jutny

Well, my car is a bitch to start... it'll crank, and sputter as if it would start, and then not catch... and it'll do this forever... sometimes it MAY start. its about 35 degrees here, and it does the same thing when its 20 and below... so i guess its still too cold for it to be easy, or there's something else wrong.

questions are:

1) do you use the "choke" on the Dellorto, and if so, how do you hook up the cable to it?

2) did you leave your velocity stacks on under the air cleaner? (i have 2" stacks under my 3.5" aircleaner from CB Performance)

3) do you think it's flooding?

4) if you think it's flooding.... what can i do to make it stop flooding constantly?

5) Sometimes when it starts, it'll run REALLY rough for a little bit, and i'll have to keep it around 2000rpm to keep it running, and then all of a sudden, it'll smooth out and run like silk.... could this be a sticking Apex seal, or something of that nature?

6) do i need to have a really well charged battery, or will a rotary typically start no matter what as long as you can turn the motor over?

these are things that have been bothering me, because this car will become my daily driver soon, and i cant have this problem... i havent driven the car yet, so the only running its gotten has been in the driveway, i'm guessing after running the motor for a while, this will all get better? I have done the ATF treatment when i got the motor, but i'm not sure i did it right, so i'm planning on doing it again, maybe even today... but do you think that might help? Do you think that once i run the motor, and get it all "cleaned out" by actually running it under load... and overall running it for more than 15 minutes (i always let it warm up before shutting it off). Any help you guys can offer is great, this is just a daunting problem, and along with all the other **** that's gone wrong with this car (title problems) causing me to pay $275 for a title for the car.... i'm getting frusturated with it all, and i'm not sure how much more bullshit i can take from this whole project. All i really want to do is drive my car (hell, its been 3-4 months since i bought it, and its been 2 months since it's been pretty much ready to drive).

-Kurt

Rotor13B

I know exactly what your talking about. Letting the car sit like that with out taking it through it's paces tend to let it get stubborn on you. I have exact same carb setup and as long as it's driven normally it's fine. As soon as you let it sit for a week or so it becomes stubborn. I think your problem will go away once you start driving it more often. As for the stubborn idle, I think it's because they (dellorto) tends to run rich which causes your seals to not have enough lubrication on them until the m.o.p gets enough back into the chambers. That's my theory anyways. And yes, you need to have a decent battery as the rotory tends to take alot of cranking power to start because there is very little compression at startup. It needs to be able to spin fast enough to seal as it's trying to start.

edit- What was the outcome of your title mess? Did you get everything straightened out or what?

jutny

well, as for the title, since it's easier to answer... the title is on its way, once Broadway Title deems it worth ot send it to me... who knows when that may be.... hopefully sometime next week.

as for the car, what seems to be happening is that it's fouling the leading plugs to the point where my DLIDFIS wont fire them anymore. However, if you then put the current leading plugs into the trailing... they fire, and it works. Leading me to believe that the traling spark has much more energy than my leading spark. The only thing i can think of that would cause this is the following:

my coils for the leading are the stock coils, probably 23 years old... and the trailing coil is a new napa coil, one that i had lying around. Do you think that the stock coils could just not be up to the task? The plugs are NGK BR8EQ-14's just like everyone reccomends... but they carbon foul SO quickly in the leading, yet the trailing still fires them.

*shrug*... i'm out of ideas.

Bruceman

iTrader: (5)

I have the same setup as you here in michigan. I frequently leave my car sitting for 2 weeks at a time during winter and it still starts well.
I find with the Dellorto it is best to warm it up before driving because it tends to foul the plugs and starts running on one rotor. Sounds like a bridgeport which is cool but not the best.
I start it by giving the throttle a couple of pumps and once it's running pull the choke out until it will idle by itself. The choke cable hooks up to the enrichening device on top of the carb.
Your hard starting may be caused by the accelerator pump not working or even dare I say low compression.

Good luck

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Did anyone link to www.gruntled.com/Dellorto/ yet?

