Trouble starting SJ410

[thomoza]

HI!

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction here - total car newbie, but been really enjoying my 1986 SJ410 for the last year or so. It's given me a few hassles since I bought it (cylinder head, engine overhaul), but was running great until a few days ago.

Now it struggles to start up. Engine turns over and feels like it's about to take, but just doesn't. Dash lights are on, so doesn't seem like a battery problem, can push start it to get it going but it's veery slow to take when I do. Splutters and struggles until she starts up. Once I get her going though, she usually starts up fine again on multiple occasions for the rest of the day / next day, when suddenly the problem starts again. I took a little look under the hood and noticed that the airfilter pipe had come disconnected from the engine, so reconnected that hoping to solve the problem, but no such luck. Anyone got an idea where she might be going wrong?

Would appreciate any help here. Thanks!

[chrisj410]

What carb you running? Sounds like you might be flooding the engine matey.

[thomoza]

Thanks for the reply chrisj410. Can you clarify what you mean by "what carb you running"? Embarrassingly I'm such a novice that I don't really know what this means. The problem did come out of nowhere after starting up like a dream after getting engine / cylinder head done for a few weeks... How is it that I would suddenly be flooding the engine? Thanks!

[dan_2k_uk]

The carb (Carburettor) mixes the fuel and air and is located on the left hand side of the engine above the inlet manifold.

If you post up a photo we should be able to identify it.

Dan

[ScottieJ]

Do you pull the choke out all the way to start it? I used to find that its best to only pull it out about halfway- 3/4 out.

It could just he the cold, not many old carbed engines like cold morning starts.

Few other things might be to check the gap on the points in the dizzy, it could just be a bit of a weak spark? Check that the 12v piggyback wire that bypasses the ballast resistor on the coil is still connected at the starter, should be black/green tracer if I remember correctly.

[thomoza]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try get a photo and send it through.

Usually pull choke out 3/4 as well. Unfortunately it's not the cold - I'm down in the sunny southern hemisphere at the moment and had trouble starting it up in mid-summer. I'm going to do a little searching on the net for a bit more info on your suggested fixes ScottieJ because some of them go over my head a little, but thanks for the advice so far.

An interesting thing that might (or might not) be related that I just remembered now. A few weeks ago, on the odd occasion the car would just die on startup - battery appeared completely dead. Just a quick touch of the negative point on the battery would give a little 'click' and then fix the problem, until it happened again at random. Thought it might be related to the immobiliser. This seems to have stopped though, but I did give the terminals a clean and they seem to check out fine.

Sorry about all the questions - loving being able to get involved with a car for the first time - loads more fun than getting stuck into a new car!

[ScottieJ]

Ah I didn't realise you weren't in the UK sorry

The gap on the points should be set to 0.4 to 0.5mm when open using a feeler gauge. The points should be clean and smooth with no burns or pitting, if they look burnt, worn or pitted then the condensor could be breaking down.

Might be worth just throwing on a few cheap service items on to rule them all out.

I would get a new condensor, points and a fuel filter, won't cost much and they are the first things I change on a 410 if it starts dying. Check around all the earths and clean them up as well.

It sounds ignition or fuel related to me? It can be difficult to diagnose things like this without being with the vehicle though as it could be a number of small issues.

The other problem you just mentioned on start up sound like the 'clicky starter' issue if it starts happening a lot then there is a write up in the DIY section to get a bit more power to the starter.