3 Cylinder Pinto Update

[ivan the terrible]

hi all, took the kit to terrys(tazzzman) he had the lads (mark-b,rob-cma and simon- round helping him refit his engine and clutch, so 1st of all did the compression test, all 4 cylinders read about 175 so ruled out serious engine issues, took carb off dismanteled all bits found nothing wrong there, cleaned all plugs and refitted, then checked dizzy, that didn't seem right, not quite at TDC, checked timing, set that correctly, started it up, well tried, eventually got her going but still not right, took timing belt cover off found that cam was 180 degrees out, altered that, started up much easier and ran much better, tweaked carbs a little then a test drive, much better just need carbs balancing correctly, so that was that, time to clean up and head off home, by this time terrys car was all finished, so as i set off terry took his for a blast also, things went well apart from a few spits and pops, then terry turned round waved me off then headed back home, then no more than 400 yards further it died on me, managed to start it but only another couple of hundred yards, then died completely, gave terry a ring he came straight out(thanks again) but couldn't get it going, so only 1 option, i put a match to it, only joking, called AA, 55 mins later nice aa man has to tow me home, thinks it might be the dizzy or the ignition module(if anyone has either in the back of the garage going spare and cheap would be a help),its now back in the garage have a look tommorrow, once again thanks to those who took time out to help,beer tokens at the next meet, cheers ivan

[richardm6994]

What does your ignition module look like. I have a couple somewhere in the garage that you can have.

[Guest craig38]

I have a dizzy ivan red cap cheers craig

[Thrashed]

Ivan. I was having a very similar issue. Would run for about 5/10 minutes but once warmed up wild just die. In the end Richyb found a duff rotor arm. Changed this and has been perfect ever since.

 

Worth a check cos my rotor arm was burn out underneath and you could not really see it without removing the rotor arm. Might be an easy fix!

[Shaft]

Ivan, I assume you have already replaced your duff rotor arm, as mentioned above, that we discovered at Stoneleigh?

[Tazzzzman1]

No He hadn't but its No1 on his list of things to do.

[ivan the terrible]

Ivan, I assume you have already replaced your duff rotor arm, as mentioned above, that we discovered at Stoneleigh?

no not replaced rotor arm, completely forgot about it, just been to get one, had to order it, pick it up tommorrow, battery is on charge will put in new rotor arm and give that a try, if that doesn't work then i'll try dizzy or module, will try and put a pic of the module on here, ivan

[sj-bradley]

Hi Ivan,

 

PM sent to you.

 

Simon.

[Snapperpaul]

Start simple

Rotor arm and cap

[ivan the terrible]

a pic of my ignition module, it seems to be a general motors one, so not sure what a ford one looks like or how or if it would fit

[richardm6994]

Sorry Ivan, the few I've got are all like this...

[ivan the terrible]

ok, an update on my update, got new rotor arm, at the 3rd attempt to buy, fitted it and turned it over,,,,,,, and it fired it up,,,,,,,,,,, started on 2nd go, never done that before allways took a lot more to start it, took it fo a short run, ran very rough though, question??? if the timing was set to the old rotor arm could this have been sending incorrect info to the HT leads? if so will i need to reset timing to new rotor, and hope it runs better, ivan

[Snapperpaul]

Run car on idle

Remove leads 1 at a time if engine does not change its the lead or plug

 

fit new distributor cap and leads

Then you have a good base to start with

Then consider changing plugs

They also break down

 

If all this does not work it could be as stated before valve gaps or worst case valve not sealing, compression test shows this

 

Don't attack this problem randomly, 1 step at a time in sequence, methodically

 

[maccavvy]

ill raid the shed when I get home from work if ive still got the old dizzy ,it did work its worth a try to rule it out.

[ivan the terrible]

ill raid the shed when I get home from work if ive still got the old dizzy ,it did work its worth a try to rule it out.

cheers marcus, got to be worth a try, as snapperpaul says, i'll work through a process of elimination,starting simple, how you doing with your carbs?