Weird running

[markee]

Last year when I did my annual tune up I had my spider running perfectly with a new 34adf, this year for some weird reason it's been a pain,i had the car running well yesterday after finally re-discovering the vauge timing marks on the pulley and setting the timing and idle which went ok, then I went for a test drive and there was a little hesitancy on acceleration so I got back and tweaked the mixture as I thought it was running a bit rich (plugs bit sooty. I went out again and it seemed fine but when I started it today it took at least 2 attemps to start from cold as it seemed the choke did not kick in straight away ( which I can sort out), but once the choke had kicked in the damn thing hesitated and poped once, like a back fire. Then as my journey continued and the engine was at pretty much normal temp the idle was much lower than when I set it yesterday and the slight hesitancy was back, although this improved a bit as I went on. I have replaced the points (single set), rotor arm, condenser and have a new coil. Could I have fitted a faulty condensor maybe? The points are gapped at 0.40mm. Help!

[mdrburchette]

The gap should be at .50mm or .018 to .020". I don't know if this is what's causing your problem though. What do you have your timing set at?

[markee]

Timing is set at 0 deg as per the Brooklands manual and was running perfectly with this setting last year.

[mbouse]

i set my timing on a warm engine, properly idling at 10°BTDC, then recheck the idle RPM

[mdrburchette]

Yep, mine's set at 10 btdc also.

[markee]

I guess I could try 10 deg, every book or person says a different setting ! It's an 1800 1977 btw.

[markee]

If the correct setting was 0 deg and I ran it at 5 or 10, what overall effect would this have in terms of performance and economy?

[So Cal Mark]

you would notice improved perf, slightly better economy and higher emissions

[markee]

I think i'll try it at 5 deg and see how it goes. Thanks for the help guys!