Re: Starting troubles Clipper 1954

Posted by Hans On 2013/7/8 9:27:47

OK guys, did the timing this afternoon, checked it all again and turned the key. She almost immediately fired up and ran sweet as a dream.

Looks like all is functioning well. Retrofitting the distributor meant reinstalling the small pivot shaft for the contact breaker points. With the assembly out of the car I went over the distributor again and cleaned and lubricated the lot, just to make sure it was all moving freely.

When rebuilding the carb and having new throttleshaft bushings pressed in I also payed a lot of attention to the automatic choke. At this moment I am very pleased with the result. It does the job well and responses OK in the warming up phase of the engine. I'm letting the engine cool down now and will have another go later this day. By now the choke butterfly valve has returned to the 'cold' position, so I'm confident that the engine will start again without problems.

My conclusion on the whole problematic starting situation is now that the electronic ignition had been installed to mask the real problem. The real problem was the starter that was turning inefficiently and turned out to be in need of a good service. Adding electronic ignition didn't cure the starting problem at all, probably even making things worse because of the built in voltage threshold. The voltage drop caused by the starter resulted in the electronic ignition not being triggered dependably.

Now all modern stuff has been thrown out, including spark plug cables, with a rebuilt carburator and the starter being OK, everything is as it was meant to be when the car left the factory in 1954. A fine starter and runner! Let the summer commence!

Once again, thanks for all your advice!