R

Rik666

Member
Hi, I got a 1985 County V8 and since last 6 month I have felt a big power loss in the old V8, now recently it have gone all bad on the revving to and become more or less undrivable.
To me it seems the fuel feed is fine, taking off the carb feeders and the fuel spews out fast when fuel pump running.
But if I think bout it, the problem have showed up before a couple of times and that happened if I went over a speedbump fast (or over a ditch by the way) anyway when the truck was shaken up so to say.
Air filter clean as, fuel filter as well, cant find any block in petrol hose or anything logical.
Does the carbs need a rebuild? They was rebuilt 3 years ago, but can somehow the jets been blocked up or moved outa position?
Is it anyway I can check this easy before I go for a rebuild of carbs?
Cheers for any ideas
/Rik in NZ.
 
WELCOME! without an introduction....

Are they SU carbs? trying to think back to when I had a Rover SD1 V8... do the dashpots have oil in them? Do the plungers move up and down freely? IIRC they're easy enough to dismantle and re-assemble - far less bits than say a Weber or Holley. Does the throttle cable actually open the butterfly fully? It might have become slack or loose with the jolting around.. What air filter(s) are you using, that should keep the crap out.... Have you run out of fuel and sucked up some crap from the bottom of the tank?

Is the ignition side of things good?
 
Hi and thank you so much for your reply, Yes dash pots have oil, same I always used, took top of carbs of and cleaned them, they had bit of dried oil on them (original Stromberg I believe). Seems like one side butterfly open slightly less, but since all is mechanical Im sure they always done this. Original one airfilter, 500 mm long and sits sideways behind carbs. Possibly got crap from bottom of tank, but petrol flow is plenty when turning pump on and carb feed is taken off carbs. Ignition seems fine, but to hard to see in sunlight today. Its an electric ignition system, not sure if after market or not, but seems to be a self adjusting one, cant find any adjustments on it anyway, could it be the vacuum retardment thingy? Diaphragms was fine as well. It just wont rev and if you drive it, it got no power at all... :( almost dies when you try to drive. Starts fine, idling fine, revs a little when trottled but slow to rev up and not much...
And this have just happened over lets say last 6 month, and lately got from bad to worse...
 
Rik666 said:
Hi and thank you so much for your reply, Yes dash pots have oil, same I always used, took top of carbs of and cleaned them, they had bit of dried oil on them (original Stromberg I believe). Seems like one side butterfly open slightly less, but since all is mechanical Im sure they always done this. Original one airfilter, 500 mm long and sits sideways behind carbs. Possibly got crap from bottom of tank, but petrol flow is plenty when turning pump on and carb feed is taken off carbs. Ignition seems fine, but to hard to see in sunlight today. Its an electric ignition system, not sure if after market or not, but seems to be a self adjusting one, cant find any adjustments on it anyway, could it be the vacuum retardment thingy? Diaphragms was fine as well. It just wont rev and if you drive it, it got no power at all... :( almost dies when you try to drive. Starts fine, idling fine, revs a little when trottled but slow to rev up and not much...
And this have just happened over lets say last 6 month, and lately got from bad to worse...
Click to expand...

has it got any misfires or other symptoms??.will it rev up from idle when stationary.or just under load??
 
Nope, no missfires just wont rev up and under try driving, no power, just dies, runs better when choking but not good enough for driving... just dont understand...
 
Rik666 said:
Nope, no missfires just wont rev up and under try driving, no power, just dies, runs better when choking but not good enough for driving... just dont understand...
Click to expand...

ok,it sounds like the needles have moved in the carbs.have you checked to make sure that one has not come loose,or is jamming in the the needle slide.
 
Cheers for replies mate, hhmmm, tried to attach a separate fuel "tank" (a wine bottle actually) to rule out petrol tank problems.
Worked to drive much better, but now it drives similar with regular tank too, so either by me muckin round inside the carbs yesterday the needles came lose again if they were jammed or by driving round a bit the crap in the tank mite have got outa the way from the straw inside... I dont know and have no more time this week as heading of to Welly soon.
Back on Sunday and go for a new try on Monday, will keep you guys posted.
Cheers

/Rik.
 
Rik666 said:
Cheers for replies mate, hhmmm, tried to attach a separate fuel "tank" (a wine bottle actually) to rule out petrol tank problems.
Worked to drive much better, but now it drives similar with regular tank too, so either by me muckin round inside the carbs yesterday the needles came lose again if they were jammed or by driving round a bit the crap in the tank mite have got outa the way from the straw inside... I dont know and have no more time this week as heading of to Welly soon.
Back on Sunday and go for a new try on Monday, will keep you guys posted.
Cheers

/Rik.
Click to expand...

try the inlet manifold gasket,if that has split etc,then it will be sucking air in weakening the mixture and causing the vacuum to drop therefore not drawing the carb pistons up to allow the fuel through.
 
Problem solved, was a cracked air pipe from air filter to carb :) The underside had a split in it and could not be seen...
So the vacuum obviously was affected and air/fuel mix was not right and the most frustrating thing was that it worked sometimes depending on if the split was open or "sucked" closed, so driving over a bump could make engin start struggle, but not always...
This actually got solved in October 2013 but thought I fill in the solution if anybody ends up with same tricky problem.

Cheers everybody
 
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