On Thu, 10 Aug 1995, Visual Productions wrote:
>
> The misfire and loss of power turned to horrible backfiring and
> sometimes flames out of the carb.
>
> The car won't even start at this time. I replaced the distributor cap
> and rotor, and fixed the pickup on the contactless ignition system.
> The plugs are sparking and the engine is turning - it just won't fire
> up. The choke and throttle on the carb both check out.
>
> A strange happening: occasionally the carb spits fuel out of the air
> intake as the engine is being cranked.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Brian Wancho
> brian@whc.net
Brian,
Flames coming out of the carb can be caused by EXTREMELY offset
ignition timing, or something like plug wires being connected to the
wrong cylinders. The cylinder fires while the intake valve is still open.
I have a '77 B also, (CA smog), but it has a '76 mechanical ignition
installed, (So far no one's caught on to that at the smog shops), so I
can't help you much with the electronic type. But what you've described
sounds like seriously mis-set timing.
I also had a very hard time starting my B for a long time when I
first got it. It would start fine 7 times out of ten, and not at all the
other times. Lots of nights spent waiting for a tow, or walking home.
Lots of head scratching later, and tracing down the wiring schematics
showed a humongous ballast resistor in the original, electronic ignition
circuit. When the PO put in the breaker-point distributor, he left the
resistor in the circuit, where it DIDN'T belong. I was getting about 8
volts to the coil primary statically, and about 4 volts while cranking!
If everything (temp, mixture, choke, alignment of planets, etc.) wasn't
right on, it wouldn't start. Took out the resistor, no more problem.
But like your case, there was spark, (though not very hot), and
everything LOOKED normal.
Didn't mean to be so long-winded, but I hope that helps.
Dave Simpson
davids@cybergate.com
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