SLROC Forum

Hi. Still new to the world of Land Rovers. Been on a few GRR and am trying to work through an ever growing list of issues with my series 3.  I have a 2.25 petrol series 3 with starting issues. When it did start it turned over for quite a while before firing then ran fine. If I stopped and tried to restart it would be very difficult. Now it wont start at all. I recently replaced the fuel lift pump and checked that fuel is getting to the carb. I have also removed air filter, checked spark plugs and cleaned carb. All I could get was a splutter, black smoke and a smell of petrol. Reading various forums the problem seems to be with the carb and flooding. The carb has only done a few hundred miles but was admittedly a cheaper alternative to the faulty zenith that came with the car. Any advice would be gratefully received before I think about changing to a Weber carb. Or if anyone in the Glasgow/Ayrshire area has a spare working carb that I could try to establish if it is faulty before I buy a new one it would be very much appreciated.

Are you getting a good fat spark? Pull the king lead off the dizzy and position it close to the engine block. get a helper to spin the engine over and check that the spark is strong.

Have you tried to adjust the mixture on the carb? Is the choke stuck on?

Thanks for the quick reply. I will check the spark again tonight. Pardon my ignorance but when you say king lead is that the one from coil to centre of dizzy?

Haven't adjusted the mixture. The problem seemed to happen very quickly which made me think it was a faulty part rather than setting.

Checked the choke and it is working ok.

You are correct, the king lead is from the coild to the dizzy.

A few checks on the igntion side are easy to start with and generally not too expensive to change. Plus you have no hope of getting a carb to tune right without a good spark. Points gap, timing, coil, leads cap and rotor are all potential pitfalls.

There are a lot of bad carbs out there too, many dont work out the box!

Where are you located ?

Drew.

Hi. Did a bit more investigating tonight and found the o ring in the carb had stretched. Replaced it. Started great and went for a run. All seems to be ok. Many thanks for the help.