S2 fulvia assembly

[Wangler]

I checked again with the local expert and he confirmed that one should pack the oil pump with grease initially?

Once there’s an oil flow through the pump obviously it should flush through any grease, especially as it all warms up. But there has to be a flow first to achieve that. If you’re showing some pressure I guess that indicates that there is a flow. Whatever the case, there is no way I would “pack” an oil pump with grease and risk not even getting a flow, or restrict its initial ability to pump.

[Richard Fridd]

I expect the oil gauge could be tested for a full scale deflection by putting the sender wire to earth. And the sender with a ohm meter and thermometer. Or put the sender in a heated environment and see what happens on the gauge. Just a light grease was it?

  Richard

My method was for a temperature gauge not a pressure gauge which I  now realise is the instrument in question.

  Richard

[Keithver]

Ladies and gentlemen. She is officially a runner .
After setting the static timing and priming the carbs, she fired almost immediately and caught properly a moment later. I now understand the joy of the first start up. BTW, the oil pressure is sitting just below the 70 mark. I'm hoping that is correct. The next step is the brakes. She need to stop now.

Thanks again for all the help and advice. You have got me this far

PS
Richard, I can do with all the info available

[Keithver]

After the car started initially, it ran for about 5 minutes and then stopped. It sounded as if it ran out of petrol. I couldn’t get it to fire again, let alone start.
I gapped and installed a new set of plugs. She started quickly, but the whole process repeated itself.
On inspection the #1 plug was pretty clean. #2 was a little blackened, but 3 and 4 were completely black.
I tried screwing the pilot screws in and out without any noticeable difference in revs. I started out with each one open two turns as well as trying only a ¼ turn out. Neither setting seemed to make a difference.
I dis-assembled the float chambers to check the float level. The brass tube pivot of the float in the 3 &4 cylinder carb is slightly mangled at one end where it rests in the little slots. Although it doesn’t seem to stop the float moving easily.
I checked in the tech data and under C35 PHH19 there is an entry that says “level 19+-1”. I have no idea where to apply the 19+-1.
How does one go about checking and adjusting the float level?  Does one add washers under the needle and seat to lower the level?
When trying to start her again, there was a little fuel being expelled from the intake side of the carbs. Enough to coat the inside of the engine bay. She also backfires when trying to start her again. I’m sure there is an obvious answer to all of this, but it is beyond me at this stage.
I spent a lot of time setting up the valve timing with lots of help from the forum. I hope that it is correct. I made sure of TDC on #1 and then installed the distributor with the rotor facing #4 plug wire.
Has anyone got any bright ideas for me please? Once again your help is greatly appreciated

[nistri]

There may be various reasons for your Fulvia's problem. Let me assume that valve and ignition timings are spot on (this is not trivial). It seems that there is too much petrol in the carbs and the engine chambers. The first that comes to mind is that the carbs are badly misaligned. This can be corrected with accuracy only with vacuum meters and flow meters. Second, the needle valves should have a washer of identical thickness. Third, a slight probem with the float valve pivot can be sufficient to produce incorrect operation of one needle valve. The 19 mm value is measured with the carb cover held vertically and checking the distance between the cover base and the top of the float. Andrea

[Keithver]

Hi Andrea. When I fit brand new spark plugs, She starts and runs for a couple of minutes, but after that, refuses to even fire even if I clean the plugs properly. The needle valves have the same thickness washer under them. I have straightened out the float pivot and it looks as it should. Fuel is being spat out of the intake side of the carb of cylinder #2, but not the rest. The carb you are referring to is obviously different to the pair I have (C35 phh). In the photo you can see that the needle and float have no fixed connection making checking the level difficult/different

[dhla40]

The 19mm is measured from the surface of the body near the jets to the surface of the fuel, this is why it is called fuel level not float level. I leave the top cover on and remove an emulsion tube and using a piece of wire bent to 19mm as a dip stick shine a torch down the well to see the level.  If you have the later carb with brass inserts add 2mm.

Sean

[Keithver]

I removed the small cover to expose the 4 center jets in the photo in my previous post. I removed the emulsion tubes on both carbs and I dropped a cable tie into the hole. I marked the top of the cover on the tie and removed it. My measurement showed a consistent 28mm between my mark and the top of the wet fuel. To me that would mean that it is running lean. Which isn’t the case.
I also noticed that there are washers under each emulsion tube (visible in the same photo). The washers are not shown in the parts book. Could this affect things?

