ive been outside trying to get the old girl down the road but she aint starting. been sitting idle for five days so im assuming its just the cold as ive noticed she bucks and complains until shes running warm (its about 2 C here). even took the trouble to pedal to the petrol station with a jerry can on my moulton so we know tis not fuel.
anyway does anyone else have similar problems? its warming up tomorrow so im presuming (perhaps somewhat naively) that all will be well.
On or around Mon, 22 Dec 2003 16:03:27 +0000 (UTC), "teddave" enlightened us thusly:
are you giving her enough preheat?
old 1.8 diesel I used to have in a sherpa (similar technology) needed about
90 seconds preheat on a cold morning, about 60 seconds in normal weather.
puts me in mind of a mate who used to run a 2.2 BMC-engined black cab, describing the process of starting it - battery wasn't up to much and the injectors were past their first flush of youth. You had to judge how much preheat to give, so as not to drain the battery, then go for it and whatever happened, keep it turning over. If you once stopped cranking to preheat it again, you'd blown it. He described one particular cold morning:
gave it as much preheat as he dared. Started cranking: whirr, whirr, whirr
- doesn't sound healthy, then whirrwhirrwhirrwhirr, then it started that sort of almost-firing on one cylinder that they do: whirririrrirrrr whirriririrrr, and gradually picked up speed 'til eventually one pot actually fired properly: dang---dang---dang---dang, and then after about half a minute on one cylinder the others gradually chimed in 'til all 4 were firing, so he took his foot off to stop it over-revving when cold, expecting it to drop back to idle, wherupon it stalled.
He then turned the key again, more in pious hope than owt esle: whirr.....whirr.
He reckoned he'd never been closer to torching a vehicle.
but seriously, the older 2¼ engines need a lot of preheat when it's cold.
the great thing about this group is that a trouble shared is a trouble well not so much halved but certainly laughed at!
tks austin. i was counting to twenty on the preheat but ill give it a bit more tomorrw.
presumably the coil doesnt drain too much off of the battery. ive not figured out what the battery is but its a monster and shouldnt be too much of a problem!
anyway its warm tomorrow. . . and i enjoyed the excuse of cycling up the road on my moulton
my moultons a standard from 64. about as tatty as my S111 amd now i come to think about it a similar habit of slippig out of gear. i managed to pick up a front rack for it but as you say, you wouldnt want to put too much on it. the back rack though. . .
my mate mog reckons a sack of spuds is the standard fitting on moultons in use in rural ireland.
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