[TR] Fuel starvation in my TR4 - Report back - problem solved

Dean Mericas dmericas at austin.rr.com
Sun Oct 3 14:44:51 MDT 2010


Original message:
<Symptoms:
- Car runs well and with full power for a while after start-up.
- Loss of power and what feels like a miss under load after it's been driven
a while.  Going up a long hill seems to trigger the stumbling.  If I let up
on the throttle, it smoothes out.  Sometimes it drives well again for a
while.
- Problem seems to be worse when it's really hot out (I live in Austin),
although it also happens on cool mornings
- Engine idles smoothly even when it's not running well under load.>>
>

I finally solved the problem.  After checking the fuel lines, putting in a
fresh fuel filter, swapping out the Pertronix unit with new points &
condenser, and checking the timing, I tore down the carbs.  The bowls were
absolutely clean.  However, two things appeared out of spec: one of the
needles was poorly centered and one of the floats was set a bit low.  I
fixed both issues, replaced the O-rings, and set the balance and mixture.
The car now runs fine and pulls strongly with no apparent starvation on the
long hill at WOT.  The only thing that really makes sense is the float
setting being too low.  It's not clear to me how this would happen over
time - the floats had no indication of any leakage.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.  I guess this is the 1% of the time that
a fuel problem was actually the caused by the fuel system ; ^ )

Dean Mericas
Austin, TX
1965 TR4 / 1974 2000 GTV / 1976 Giulia Nuova Super


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