I have a problem and don't know where (else) to turn for technical advice.
Here goes.
I bought a 78 Spitfire back in October 93. Seemed to run fine. About
three weeks later I took it to work. Still running fine. Same day I
started it up and seemed to race at idle at about 2300 RPM range, and
would not kick down, even after heating up.
(This is now only annoying, because it is caused by an extremely rich
starting mixture being constantly applied to the engine, the engine
runs very hot, and I am told that the catalytic converter will
eventually start to glow red hot.)
Wanting to try my hand at fixing the problem, I bought the Haynes Stromberg
book and eventually took off the Carb and tore it down. Essentially I
cleaned it up and replaced a few gaskets. I took the "autostart"
mechanism apart, save the heat transfer chamber (If you are familiar
with Strombergs, engine coolant is directed thru this chamber to provide
temp sense to the autostart mechanism). Cleaned it up and now have a good
working knowledge of how it is supposed to work, thanks to Haynes and
all the parts laying out on my work bench. On the bench, at least, all
the springs, detents, pin movements, piston actions, etc. of the
autostart mechanism appeared to act as described in the Haynes book.
Then came the day of reckoning when I replaced the carb. Lo and behold,
the engine seemed to work fine. Kickdown worked as it was expected,
eventually slowing the engine idle down to a few hundreds of RPM's,
slowing down in stages as the engine warmed up - just as it should.
OK, so I patted myself on the back. Another challenge accomplished.
Well done.
And now the problem.
The original scenario has now reoccurred. Yesterday I spent a lot of
time in the car and it ran fine all day. Last night, however, (about
two hours after a nice drive) I restarted it and the kickdown would not work.
Today, I again restarted it and same same. Idle at 2300 RPM. It's like deja
vu all over again. Now the kickdown just will not work. It's like the fuel
metering pin in the autostart mechanism is stuck open - somehow, and all
the spings and detents, etc. are unable to move it into the closed position.
And, of course, that brings me to my question for the board.
Can someone help me ? Has someone on the British-Cars board had similar
experience or could provide advice re the next step ? (Taking off the carb
is not something that I want to do every day. Next time I remove it from the
engine I hope that I have a notion of what will fix it.)
Does anyone know where one can obtain a replacement autostart mechanism ?
(None of the catalogs seem to list that assembly as available)
And, finally: Some of the catalogs list a manual choke. Has anyone
retrofitted one onto a Stromberg, and what was the result - good or bad
experience.
All advice very welcome. Thanks, in advance.
|