~T.J.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

My friend's got a dellorto on his 4 port 13B. The rear rotor was once carbon locked. Its apex springs are all flatened because the distributor cap used to block the rear rotor's Leading plug from firing. I've fixed the ignition problems with DLIDFIS etc, but the damage from a long time overly rich condition in the rear rotor has taken its toll. The engine still starts and runs, but the idle sucks and low RPM isn't all that great. High RPM is quite good though, probably because the apex seals are forced out against the rotor housing harder as RPM goes up, and the front rotor's apex seals are still nice and springy. Oh, and the rear header tube recently had a mini explosion and a 1/2" hole had to be welded up. It's in the hot zone between front and rear tubes. I fear the header patch won't last very long with the bad rear apex springs.

By the way, while the header was off for welding, I was inspecting the apex seals through the exhaust ports and thankfully there's no more carbon problems. But the funny thing was that you could push the apex seals upward in the rear rotor and then they'd drop back down with a ding-like sound. Heh, sprung springs.

My friend's setup is similar to yours but even with a virtually dead rotor, it still runs pretty good. it's my opinion that your old coils ought to be replaced. You should also check for any voltage drop from the battery to the supply wire for your ignitors and coils.

SilverRocket

If you don't have the choke hooked up, then that's your problem right there. Forget about sticking apex seals or whatever - without the choke the Dell will be impossible to start and will run like shiat until it's warmed up. Even in the morning in the summertime when it's slightly cool out, not using the choke will make it very difficult to start. I can't imagine what it must be like in the winter.

I rigged up some linkage for mine using bicycle parts I got for free at a local bicycle shop (turns out the fix-it shop guy there is a car freak and loved my car, helped me out for like an hour to find the parts I needed and charged me nothing). Even if you don't have the linkage hooked up yet though, you can still use the choke, you just have to open it by hand. The choke on the Dellorto is not like the Nikki - it's basically a controlled vacuum leak and makes a loud hissing air sound when it's open. Go to gruntled.com and look at the Diagram for where the choke lever is (it's basically a little round o-ring kinda piece of metal on the top of the carb that you can move side to side). Use your fingers to move it to the open position, then get in and start your car. You're going to be astonished at how much easier the car starts and runs. In fact, you'll now be able to drive the car pretty soon after starting it up. However, remember that now you have to get back under the hood to close the choke once the car is warmed up - that's where it's a lot more handy to have the linkage hooked up.

jutny

SilverRocket... i knew all that.

i was asking for specifics on how you had the linkage hooked up... lol

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

1. Hook up the choke cable and use it. Look at gruntled.com for diagram.

2. Yes. Always use stacks. It smooths out the airflow and adjusting length of stack allows you to tune powerband.

3. Possibly. pull plugs, if they're wet it's flooded.

4. Use Choke.

5. Keep battery charged.

We're assuming you've got the car already tuned up and in tip top shape.

-bp-

SilverRocket

I assumed that you didn't know how to use the choke, because I figured you wouldn't be having the problems you described if you were using it... Just trying to help you out man!

It's about a year since I did that and the car is stored far away... the specific part you need is used for the brake cable on some bikes. Sorry I can't remember much more lol - if you look at the choke and then look go to a bike shop and look around, I think you'll know what I mean. I think I've posted about it before.. try searching.

I'm sure people do it different ways - just rig something up that you think will work. All it has to do is get the choke open. In the interim just do it manually.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

My 74 repu also has a dellorto 48 dhla. I went to auto parts store, the HELP! section. You know all the odds and ends packaged in red. Bought a 5 foot long choke cable and **** for $4.99 Length is perfect and should work great with 1st gen too. It doesn't have a little round barrel on the choke end; the end is just straight cable.

Took a big nut and bolt, drilled a hold right thru the threads near head of the bolt. Ran that thru the end of cable and tightened it up. Cut the end of the stock choke cable off and threaded/crimped it on the end of the HELP choke cable.

Voila~!

DONE.

jutny

oh, allright.

i was kinda hoping someone did it with the stock choke cable... which is only about 6" too short.

allright, i'll pick up a 5' choke cable when i go tomorrow to get brake shoes for the rear... i should also get the front rims on tomorrow.... and the rears soon after.