QuestionHi, I have owned this b from new. It has 89,000 miles on it, and i recently moved from the north, to florida. This car at one time sat for ten years, in a garage, and I put 2 new batteries in it and it started up fine. Always ran good, but since I have moved to florida, the heat, has been killing the batteries, and it is hard to start. In Dec, I put plugs, wires , inition switch, roter,coil, and new contact on it, I set the switch and it started better than ever. But, I never drove it out of the garage. On a monthly base, I start it up for a half hour and let it run, both batt are on a trickle charge. Last week I started it up, backed it out to take it for its yearly drive, and it stalled and would not restart. I checked all wires and such, still turns over , no start. I changed all the gas, and filter cleaned the plugs ( which had black carbon on them and it started up , i drove it back in garage where it stalled again. Every day I start it up , it runs fine for about 12 sec and stalls and wont restart. what next?
AnswerHi Linda. This is a tricky one because there are lots of possibilities. You have done everything right. I do have a few thoughts:
Most likely, you have a problem with the fuel pump. They don't like being left for 10 years with little use. My guess is the pump is slow to fill the carburetters when you first turn the ignition on (tick,tick,tick instead of a fast brrrrp). You then start the car, but at this point the pump stops altogether because the battery voltage has dropped. The engine continues to run for maybe half a minute until the float chambers are empty, then it dies and refuses to restart. Unfortunately, the pump is in an awkward place, up and under the right hand rear wheel arch, next to one of the batteries. It is possible that just cleaning the points inside the lid of the pump will do the trick, or if they are badly burnt, you could fit new points. If you don't know how to do that, maybe after 89k miles it is time to get the pump replaced.
Other possibilities:
1) You say you have changed the gas. Did you completely drain the tank and refill with fresh fuel? After 10 years the heat in Florida will have caused the fuel to vapourize and what is left in the tank will be the heavier fractions, which are virtually impossible to ignite.
2) Are you using the choke when you start the car, and does the engine stall the moment you push the control back to home? The SU carburetters on a 74 B have a separate jet for the choke, which is operated by a rotating rod. The rod has an O-ring on it, and this can fail, causing the engine to flood.
3) Have you checked that the dashpots on top of the carburetters have oil in them? If they run dry, the carburetters will run weak and have poor pick-up. In a warm climate like yours, I would top up the dashpots with a thin 10W/40 engine oil.
Let me know how you get on.
