the nylon on the GL19.

Condensor should be a GL103.

 

This is what I have at the moment. New ones sitting on the box, fuelmiser brand I think. What brand are you talking?
I will try Repco tomorrow, if no luck I will give Doug a call at Jagdaim.



EDIT:
Here are the old ones, they don't seem to want to come apart so I am assuming they are one piece.

 

Yep, L19V or GL19 same smae. One piece points with a rubbish nylon rubbing pad.

The V means that one contact has a hole drilled in it, and that makes them "vented", hence the V.

Doug want have GL568, its a Bosch number, but also a standard "industry" number. Repco should have them, but the demand these days would be very low, so be prepared for a no.

If you have to use what you got, smear the dizzy cam lobes with wheel bearing grease. I found it the best over the years. A bit stickier than normal grease, and more heat resistant.

Those N11?? plugs are a tad hot, I ran N9?? in all mine.

 

No luck today sourcing the points, but went over everything again. The distributor is wobbling with the shaft turning,and when I press down on the condenser with screw driver the points gap opens to about 2-3 times it's normal setting.
I'm assuming it is worn out since the base plate is moving around like that.
A job for later in the week.

Any ideas?

it's looking like two wheels for the forum run next weekend at this stage.

 

Clarke if you source something in Sydney I can pick it up and put it in an overnight for you........more than happy if you need!