General Naughty Panda

[Nuova500]

I changed the points this week, and ever since its been running badly when cold. Ive tried umpteen different gaps, and its nearly back to normal but not when starting from cold.
To top it all, Ive just been out to have another go and the bonnet wont open, the cables not broken and I can hear it operating the catch but it just wont release it, any ideas please?
I suppose 2 years and 23000 miles with no real issues was good, is she about to start falling apart now the miles are near 70000!

 

[Nuova500]

managed to get it open, using a bit of brute force found the pin that is part of the bonnet was slightly bent downwards, so the spring in the catch couldnt lift it clear. a pair of pliers and its straight again and normal bonnet opening is resumed

 

[Alan.D]

is she about to start falling apart now the miles are near 70000!

No, but servicing should be a continual process not just as service shedules.

 

[Nuova500]

Thats exactly what I do Alan, shes still not running quite right though, Im sure there must be some sort of issue with these new points.

 

[JimMagill]

I suppose 2 years and 23000 miles with no real issues was good, is she about to start falling apart now the miles are near 70000!

Oh she's fine... Sylvia just hit 90,000 there on somewhere in Eastern Europe and she's still ticking

Jim

 

[Nuova500]

Can anyone remember what way you turn mixture screw to richen? I think its anti clockwise, but for the life of me I cant remember!

 

[Chas Uno]

Can anyone remember what way you turn mixture screw to richen? I think its anti clockwise, but for the life of me I cant remember!

It is indeed anti-clockwise. The mixture jet is simply a passageway that adjusts the flow of fuel, and when you tighten the screw (i.e. make the screw go into the carburettor body) you are closing off this passageway hence reducing the flow of fuel. Less fuel = weaker mixture. The opposite is obviously true so turning the screw anti-clockwise you are opening the screw and hence opening the passageway allowing more fuel to flow hence richening the mixture.

However, the mixture screw is known to be rather ineffective on the Weber 32 TLF carburettor and many people have reported that adjusting the screw makes little difference to the idle speed.

Below might help to understand how to adjust the mixture screw on a carburettor:

http://www.recarbco.com/technical/idle/idle_adjust.html

"To begin the procedure, start the motor and allow it to warm up to operating temperature (15-20 minutes). Make sure that the choke is all the way open and the fast idle cam is no longer engaged. FIRST, set the idle speed according to specs; LASTLY, adjust the mixture. The general idea is to get the mixture set as lean as possible, but not to where the RPM is dropping off a lot, and without affecting engine performance. This will usually be just as the RPM begins to drop on the lean side of best running. It will probably run OK if you set it richer, but will just use more gas and probably won't pass the smog test. Always start with the mixture a little too rich and adjust towards lean (turning it in). Note that most mixture screws turn inward (clockwise) to make lean, and out for rich, although there are a few Holley 4bbl carbs that you turn out to make lean. These screws control the fuel being delivered to the engine at idle only. Adjusting them will not affect how much gas the car uses except at idle."

Thing is, if your car started running rough after changing the points then logic dictates that the problem lies with the points or to something disturbed when fitting them. Adjusting the mixture might not be the best idea! I'd suggest using a dwell meter to set the points gap dynamically. Also, did you check/ reset the timing after you changed the points? From memory fitting/ adjusting points always affected the timing on my previous cars that had points fitted.

Anyway, good luck and I hope you get it sorted

 

[Nuova500]

thanks for that, I have found mixture screws to move under their own will before... it feels a wee bit flat at certain throttle openings, Ill check plug colour first. This is the first time Ive had any probs with points on this car, this is the 3rd set Ive replaced in two years and the first to give trouble.

 

[Nuova500]

Oh bum, its not getting better. Basically when I put my foot down at lower revs it really thumps, the higher the revs the better it gets but occasionally it does hiccup. Its doing my head in as its done this before but new points have always fixed her. It definately feels electrical, any ideas please.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Sounds a little like a mis-fire?!? Tried changing HT leads?

(The 750L is ticking over nice;y, and thats covered 112933 miles!)

 

[Nuova500]

its heavier than a misfire and getting worse by the day, but still only bad for the first 5 miles or so from cold.

 

[Nuova500]

Well, things reached a new low this morning, she just wouldnt start and when it tried it just thumped and died. I checked for airleaks, checked the plug and decided it was a little lean on the mixture. Eventually got it started and no messing with mix screw affected it, and it was thumping and dying and not starting again. Checked points gap, and vacuum advance, nowt wrong. Then I decide to replace the new points with the old ones... and she ran sweet as a nut, test drive revealed all to be well.
Will know for sure tonght when I come home from work, she may not start at all then!
Thing is, the new points are Intermotor, same as Ive always used, why should the running get worse and worse over 200 odd miles to the point it stops working, its weird

 

[panda-sport]

I've read of similar tales in old car magazines. It appears that now the world has gone electronic the quality of points, rotor arms and dizzy caps have gone to shot! Tales of people going thro 5 to 10 sets before finding one good one are not unheard of

 

[Nuova500]

really, been having similar probs with my Lambretta... thing is these points are over £20 a set, and I havent got a reciept
croos ya fingers hes alright now, I hate electrical faults!

 

[Nuova500]

Well, shes fine on the old points... how annoying is that. I just cant begin to imagine why a new set of points would gradually ruin the cars running over a 200 mile period lasting a week, they look fine.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

I've read of similar tales in old car magazines. It appears that now the world has gone electronic the quality of points, rotor arms and dizzy caps have gone to shot! Tales of people going thro 5 to 10 sets before finding one good one are not unheard of

Never had any problems like this when doing the points on the 750L or 1000CL.

Just unlucky to find a Monday morning/Friday after noon batch of points maybe?

 

[Nuova500]

Um, it was OK yesterday evening but on the way to work she did it again, not so bad but it was there. Back to the drawing board. I hope I can sort this out, as I use it everyday for work so shes kind of important to my well being Running much better with the old points. Maybe Ill take the leads off first and clean them up?

 

[JimMagill]

Mmm... There seems to be a lot of mystery panda faults about at the minute.

 

[tashman]

Yeah I put it down to the weather.
Yesterday in heavy rain mine kept losing power to the point where I had to stop because it was going so slow, 3 times on the M3. But each time I opened the bonnet, shook all the cables and made sure all the leads were pressed home and it ran ok again.

I got it home, sprayed 'wet start' on both ends of each HT lead including the king lead, put a big blob of grease on each of the 2 exposed coil terminals, then sprayed the jets at the top of the carb with 'carb cleaner'. Reset the dwell, and timing. Since then its been absolutely perfect fingers crossed - I think it was just water ingress.....

 

[allen fletcher]

Hope it works for you if it happens again and it's safe to do so lift the lid with the engine running and see if any arking is happening arround the engine electric's, or listen for ticking noise could be plug leads earthing out.