McCall Pinz wrote:I wish I was working on your Pinz today instead of mine- we'll have a high of 29. This is actually balmy for Jan here, so I'm taking advantage of the warm weather!
Good reminder of how lucky I am to have nice wx year round! If it makes you feel any better, Uncle Sam will be moving us to Colorado in a few months...
Current situation: I continue to believe, after everything I've done over the months, that the single biggest CURRENT issue is the "art" of adjusting timing, mixture, and idle RPMs. I've done virtually all the other things folks have suggested in this thread (which started in NOV 13; no air leakage btw) - which I think were all valid & good suggestions as you never know what is causing or contributing to misfiring/poor engine performance. And now I have a new problem...I think my starter is toast (more on that at the very end).
Most recent work since last post: besides some checks folks suggested that were negative, I did another round of timing, mixture, and idle RPMs adjusting. I continue to be convinced it is an art form & you have to keep at at. After that round, the engine is running the best it's run - maybe since I first starting having problems last APR/MAY! I say "maybe" because I haven't had a chance to drive the highway hill that is my bench mark for engine power (more on that later). I don't think I'm at 100% but I do think I'm possibly back to the 90% or so range. I cannot explain why the carbs continue to not remain sync' d at 1500 RPMs but it appears to not be a major issue. If I'm missing something about that - PLEASE let me know! For now, I'm no longer worrying much about that as much.
What did I do? Before I started another round of timing, mixture, and idle RPM adjusting (which now ALWAYS includes using the carb sync device - a MUST), I pulled & inspected the spark plugs (remember, I installed brand-new ones during the last weekend of major work). Despite setting the idle mixture screws the same, sure enough plugs 3 & 4 clearly appeared to be running too lean. 1 & 2 looked normal. So I focused on tweaking the idle mixture screws on the rear carb to run more rich as I fiddled with timing, mixture, and idle RPMs over the next couple of hrs. Current end state right now is rear carb idle mixture screws are turned out more than the front; timing is 8 BTDC; carbs sync at 6; RPMs ~930~980.
After these most recent rounds of adjustments, I took a long drive (1.75hrs each way) around the island but on roads where I never exceeded ~45mph. At the end of the drive, we spent a couple of hrs off-roading in some massive mud, etc. Drove home. Engine ran GREAT!
Some notes I think may be interesting to others after many, many hours over many, many months of playing with timing, idle mixture, and RPM adjustments:
1. Timing. I've read where people suggest timing should be at 12 BTDC at sea level (which is me). I tried hard working different combinations of adjustments to get to 12 but the engine just did not run as well as it did at 8. BTW, I marked where the distrib psn was when I first bought the 'Gauer - when it ran its best since I've owned the vehicle. So I've also tried hard to work adjustment combo's with the distrib set at that "orig" psn thinking "well it ran great when the distrib was at that psn". Turns out that psn was at a much lower BTDC (3? I think?) and despite many adjustment combo's, I just could not get the engine to run as well as where the distrib is set now.
2. RPMs. Many recommend between 700~900. Despite my efforts to get my RPM down into that range, I could not find an adjustment combo that resulted in smooth, consistent idle below 900. It's as low as I've been able to get it where engine perf is not neg impacted.
My current timing, mixture, and idle RPM adjustment conclusions after this long journey are:
1. The experts in this forum provide good baselines to start from (turn out screws xx; target BTDC to yy; etc etc) BUT, in the end, there are other factors impacting performance of YOUR engine resulting in final settings that work best for YOUR engine but aren't exactly in line with expert guidance. And that's OK.
2. timing, mixture, and idle RPM adjustments (particularly for those without diagnostic tools like a tail pipe sniffer) IS an art form, meaning, be prepared to play, tweak, play, test, tweak again...it's probably gonna take a while to find the magic combination that works best for your engine.
3. You MUST do the prep & verification steps Scott (in this thread) and others tell us to do...or else chances are you are truly wasting your time & spinning your wheels.
4. Buy the damned cab sync tool (see #3...).
If the experts disagree with my conclusions, or see need to temper some of my concluding comments - pls set me (and other rookies) straight!
Unless others weigh in, I think this thread (which is mainly about timing, mixture, and idle RPMs adjustments) is about done.
So on to my next problem: after that last long drive & fun in the mud, I had to go away for a few weeks. Got home a couple of days ago...and immediately discovered it would not start. The starter is whining but clearly NOT turning the motor so I think the starter has died. What ticks me off is the fact that there were ZERO signs/symptoms of starter problems. None. If anyone thinks that sounds very suspicious and therefore thinks it may be something else, pls let me know (I did disconnect all the wires to the starter solenoid, cleaned them up despite none looking corroded, added some dielectric grease, reassembled - no change; I also confirmed with volt meter both batteries at 12 volts).
Aloha-
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