Pinking. I think.. (Hope!!:()

[Phil]

Hi, On the 95, When going up a hill under load, a loud irregular but very quick heavy rattling comes and then goes on release of the throttle. Once it has done it once, its fairly easy to get it to do it again on your journey. It does sometimes do it badly and start to jerk. I think this is if I don't release the throttle soon enough to stop the pinking. Since it has become apparant its doing this, I've changed the dizzy cap, rotor arm, points, condenser, spark plugs and filled up the carb damper and turned up the mixture a bit on the carb to allow it to run a bit better as it was struggling to idle before.
I am using Esso standard unleaded and adding castrol valvemaster with octane booster. There is a thumbwheel on the distributor to advance and retard the timing and I've tried turning it either way and its made no difference. There is a fair bit of rotational movement if you try to move the distributor rotor arm which I'm not sure if that is normal. The distributor also rattles quite badly as well.

Its a straight 6 2.6 on an A plate.

[podge]

Sounds like the advance / retard mechanism is worn Phil.Have you tried to reset the static advance, then retard it slightly.Sounds like timing,are you sure its not coming from the bottom end.....hopefully not. I have a dynamic strobe light(you can dial in the dynamic advance)you are more than welcome to borrow.P.

[Phil]

Originally Posted by podge

Sounds like the advance / retard mechanism is worn Phil.Have you tried to reset the static advance, then retard it slightly.Sounds like timing,are you sure its not coming from the bottom end.....hopefully not. I have a dynamic strobe light(you can dial in the dynamic advance)you are more than welcome to borrow.P.

I hope its not bottom end, I would have thought though that would be a very regular rythemic knock and wouldn't cause hesitation would it? You can rev the engine hard in neutral or accellerate hard in first gear and you get no nasty noises at all infact it sounds lovely! I'm thinking worn distributor too. I've not tried static advance yet or strobing it yet. I need to read up how to do the static set up. Its not something I've ever done, it was never covered in my apprenticeship and I've never done it since, that is a very generous offer of borrowing your strobe light, I didn't realise you were that close either so I may take you up on it if thats ok.

[sworks]

As allready said, sounds like a distributer issue. If you use a strobe light to set it as it should be this won't account for any wear, mark it where it's at now (so it can be returned if need be) and retard it a bit at a time to see if it stops.

[podge]

It should be quite easy to set it up static wise and I think you have a starting handle....makes it easier to do! I will try and find out some details laier.P,

[2Diesels]

Static timing's dead easy Phil just line up yor marks on the crank pulley then set the thumbwheel vernier to the middle psition & turn the dizzy body until the points just begin to break & you should be somewhere near

Regards Col

[BigRuss]

Also you can use a bulb to set the static timing.

First of all set the points gap, and as Col says set the thumbwheel midway

Use a bulb in a bulb holder with wires attached attach one wire to earth and the other to the terminal of the coil that is connected to the points.

Line up the timing marks on the flywheel and with ignition on and HT disconnected from the coil, rotate the distributor until a point where the slightest movement turns the bulb on or off.

Tighten the distributor and double check that it hasn't moved during tightening it up.

The static timing should now be as correct as it can be.

Next thing is the dwell angle, this should be 35 +/- 3 degs

There's various ways you can do this if there isn't a second mark already on the flywheel, the simplest is to count the number of teeth on the flywheel and divide 360 by the number of teeth this will give you the amount of degrees for each tooth of the flywheel.

Rotate the crank that number of teeth and make a second mark, this will give you the dwell angle.

With the engine on the original marks rotate the engine with the static bulb timing light connected as above if the points are still open when the second mark is passed the the points then the dwell angle is too small and the points gap is too wide. The opposite also applies if the points close before the second mark the dwell is too large and the points gap is too small.

If you make any adjustment to the points gap then the static timing will have to be adjusted slightly to compensate as above.

The next step then is to try and balance out the wear in the advance mechanism using the thumbwheel and a strobe and balancing it out as best as you can.

God, this takes me back, haven't had to do this kind of thing in years.


Russ

[James.uk]

Hiya Phil.

It's NOT a bottom end problem! :lol: Taking your foot off the pedal won't mend a worn main or big-end bearing!!

I would try to get another distributor from a local scrapyard, once it's off the car you can check it for play easily and provided it doesn't have worn bearings or anything, it should be fine.

I am no elec, but I think some dizzies have a condensor and other elec stuff built in? It may be worth checking on that side of things.
.

[Greeners]

ECU Dr for older cars

[podge]

Hi Phil, a couple of links...


http://www.roverp4.com/


http://www.head2head.free-online.co.uk/Rover/engine.htm

can you identify the Lucas distibutor number? it is stamped on the body,near the clamp.I have a database that should then identify the static/dynamic advance.Years ago one of my freinds used to use a Rover 105R.............as a Taxi!!