It will not start.

[James - St. Helens]

Has any one got any suggestions.

The car will not start. Turn the key and I can hear engine turning but it does not fire up. I have had a quick look at it. I have fuel and a spark at the plugs.

Does anyone have any suggestions to what the problem could be.

I will be having a good look at it tomorrow.

[Cam]

Probably damp, or flooded due to constant trying.

This is assuming that you have a good spark and fuel present as you stated.

Take the dizzy cap, rotor arm, leads and plugs out, warm them up in the house, put them back on and try again!

If not, get back to us.

[Willie]

LO, If it will not start and you have a healthy BLUE spark at the
plugs you should find,after turning the engine over quite a lot
that the spark plugs are wet(with petrol) when you remove them?
If they are still bone dry you are not getting petrol into the cylinders.
If they are very wet,then you have flooded the plugs and they will
not spark until they are dry again. Is your choke assembly still
working?(if they are dry)
Willie

[grainger]

can you hear the petrol pump ticking when you turn the key, before you start it ? - if not, hit it

cheers
grainger

[James - St. Helens]

Grainger,

When I first turned the key I could not hear the petrol pump ticking and as you suggested I hit it. I even took of the end cap of the pump and cleaned the contacts. Still no ticking, I then remove the pipe from the pump to the carb at the carb end, I got ticking and petrol.

James.

[Willie]

That means that either the float bowl was already full of petrol,
or the float valve was stuck in the closed position. Next step is
to remove the top of the float bowl(3 screws) and check that the
bowl itself is full of petrol.
Willie

[James - St. Helens]

Should have said I put Easy Start down the carb. This will fire up a car with no petrol in it, with no results.

PS

The bowl was full of petrol, empty some of it out, pump started ticking.


James.

[olonas]

James - a totally useless remark but please accept the following in the manner in which it is intended (light hearted) - get Stuart to give it a kick!
On a more serious note, PLEASE be VERY careful with the use of engine starting aerosols. They can be at worse VERY lethal.

[James - St. Helens]

Thanks,

I was waiting for someone to make that suggestion. As I said before Stuart works nights, so he only gets a couple of hours when he gets up.
It unfair to expect him to look at the car when he has only just got up.
All the work on cars is done outside. Yesterday before Stuart went to work he did have a look at it.

He checked the thing already outlined - fuel and spark.

His suggestion was it could be the coil that was at fault ?

I have found a spare coil and swapped it, but no joy.

When Stuart is up I will see if he has any thoughts.

Yes you are right the use of engine starting aerosols can be very dangerous. Stuart has seen three foot flames using that stuff ?

We have always been safety minded when working on cars, but Stuart has become even more so since staring this Job.

[James - St. Helens]

We have found the fault.

In the process of replacing the condenser, we found a wire broken on the low tension lead. I will get a replacement and the car will be running again.

Thanks for all the help.

James.

[grainger]

hurrah - well done - thats another one to mark up to experience

grainger