Austin 7 Running Problems

[Guest tom2b]

My dad has got an austin 7, talk about bad luck but when i took it for a drive it was all running fine until it lost nearly all power and wouldnt even pull up a hill flat out in 1st gear. However when you pull the choke out it runs fine. I really am totally lost on the old side valve engines and dont know where to start looking for possible causes of the problem.

Any ideas?

[DAVE CASTLE]

Short of fuel or to much air , blocked jet or air leak on manifold area

Dave

[Peter Bell]

Hi Tom sounds like a blocked main jet in the carb, or possibly low fuel level in the float chamber, they were fitted with various carbs over time but generally the float chamber is held on by 2 bolts on the top, undo those and the chamber falls off, in the bottom are 2? jets make sure they are clean. The jets have a small square in the top iirc and the float chamber bolt has a square end that fits in to undo the jet, neat!

Good luck.

Peter

[Guest tom2b]

Thanks ill give that a go, id guessed at a fuelling problem but i didnt have a clue where to start!

[Guest TerryBarry]

I'd go with Peter - blocked carb jet.

I was once test driving my brother's 1938 Austin 10 when I was overtaken by a bloke on a push bike.

Turned out to be that all the valve clearances had gone wide and the valves weren't lifting.

I'll never know how he managed to drive it from Loughborough to Surrey like that - but such are students

[Guest tom2b]

Students will drive anything, 2nd class driving is always better than 1st class walking!

 

Looks like ive got my evenings entertainment sorted out now.

[Guest hypermick]

Classic weak mixture problem,. best thing to remove the carb, strip it and clean it completely and reassemble afterwards. Just remember (however tempted you may be) not to go poking around the jet holes with anything other than compressed air. A tin of carb cleaner will get you through but apparently if you can soak the carb innards (brass bits, jets etc ) in pure lemon juice,. pop them in a small saucepan and heat them up so there nicely boiling, this cleans them well.

 

Must admit not tried that one, but an old biker hand recommended it once to a mate of mine.

 

 

Mick.

[Guest tom2b]

All sorted, it was a blocked jet. When i service the car i will clean the carb more thoroughly

[Longboarder]

Tha tank is probably full of rust, dead woodlice etc. I expect dad drives it a little more gently than you do so you may have stirred up the sediment. An inline filter to prevent recurrence might be a good plan.

 

Nigel

[Guest tom2b]

I will fit one just to play safe.

In all seriousness its the one and only car i dont drive hard! its not worth the grief that would entail if i so much as scratched it