HELP!!!!

Cam installed one (or more) tooth off? BTDT

Did you have the cam/crank out?

Yes the cam/crank was out but I set it exactly as the factory manual called for.The two marks on the cam were exactly over the single mark on the crank.The cam was replaced with a reground out of a solid lifter motor and the lifters are brand new hydraulic

Hmmmm Maybe crank it over with the valve covers off, just to see if the lifters are "lifting".

Did a compression test yet?

What's puzzling me is why advancing it waaaaay off makes it run. Gotta be a clue there...

Yeah haven't done a compression check yet but it idles just fine if you don't advance the distributor way out, it just won't keep running if you hit the gas. Thinking tomorrow I'll probably take the distributor out and change the drive by one tooth. thinking it could be over-advanced already and may be that when you hit the gas the vacuum is causing the dist. to over advance causing it to stall

If you check the static timing you will be able to tell if you are close enough - check TDC through the plug hole look at your pully and points. Are they all in roughly the right place ?

Also, may sound stupid, but have you got the firing order - HT leads the right way round !

The last bug I bought had these symptoms, would even drive down the road a bit ! I never thought it could run so good with the leads in the wrong order !

Anyway I put them right and it was perfect !

PO had put the new set of leads on .

I got it cheap cuz it had this fault too :-)

Rich

Checked all that and found that the plug wires were in the wrong order but I put them right and now I can time it to 7.5 degrees but it still won't rev. Starting to suspect the FI

I've also just finished an expensive rebuild of an '81 Westy 2L. There seems to be a lot of that going 'round.

Mine ran fine right off the bat, but I kept fiddling with it to make it run "better". After one of my fiddling episodes I was having the same sort of symptoms: would idle fine (maybe a bit rough), but as soon as any throttle was applied, it would just plain quit. Panic was mounting when I spotted the cause...

Turned out I had forgotten to reconnect the AFM plug. Plugged it back in and "Vrooom". Yours probably isn't that simple, but always check the basics.

Sorry - all mine have carb's. Someone else will have to offer FI advice !

Rich

AFM? Sorry not so good with the terminology sometimes

AirFlowMeter

I think they are onto something. For the longest time my carburated bug would idle fine, but when I got onto the expressway, I would have to feather it to get up to 50. It would bog down if I pressed the gas too much... Ended up driving so gently that I got over 45 mpg.... until I FINALLY discovered the problem... my oil bath aircleaner had an old "mud dauber's" (mud wasp) nest in the top and it would vibrate and sit over the air intake... only allowing a little air in..... so it could not breath. If your is FI, then find out what allows air in.... and what monitors it and you may just find the solution to your problem! Good luck!

Yeah, I checked it and it's definitely fine. Turns out we ended up looking in the manual and it seems to have something to do with the head temp sensor even though when I connected it for the first time it wouldn't start..... But the other night my friend and I were working on it and simply by installing a short extension wire between the oil pressure sender and wire seemed to make all the difference because for a few short seconds it ran and I could turn the throttle. MAGIC! but then we killed the battery flat trying to start it again. So I bought a trickle charger charged it back up and still nothing.... Back to the drawing board I guess!

Hmmmmmmmm. Altering the Oil sender wiring made it run???

Is it possible that there is some mis-wiring? Oil sender confused with (head) temp sender?

There is a simplified FI elc control diagram on my web site

Measure the resistance to ground right at pin #13 on the plug. Should be roughly 2500 Ohms when cold.

If you're tech-savvy, wire a 5K pot in place of the sensor. Then you can dial in the mixture at any running temp (as an experiment).

More about FI and even an article about the sensor:

An idea I've been pondering is that I may possibly have the coil wired backwards. I have my doubts because it idles properly without the head temp sensor connected, it just wont accelerate. Now for my own eddification do the points wire to the negative on the coil, a white wire from the ECU to the negative and two black wires to the positive side of the coil? that's all i've got...... The book's wiring diagram shows three black and three white and doesn't show the points just a hall sensor. so I'm getting really confused. UGH. Thanks so much for all your help too.

Cheers

Yes, you have it right: Points (Grn) to Neg side of coil (#1). Wh ECU lead to Neg side.

Blk wires to Pos side (#15).

With temp sensor disconnected, you have max mixture richness. Should idle and accel with a stone-cold engine.

Have you measured the fuel pressure yet?

Not yet haven't got a gauge. Will try to get one. The only thing otherwise that's confusing me is that I had put an MSD blaster 2 coil in with a ballast resistor and at one point it would run and then when we tried to accelerate it it died like it usually would and then wouldn't start again. Got out my trusty old fluke 73 multimeter and checked the voltage to the coil and it was only 4.7 volts. had 13 at the batt. Then we changed it out for the old coil and it did the same again. Thank goodness it's a long weekend and I have a bit of time to look at it. I'm a plumber and haven't had a whole lot of time to get around to it.

Was the 4.7V due to the voltage drop in the ballast? That may be normal.

Grab the gauge you use every day to check system pressures and "rig" it with a rubber fuel hose and hose clamp to fit over the fuel test port.

Jim The Plumber

That sounds a lot like a fuel problem.The FI engines will barely run without the fuel pump running but will die if you try to rev it.If you have a test light check to see if you have 12 volts at the fuel pump.You also need to check the double relay.The double relay is responsible for turning on the fuel pump.Its called a double relay cause it has two relays.One is triggered by a wire that comes off the starter.The other side is fed from the coil.My bus would just die and not start back up,I finally traced it to a loosewire at a fues in line betwen the double relay and the coil.If you have a bentley manual it has test procedures for the double relay.If you dont have a bentley I could probably scan some of the relavant pages and email them to you.It would have to be tonight though cause Im about to walk out the door.

OK now I'm just starting to get annoyed. We played around with it yesterday and I checked the voltage to the fuel pump and it's fine. So then we checked all the resistances and voltages suggested in the Bently manual and they're all fine. Then we went ahead and started it and it will run and the throttle works but when you let the throttle off and just try to let it idle it stalls and it's really starting to piss me off. Everything else seems to check out I just can't make the damn thing keep running. The help you guys have given me has been really appreciated. Thanks so much because you've saved me from ripping my hair out. Anyways, I'm just about ready to give up and have it sent to some guys I know who fix the damn things. Grrrr. Any ideas will be tested and most appreciated, just wish I could buy y'all a beer.