[dhla40]

The 19mm is from the surface of the body casting the tubes screw into, the 'washers' you see are brass inserts about 2mm thick so use a piece of wire and put a kink in it to rest on the edge of the hole and cut the lower leg to 21mm.  If you shine a torch down the well you will see the fuel level 'wink' when the wire touches it, the range is 18 to 20mm so I use three wires of 20,21 and22.  If you want to measure from the surface of the top cover you will have to add that dimension which may well be the 28mm that you have.

Sean

[Keithver]

Hi Sean, sorry. I'm not ignoring you. Life, visitors and the cold here have kept me away from, what my wife calls, 'my girlfriend'.
I bent a 19mm fuel level dipstick today. The front carb is pretty close to the 19mm, but the rear one looks to be about 14 or 15mm. What is the procedure to change the float level. Would I bend the float arms a little.
I have also removed the washers below all four emulsion tubes (visible in the previous photo showing the carb top removed). It doesn't seem to change the running.
A further point is that when I disconnect spark plug 1 while she runs, there is no change to the revs. The other three cylinders each drop the revs. There is spark on #1. Ive cleaned the idle jet next to the emulsion tube. All to no avail. Is there anything else to check before taking the carb off.

[dhla40]

There is a jig that is used to set the float, I think the dimensions are listed on the site somewhere. I just bend the arms as required to obtain the correct level. Check the air bypass screw on No1 barrel it may be too far out, if not there may be a blockage in the idle gallery, empty all fuel from the carb and try a blast of air down the idle jet hole.  Good luck.

Sean 

[nistri]

If a HT lead has a spark at the plug end but it does nothing to the engine idling, it suggests that there is either too little (often) or too much fuel reaching that combustion chamber. My suggestion is to slowly undo the mixture screw for your cylinder #1 and see if the idling speed improves. If not, try to screw down a little bit the same screw and see what happens. If the result is nihil, there are various possibilities: There is a blockage of the fuel supply somewhere as suggested earlier; the carbs are largely misaligned (very common even if they were properly balanced earlier) or there is sommthing wrong with cylinder # 1 compression. Good luck.

[Keithver]

Travel, family and cold weather kept me out of the garage for a long while.
Andrea, I checked the compression on all four cylinders and found it to be rather low. I think that the valves were leaking too.
To cut a long story short, I took the engine out again and started again. The bores were under size as the old pistons were worn. I had the bores honed to 77mm standard size and splashed out on new pistons, ring and main bearings.
Before removing the engine, I noticed that there was an oil leak along the sides of the sump but not along the front or back. I found that the crank front and back pieces were slightly longer than the crank case. See photo. I’d had previously used a second crank case, as the original did not have the external pipe for the dipstick.
I checked the second crankcase with the matching front and back. They lined up perfectly. My guess it that the 3 crankcase bits are fitted together in the factory and then machined together to get a flat surface across all three. (Lesson – don’t mix and match crankcase pieces)
I made up a new dipstick pipe and fitted it.
I took the front carb to the carb shop because No1 wasn’t getting fuel. They said that they had cleaned it again.

The engine is refitted now and running surprisingly well as No1 is still not firing although there is a spark. I decided to ignore this for the time being as I was becoming disheartened with the whole project.
I am concentrating on the rest of the car’s details to get my motivation going again.

[Keithver]

The brake lines have been installed for a while, but not bled. To get the fluid through the system, I applied pressure with a cork stopper in the reservoir connected to a bicycle pump. As one can see from the photo, it wasn’t successful. I would have thought the cork stopper would have popped off before the reservoir exploded.
None the less, now that the engine bay and my face were liberally coated in brake fluid, I had to do a very thorough clean up. The reservoir had cracks and was probably ready to go at some stage. I was fortunate to get a good second hand reservoir which is now fitted. I got someone to help with pumping the pedal - the conventional way.

I found Andrea’s advice (thank you) on the forum about the bleeding order for a RHD car
Left side front top
Right side front top
Left side bottom
Right side bottom
Left side rear
Right side rear
It was remarkably easy and the pedal feels good.

[Keithver]

Is there a secret to getting the clutch right?
I have got the Tech Manual and see the 37,5mm measurement for lever fitting and the fully compressed 10mm. I tried the lever in one position and had a rough measurement of 50mm to the bellhousing/ crank joint. Rotating the clutch arm one spline back gave me a measurement of about 15mm. 
Does the angle it is fitted (within reason) make much difference? I see that there is an adjustment on the pedal end of the cable. See photo. Sorry, image seems to have rotated. What is a good ball park adjustment for this?