JowettTalk

Steven wrote:I have a number of off cuts which are 6mm thick.

Thanks to Steve who sent me several offcuts of tufnol which I took to nightschool on Wednesday, and started to drill the necessary holes to make the heat-resisting carburettor spacers,

My word, doesn't it smell when it gets hot!

Tony.

Hi Tony,

Has this poor starting problem when hot only emerged over the winter months? If so, then my similar problem and unfortunate experiences might be helpful?

I have had this situation in th past with the Javelin, as some readers will have seen in previous posts. Indeed, in our section it has been called the 'Morrison's effect', as it often seems to occur when I have used the Javelin to go shopping locally to Morrison's and she won't start when we emerge after doing the shopping. If we leave her to cool right down, she then starts with no problem. However, by this time I have read every magazine on the Morrison's shelves!

This left me really puzzled and I investigated wrapping the front exhaust pipe in asbestos rope, cooling fans etc.

However, when it finally occured during an MoT inspection a couple of years ago, most embarissingly when on the rolling road, I twigged what the problem was. It only surfaced in the early spring, all other times she starts 'on the button'.

I have, I sincerely hope after many false tries at 'solutions', hopefully traced the effect down to modern petrol that has been left in the tank from the last season. I have been in the habit of keeping the tank about 3/4 full and this 'old' petrol has been 'going off' during the winter. I try to run the engine at least once a week during the winter, to keep her free and everyting moving as it should. In previous years, I have been adding fresh fuel into the tank as the weather warms up and we use her on the road, and this finally 'cures' the problem as the 'duff' fuel gets used up. However, a better solution would probably be to empty the tank and put fresh fuel in to cure the 'problem'. That's my job over the next few days.

I hope this helps?

David

Hello David, and thanks for the input.

I must admit that the Rapier isn't used much at any time of the year, but of course less during the wintertime. I try to give her a single run of 20 - 30 miles each week, but when there's salt on the road, or it's too wet she stays in the garage.

This being so, I don't use up much of the petrol in the tank, and although I occasionally add 3 or so gallons, perhaps they don't go far enough to make a tank volume of good stuff, and the fill-ups are few and far between.

So I'll try to run the tank down and then put a couple of gallons of new petrol in and see if this cures the malady.

I've just remembered, I usually add an octane boost/lead replacement fluid in the correct proportion to the amount of petrol introduced (VSP+) at fill-up time.

So, besides attending to the petrol in the tank, I've nearly fabricated a couple of tufnol 'gaskets' from the sheets that Steve so kindly sent, and will shortly finish the aluminium heat-shield at nightschool. With these as well as a new rotor arm and condenser, I might have 'cracked it'.

Best wishes,

Tony.

Whilst on the electrics- dizzie cap, leads, plugs and plug caps (if you have them) all could have similar problems to the rotor arm. I also once had hot starting problem caused by a broken wire inside the dizzie (cannot remember if it was the cb or earth wire but it was one of the flexible ones). You know it could even be a bad earth on the engine as that would raise the voltage on the engine when starting meaning you had less voltage across the contact breaker. Normally such things affect cold and damp starting ( rather than hot) but like dry joints on circuit boards it might be heat that breaks the connection.

All this said, I think it is most likely petrol mixture being too rich. Try lots of throttle right from the start on starting. (Do not pump throttle, apply slowly before starting. If it does not fire first time then stop as it will flood.