My car is not starting well, its a stock 12a. I often have to (in the past few days) crank it for 10 seconds and then again and then it struggles to life. This happens even when it's not a morning cold start, like when i drove for a while and it only sat about an hour. after about a minute it runs perfect though and it stays steady at 800 to 900 rpm for idle.....?? any tips im not sure God bless

 

Have you done a compression test on it?
Need to get a inline ignition tester and have someone crank while you look at the color of the spark going into the plug. These are inexpensive devices that just plug over the end of the plug like the wire does and then completes a brideg between the cable and the tester and wire. Could be failing ignitor. Does the tach work all the time?

 

yeah the tach works fine....i dont know much about electrical stuff or compression but i kinda get it, tell me exactly what i need (please) and ill go out and get it. I was hoping on getting rims and new paint but if this is a compression problem, well that would suck!!!

 

Sounds to me like you might have fuel leaking past into the engine after you shut down causing a flooded condition. Try holding the pedal to the floor when starting and see if that helps any.

When it finally starts, does it smell rich? Any smoke?

One other thing to check; After a hot shutdown, or before trying to start it, look into the sight windows (one in front, one in back) on the carb and see what the levels are at.

Oh, one other thing to consider; sometimes ignition components will heat up causing starting issues. However, since it seems to run fine once you get her started I doubt that this is the cause. If you want to check it out though, first try swapping the coils around, then the ignitors...

Good luck...

 

I had the same problem when i installed the header and exhaust on my 81, had to readjust idle speed and mixture, i set my idle a little high because i like it that way, like 900 (i think 700 is stock on most 12a's) then i screwed the idle mixture screw in until it almost died, and moved it out about 1/2 turn. i think the screws are reverse thread if i remember. might be a little rich, but once the timing was set, it starts in about 2 seconds! even with choke on cold mornings. you can find all of this in the chilton manual.

 

750 rpm is stock idle on 12As. And boog, sounds like a low compression problem.

 

i dont really have any experience with most of this stuff. On cold starts there is a teeny bit of white smoke for a little bit. Why do you think mine would be idling a little high? i think i might need a new fuel pump because i dont think it was ever replaced and the carb could probably use some rebuilding. How EXACTLY do i find out if it's a compression problem? Oh yeah, im not sure exactly how a rich mixture smells but it is very strong in the morning with the choke out....

 

Go to the local parts store. Pick up the following. 1) compresssion tester, don't tell
them it is for a rotary or they will just start spasing. You just need one for a regular gas piston motor. 2) either search the faq section 3) i recommend better that you pick up a haynes manual. 4) Do the test. Have fun most of all, yes you can do this. rx7doctor

 

You might try a new cap and rotor, Wires and plugs.

Pull the coil wires from the cap and look for corosion.

 

I am having the same problem every morning it takes about 2 starts to get it going then it runs fine for the rest of the day :S? The engine is turning and it just doesn't go then finally does ya know so i am gonna do a tune up tomorrow hopefully that'll fix it but i dont know, any ideas?

 

ill check all that stuff, thanks guys. Do you think i could be running rich and idling a little high because of my choke being a little tweaked or something. It has gotten stuck out twice now............... God bless

 

Darn this sounds alot like what I have in mine. Only thing is that after about 2 minutes it starts up just fine. My 12A will idle at 700 - 750 and then slowly rise about 900 or so. After I driver it around a few blocks the idle stays at 900. It really doesn,t bother me if its a compression problem since I am rebuliding a 13b to replace it soon. However, thats still a few months away. I got a lil antifreeze next to my carb, I think its from a loose hose. The friend of mine that sold me the car told me that he had just done a complete tuneup. I dought that though because I checked the fuel filter and it was the factory one. Thats going to be my project later.

As far as manuel go. don;t get the chilton one. its more confuseing and harder to find specific information. I have to buy the hanes.. I got one for my camry and it tells you everything you have to do to rebuild the darn 4 banger.

I did that carb cleaner thing with the water and had the car reving at 3000, since then the car has had worst starts. I think it did more harm then good. Next time I think I am going to use the ATF/MMO trick. First thing I am going to do is a compression tester. Which should be saturday.(wish me luck)

side note: I WON!! I finally beat the heck out of my rusted pins that hold the e break cables together, only took a 1 1/2 hrs to remove the small cable,, yippy!!!