Thinking of going from f.i. to carb

ga.spyder · Post by **ga.spyder** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:02 pm

Thanks Carl...that's the info I need if I decide to go that route. I am not a ohmmeter guy either. Unfortunately,I am on a crash course

ga.spyder · Post by **ga.spyder** » Sun Oct 16, 2016 8:25 pm

Thanks for all of you feedback in the advice. I actually have the car moving under its own power again! I found a couple of things but the key was a frayed wire. It was the yellow one that attaches to the negative side of the coil. It was grounding out and not allowing the injectors to fire. She isn't running great,but I did drive her down the road and back,Thats the first action in months that didn't involve me pushing!

spider2081 · Post by **spider2081** » Sun Oct 16, 2016 10:00 pm

GGGRRREEEAAAATTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! News

81SPIDERMATT · Post by **81SPIDERMATT** » Sun Oct 16, 2016 10:52 pm

i too have followed along ... congrats ... Matt

AriK · Post by **AriK** » Mon Oct 17, 2016 6:30 am

+1 on that!

klweimer · Post by **klweimer** » Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:03 am

+2, that's great!

stuartrubin · Post by **stuartrubin** » Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:47 am

+3! Glad to hear that it worked out! I've had my fair share of carb problems and considered switching to FI. Hopefully you'll get some driving in before the weather turns (if it actually does in GA)!

ga.spyder · Post by **ga.spyder** » Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:11 pm

I am trying to temper my enthusiasm,but it was great to actually drive the car again. The car is badly in need of an exhaust work,as my ANSA has a huge hole.I sound like a Civic with a 'coffee can' muffler

I did get a few minutes this evening to get a timing light on the car,and get that squared away.It is great to actually have some motivation to work on the car again!
A big thanks to every one who has taken time out of their day to help me thru this problem.I live in a rural ,mountain community with virtually nobody with any knowledge of these cars.This forum is my only support. I possibly would have never found the problem without the help of people here!

klweimer · Post by **klweimer** » Mon Oct 17, 2016 9:04 pm

We're here for you, bro!

Turbofiat124 · Post by **Turbofiat124** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 4:23 pm

Glad to hear it was something simple. Yes I have been tempted many times to ditch the L-jet system for a carb. Carbs really are much simpler to troubleshoot and service.

The good thing about L-jet is it's relatively easy to troubleshoot, somewhat self tuning and runs better in subfreezing temperatures when the engine is trying to warm up. They do tend to get a little bit better mileage but never really thought they increased HP. The downside is prices for replacement parts are way over priced for a system designed 40+ years ago!

If i had to buy a new AFM or could not absolutely figure out the problem, I'd ditch this system and buy a new Weber carburetor.

I had a Brava with a '78 single carb and intake and I thought it ran just fine. That is after I ditched the 79/80 setup and all the other emission components. The 79/80 system was a dog. I think I gained 20HP!

After 25 years of owning several L-jet Spiders, it seems the #1 issue I have seen is either the coolant temperature sensor or connector mounted in the coolant TEE.

I chased a weird misfire problem that cropped up a couple of years ago. I initially thought my Magnecor plug wires were bad. So I replaced them with some cheaper Bosch. Then the problem came back. Then I thought perhaps when I installed the distributor, after I replaced a cambox gasket, I rotated it too far counter clockwise and thought maybe the hood was rubbing against the #1 plug wire boot.

Then discovered that the engine ran fine as long as the hood was up but would start running rough when I shut the hood! Then I found this:

So I'm not sure if this was the cause of the misfiring all along or what.

In any case, if the engine ever starts to act weird, that's the first thing I check. This sensor is in a vulnerable location. I've wondered if the overheat switch and this sensor have the same size and thread pitch. I'd like to move it to the where the overheat sensor is to get it away from the coolant tee. Sometimes the bleeder screw can leak which causes the contacts to corrode. Then because it's so close to the hood, the wires can get chapped or rubbed which causes them to break.

Awhile back I had a 1992 Nissan Sentra (was not really mine but sort of was) and everything seemed to check out fine but the fuel injection system would dump large amounts of fuel into the engine. Long story short. I got the check engine light to flash which pointed to the coolant temperature sensor. I checked it with a meter and it showed to be bad. I replaced it and the connector but the engine still flooded out. I ended up selling the car and never knew what the problem was. That car kicked my ass!

RRoller123 · Post by **RRoller123** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:33 am

+1 on that coolant sensor location. It is awful. A major source of failure to be sure. It would be nice relocate it where it doesn't either hit the hood (top hole of coolant T), or the fan housing, (bottom hole location of the T). Either way, the wires are forced to take a sharp bend and eventually there are problems. I think it is rare that the actual sensor goes bad, I would bet that it is almost always the wire or the connector and its housing that causes the fuss.

Turbofiat124 · Post by **Turbofiat124** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:24 am

RRoller123 wrote:+1 on that coolant sensor location. It is awful. A major source of failure to be sure. It would be nice relocate it where it doesn't either hit the hood (top hole of coolant T), or the fan housing, (bottom hole location of the T). Either way, the wires are forced to take a sharp bend and eventually there are problems. I think it is rare that the actual sensor goes bad, I would bet that it is almost always the wire or the connector and its housing that causes the fuss.

Yeah I think my car has the original sensor but this makes the second time I've replaced the connector and sections of the wiring going to it. This time I soldered some longer wires between the original wires and the connector and used heat shrink tubing then wrapped them with electrical tape. I got the connector from O'Reillys but it did not come with the new boot.

Also I took a Dremel tool wire brush attachment and polished the connectors on the sensor which had turned green. Since the sensor operates off resistance, the colder the engine, the more resistant the sensor creates. I think at normal operating temperature the resistance should be around 200 ohms.

No doubt this would give a false reading and cause the engine to run richer because it thinks the engine is running cooler.

Seems like since I've cleaned up this sensor and replaced the connector the car is actually getting better fuel mileage.

Thinking of going from f.i. to carb

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