QuestionI have a 70,78,79 and my brother has a 65 spider.
on the 78 it is hard to start. it will turns over fine but it will take a long time to fire up sometimes I have to jump it. after it starts, it runs fine, fast idle until it warms up then normal idle . when it is hot most of the time it start ok, but after it sets for an hour or so it has to turn over a bit to start. it sarted to do this last year it work fine then suddly it was hard to start. when I turn the ignition swicth on I can hear the fuel pump run and hear it returning to the fuel tank. the engine runs smoth with no missing at low and high rpm sometimes it will sputer a littel when I downhift. when it dose start I get black smoke out of the tialpipe for a moment. I also get some smoke when I make guik accelleration. when it idle for awile it acts likes it is laods up alittle and starts to lop. I wounder if it is runing rich on the fuel mixter an I don't know how to adust it. I feel like my gas milage is a little low. when I first got this car ajusted the buterflys in the intake to let more air in to smoth the idle out some. to the best of my knowlege the car has about 50,000 miles on it. I don't think the engine has had anything but plugs, wires, points, and oil changes.
AnswerFrom your description, the battery is weak. It could be that the battery terminals need cleaning. You should also check and clean the engine ground strap.
You should not have adjusted the throttle opening. The SPICA system uses a differnet setting.
Yes, it is probably a little rich running. Try NGK plug BPR6ES
it has more of an operating range than the spec plug.
Overnight the battery voltage should be 12.66 for a fully charged battery.
And have the cylinder head retorqued.
