Your 164 is 12v or 24v? CAN'T REMEMBER. Please add car to your signature or in post.
Your 164 is 12v or 24v? CAN'T REMEMBER. Please add car to your signature or in post.With no apparent warning, the 164 was hard starting this morning, and ran poorly (missing) just coming off idle. Kind of OK with revs up a little. Did it again when I came back from the grocery a mile away. I let it warm up good, but missing persisted. Weather is fair and no heavy rain. Just this sudden problem with no warning.
The only thing I could think of is sheared Gilmer belt tooth. Maybe plugs, but too sudden feeling, though.
Could be a leaky vacuum hose, I suppose.
Check main intake boot (cracks or slipped off AFM or Throttle body), any vacuum line, distributor cap/rotor.With no apparent warning, the 164 was hard starting this morning, and ran poorly (missing) just coming off idle. Kind of OK with revs up a little. Did it again when I came back from the grocery a mile away. I let it warm up good, but missing persisted. Weather is fair and no heavy rain. Just this sudden problem with no warning.
The only thing I could think of is sheared Gilmer belt tooth. Maybe plugs, but too sudden feeling, though.
Could be a leaky vacuum hose, I suppose.
Hold that thought! Page two story http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/447038-post1.htmlThe moral is to check the simple things first
-Alex
John, check the hoses on your oil vapour recovery system too - they get ignored behind the rear cylinder bank against the firewall. If the little hose is boogered, you'll get a vacuum leak that will give you a poor throttle response/hesitation and hard starting. It's simple to fix if you can find the right size hose. On my 12V 164, this area was a bit of a mess but just replacing the cracked/hardened/boogered vacuum line fixed it.Good point. I'll check further in the morning. Usually, mysteries like this are ignition problems. I've got an electronic timing light around here someplace.
Electronic timing light is perhaps most useful these days for checking which spark plug is misfiring...! Just my two cents but I've made several accidental discoveries over the years when I have hooked up the inductive pickup and then noticed 'missed' flashes. I transferred to the other leads and found regular flashes there, so that located a fault in No.1 plug lead.Good point. I'll check further in the morning. Usually, mysteries like this are ignition problems. I've got an electronic timing light around here someplace.
"Distributor contacts "? Does the alfa have contacts? I thought cars all had magnetic pickups.Sounds like exactly the same symptoms I had. Mine even went away for a while. But then returned suddenly. Eventually the car stopped completely - had to get towed. Distributor contacts inside were all eroded/corroded.
Sorry to be pedantic but... did you mean you changed out your crank angle sensor? I suspect you meant that you changed out your cap and rotor, but just wanted to check.What they mean is the distributor cap and rotor. The ignition and fuel is triggered magnetically via the crank angle sensor. I changed mine out and my car ran way smoother, and probably prevented future issues.
The cap and rotor after hearing stories on the BB from people, figured it was a safe bet to change before things went badSorry to be pedantic but... did you mean you changed out your crank angle sensor? I suspect you meant that you changed out your cap and rotor, but just wanted to check.
JohnH, 'Distributor contacts' I take to mean the six brass stepped-posts moulded into the distributor cap. It's usual for there to be some erosion but if the flatness of the face is completely gone, the cap life is probably overThe last car I know of that had contact breaker points was my 1988 Bertone X1/9 (all other Italian models had breakerless designs by that time!)
-Alex