<VV> RS Loss of Power - drivin' me nuts!

[Jim McLott]

Joel,
 
In my non-expert opinion, you have a heat-related electrical problem.  My advice is to change the condensor.  It's cheap, easy to do, and a condensor that's failing will cause all kinds of odd problems.  
 
Jim McLott & Christine, the 1966 Monza convertible she-devil
Member: CORSA, Corvair Atlanta and Group Red (Ret.)
http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/groupred/mclott.htm
 

________________________________

From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org on behalf of Western Canada CORSA
Sent: Fri 12/23/2005 1:45 PM
To: WCC List Server (E-mail); Virtual Vairs (E-mail)
Cc: patiomatt at aol.com; Joe Macmurchie (E-mail)
Subject: <VV> RS Loss of Power - drivin' me nuts!



Hey all, best of the season to you!

I'm going to give a rather detailed explination, as best I can of the
symptoms my RS (The "Yuma" RS) is exhibiting in hopes somebody can put their
finger on the source of my problem.

Last spring, I purchased a '61 Rampside w/ Scamper Camper in Yuma AZ and
drove it home, 1700miles, with the help of Mike Weirmeir.  Since then I have
put an additional 9000miles on it, using it as my daily driver.  It is a gas
to drive.  But on long distance trips, at about the half hour to fortyfive
minute mark it begins to suffer a loss of power.  If I pull over to the side
of the road, wait for ten mintues or so, then fire it back up it's good to
go for another half hour to fortyfive minutes.

The vehicle in question is a '61 Rampside, 4spd with what appears to be a
80hp motor sporting '62 or later heads.  It has both a mechanical and
electrical fuel pump.  The P/O had installed the electrical pump on a switch
for priming the motor as it had only been used for a few months each year
prior to my purchase.

Every two weeks my job takes me "up island" requiring driving at 55mph up
and over a couple of small mountains with times in excess of the afore
mentioned half hour to fortyfive minutes.  The balance of the time is spent
driving around Victoria doing shorter trips.

I have made the following changes/repairs, not necessarily in this order,
but one at a time to try an isolate the problem, or in the case of the
alternator, because it was required for other reasons.

-replaced the generator with a one wire alternator
-installed a ground strap, body to engine
-replaced the points with Pertronix I
-replaced the bronze carb filters with new.
-replaced the inline fuel filter with a clear model.  It is mounted
horizontally so it never fills up with gas, there is an pocket of air that
remains above the inlet/outlets.
-dropped the tank to clean it out and check the sock.  I used the electrical
pump to drain the suspected clogged tank, and it had good pressure.  I then
spent about two hours swirling 5gal of gas in the tank and draining it
through a filtered funnel repeatedly.  I managed to collect about a thimble
full of fine black dirt.  I also cracked the carbs and cleaned them out.
There was a some very fine particles in the bottom of the float bowls.
-replaced the coil.  It had been a Neihoff high performance coil originally
installed in Yuma.  It was replaced with a standard Blue Streak.
-replaced the ballast wire to the coil, with an external ballast resistor
and new wire.  At this point I also added a new wire bypassing the ballast
resistor to provide a full 12volts to the Pertronix.

I think I've narrowed it down to electrical/ignition.  Here's why.

In the days before I dropped the tank it was running rough virtually all the
time.  Running with or without the electrical pump on had no effect.  So I
decided to drop the tank.  I did the carbs and cleaned the tank, reinstalled
it, with no change in the way it was running.  I pulled out the old Neihoff
coil, reinstalled it, and viola! it was running better again.  Not quite as
strong as when the fresh Blue Streak had gone in a few weeks before, but
better than it had been.  So the last couple of days was my first extended
trip since the tank dropping/back to the old coil bit.  Sure enough, at the
half hour mark on Wednesday morning, a loss of power and a wait at the side
of the road, this is with the Neihoff coil.  So when I get up to Port
Alberni I take the Blue Streak back to the store I had purchased it from and
get a replacement.  The new coil goes in and I drive back to Victoria, with
only a short stop to use the facilities and grab a cup of Timmy's, over two
hours of driving, no problems.  The trip back "upisland" on Thursday morning
is puntuated with stops, so no extended driving is done.  But the trip home
is the worst yet.  I get to about the half hour point, she looses power,
more quickly than usual too.  I pull over, wait a good 20 minutes, expect to
be able to get another half hour in... no dice.  After about only ten
minutes, power drops off, very quickly.  I manage to find a lighted parking
lot, where I can put the old Neihoff back in.  This allows maybe a 20 minute
stretch, but still one more stop before I can get home.

Now the one other thing I've noticed is that the ignition switch gets warm
while all of this is going on.  Not "burning" warm, but it feels about the
same as the forehead of someone with a fever.  Is this normal?

Electrical stuff isn't my strong suit, so instructions for diagnosing
possible solutions would be appreciated.

Regards,
Joel



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