Metro Cutting Out

there was a problem (that sounds like yours) that I found on certain models only of metro. Some have a breather pipe for the float chamber that connects to a spigot on the carb spacer block. I found that letting the breather pipe just go to atmosphere and blocking the spigot cured the problem. Not scientific but it worked, try it there is nothing to lose.

mrcheerful

Also sprach "Stuffed" :-

Can we assume you've done the obvious and topped up the dashpot on the top of the carb? That'll cause the symptoms you describe.

Failing that - it sounds like it's running a bit weak. What colour are the plugs?

White, with black writing?... I'll get me coat!

I check it weekly - Out of 40 odd cars, I've had very few that *haven't* had SUs!

A little dark because I mainly do short runs, barely chance to get off choke before stopping. However, the colortune says everything is spot on, nice and blue, orange when opening the throttle.

This is what bugs me, I've got the mixture pretty much right by ear (before I bought the colortune), I always check things like dashpot oil (is it me, or are HiF dampers trickier to screw back in than HS ones?), the spring looks OK, all linkages are in good shape, and the car will behave fine for a mile sometimes, others it's crap from the start. The link to overrun has only shown itself recently, as the car went from doing this very rarely, to all the damned time. I did think it might have been because of the horrendous weather I had to go out in the other day, but everything should be dry (I need to find my custom screwdriver to get the cap off to check), and it's still bad.

I've got a spare carb I might try dropping on, will give me something to do on Saturday to avoid all the festive bollox. But I'm not sure it is the carb itself that's the problem :(

IIRC, it's green writing on them ;)

I'll take a look for that, but I don't seem to recall it having that setup when I took it apart a few months ago (when it was just an annoyance, instead of major). It'd just be nice to have some confirmation I'm looking in the right area, and it's not ignition related (I'd be fine, but it's got one of those little black box buggers instead of points).

Also sprach "Stuffed" :-

No, they really are harder. I always felt like I was about to cross the threads.

Is it leaking round the butterfly spindle?

: and the car will behave fine for a : mile sometimes, others it's crap from the start. The link to overrun has : only shown itself recently, as the car went from doing this very rarely, to : all the damned time. I did think it might have been because of the : horrendous weather I had to go out in the other day, but everything should : be dry (I need to find my custom screwdriver to get the cap off to check), : and it's still bad.

I bet it's electrical. Change the cap and the HT leads - in my experience that cures 95% of wierd bad running faults. And check the plugs for whiskers - they can be damn nearly impossible to spot.

Ian

My 1300 used to run like this. It was corrosion on the bottom of the butterfly valve allowing excess air in with the jet shut down so very weak. Coming off overrun if you booted it then it "burped" and carried on. One day it burped and then gave an almighty bang and blew the butterfly and other bits into the air intake.......

Me too. And sometimes I do. Hateful things, although at least the HiF is a better flowing carb, and has a bimetal strip instead of a nasty waxstat. Which reminds me, I mist get round to sticking some pennies in my Triumph's jets.

Hard to say. I've been really trying to own a car I don't have to go under the bonnet on a daily basis, so I've not poked around much. But I would've thought that would give me a nightmare setting it up, and result in poor idle and running all the time, not just some (rapidly becomming all) the time?

I'm thinking about digging out my box of Mini bits, and throwing an HS carb and Lucas 45d on the damned thing, so I know where I am with it all!

I'm torn between it being fuel or ignition. But it did have a new cap when I first got it, as it ran like a bag of spanners in thick treacle. Turned out to be a blown manifold gasket (causing a misfire on only number 3), a tank full of diesel, and a very worn out cap with lumps of corrosion where terminals should be. It's a bugger getting at the dizzy though, radiator out seems to be the best for access, although I did grind down a screwdrive to fit.

Going to start by playing carbs, as I've got a spare that just needs the needle valve (which is in the current one after I lost the original). Then if the weather's OK and there's naff all on TV, I might have a go at dropping the rad out and give the dizzy a proper look over. Leads should be OK, but I've got a set of known good ones somewhere I can chuck on to see if there's a difference.

Shame A series Metros are getting so rare in breakers nowadays, otherwise I'd be getting close to dropping in an MG lump, seeing as the synchro on 4th seems worn too ;)

Getting to the distributor is easy enough, but you must take off the panel with the bonnet catch, 4 screws and a bolt is the principal fix, then you can easily reach the distributor. Cap and arm are the only common fault on electronic ones.

mrcheerful

Also sprach "Stuffed" :-

You could try dribbling a bit of oil round the spindle.

That sounds, um, fun.

Unfortunately, mine doesn't seem to be quite so obvious, everything's nice and shiny and solid.

Getting the grille off prooved to be the trickiest bit, as I was working in half light. Still, you're right, it does make access a little easier :)

Cap and arm both fine, however, the cap had worked a little loose, so refitting and making sure it was damned tight appears to have made a slight difference :)

I ended up swapping carbs over, although I did have to use the needle valve and jet from the original carb. Not that there seems to be any real difference between the two when they were off, other than Optimax seems to have kept the old one very clean.

I checked and refitted the cap, it had come a little loose somehow, and it's made a difference. I can't get the engine to die anymore, but it does splutter and give up on throttle, seems like it's weakening massively (ears and colortune say it's all fine at idle) under load, which is a new variation in the fault. Makes it a bugger to drive, but at least there's no toe and heeling needed just to keep it running now, which I suppose is a start.

I noticed when I dropped the carb off there were a few large droplets of petrol smelling water, and that that came out the float chamber didn't taste all that petrolly either. I might try putting the old carb back on tomorrow, or just swap dashpots and pistons over, but I'm starting to wonder if bad fuel was the real problem, made worse by a poorly fitted dizzy cap. Thing is, bad fuel isn't something I've had a problem with in the past, other than the diesel that was in the tank when I bought the car.

Still, it's getting there, and was something to do instead of pretending to celebrate some daft date :)

Messed around with teh carb again today, blocked off the oil breather inlet (now vents to air for the time being). A slight improvement, but nothing to cheer about.

Gave up faffing and drained the tank as much as possible without removing it (run engine with pump outlet into a bottle), and put a fiver of Optimax in. Gave it a blast for a couple of miles, then a bit of town driving, and although it stutters at part throttle from time to time, it pulls away quite cleanly, and hasn't shown any signs of cutting out like it was doing. Of course, the engine was hot, so it might still play up when cold.

I'm thinking of glugging some meths in the tank in case it's a water/ fuel issue (I'm sure petrol should be somewhat tangier on the tongue than what I drained out) , but I'm not sure how much is safe to use?

I'm at my wit's end with this booody car now. Spent yesterday and today replacing the head gasket (wanted to see inside the engine, as much as anything), replacing the thermostat (now gets up to normal and seems to stay there!), and checking the gaskets etc.

And still no joy. I blew down the fuel line, and checked the rubber one, and there's no obvious signs of air getting in, and the car is more missing than cutting out like it was, but it's still far from right. I keep thinking fuel fault, but I can't figure out what, the pump is healthy enough at tickover, and I've fitted a known good carb. It also seems to only run at all well when smelling rich. Which makes me think ignition fault after all, especially with the feeling it's missing.

The occaissionally bouncing rev counter, slight misfire, could I be looking at a duff coil? Not had many cars with rev counters, and those I have had haven't ever given me any trouble, so I don't know if it's possible to have a partial breakdown and still have a registering rev counter. I don't have a spare coil for it to hand, and I'm trying to avoid spending out to the point I could've got a replacement engine..