- 31,533
- Buckwheat City
- Dennisch
So, here's the situation.
I have this 1971 Opel Kadett with its mighty 1.1 push rod engine that doesn't want to idle, only on the choke at high rpm and it does it with flames in the carburetor and out of the exhaust. As it had been sitting in a barn for a good 30 years, the first thing that came to mind was of course the carburetor. Rebuild it, didn't help. Replaced it. Didn't help. 3rd time's a charm? Nope, same issue. No basic idle at all. Replaced the fuel pump. Sprayed brake cleaner onto the intake to see if a gasket has failed. Nope.
Ruled out the fuel side of the story, on to the ignition part.
Checked the timing, correct. Points new, spark plugs new. Good strong spark, points gap correct. Swapped the distributor, cap, rotor, coil, plug wires. Still the problem persists.
Checked the compression. Perfectly equal and high on all 4 cylinders. Checked the valve clearance, way too tight, small euphoric moment, but no difference with the gaps set to factory.
The only thing I can still think of is that the cam shaft is one tooth off, and yet, the timing cover doesn't look like it has been removed at all. But, and here's a big butt. When I used a spanner on the crankshaft pulley to turn the engine, I was able to tighten the bolt quite a bit. Now, these things usually don't come loose by themselves.
The owner swears he has driven the car around his property, and is fairly confident that it was without the choke. However, his previous mechanic did like to screw him over, I have learned. Front brakes should have been new. They weren't. The spark plugs were so over tightened that I had to use a breaker bar to get them loose. The ignition wiring in the distributor wasn't seated properly. The valves had no clearance at all, and the list goes on.
If anyone has a crazy idea, or sees anything I've missed. Do share because I'm losing too many hours on this car and me and the owner are getting a bit desperate.
I have this 1971 Opel Kadett with its mighty 1.1 push rod engine that doesn't want to idle, only on the choke at high rpm and it does it with flames in the carburetor and out of the exhaust. As it had been sitting in a barn for a good 30 years, the first thing that came to mind was of course the carburetor. Rebuild it, didn't help. Replaced it. Didn't help. 3rd time's a charm? Nope, same issue. No basic idle at all. Replaced the fuel pump. Sprayed brake cleaner onto the intake to see if a gasket has failed. Nope.
Ruled out the fuel side of the story, on to the ignition part.
Checked the timing, correct. Points new, spark plugs new. Good strong spark, points gap correct. Swapped the distributor, cap, rotor, coil, plug wires. Still the problem persists.
Checked the compression. Perfectly equal and high on all 4 cylinders. Checked the valve clearance, way too tight, small euphoric moment, but no difference with the gaps set to factory.
The only thing I can still think of is that the cam shaft is one tooth off, and yet, the timing cover doesn't look like it has been removed at all. But, and here's a big butt. When I used a spanner on the crankshaft pulley to turn the engine, I was able to tighten the bolt quite a bit. Now, these things usually don't come loose by themselves.
The owner swears he has driven the car around his property, and is fairly confident that it was without the choke. However, his previous mechanic did like to screw him over, I have learned. Front brakes should have been new. They weren't. The spark plugs were so over tightened that I had to use a breaker bar to get them loose. The ignition wiring in the distributor wasn't seated properly. The valves had no clearance at all, and the list goes on.
If anyone has a crazy idea, or sees anything I've missed. Do share because I'm losing too many hours on this car and me and the owner are getting a bit desperate.
