<VV> Spyder Bucking/Stalling problem - more clues!

Doug Mackintosh dougmackintosh at yahoo.com
Tue Jul 8 22:11:33 EDT 2008


I have continued trying to diagnose my daughter's Spyder's bucking/stalling problem I posted a few days ago. Here is an update on the current symptoms, the ideas folks have suggested, and what I have tried so far:
 
Symptoms:
 
Car starts fine and drives fine at first. After about 15-20 minutes on the highway (approx 60 MPH) it stalls. After sitting a minute, it will restart after a few seconds of cranking. Tonight when we tried it, it took 10 seconds of cranking after stalling. Then I turned it off, let it sit about 30 seconds, and it restarted instantly. Once it restarts, we can drive it several more minutes (but it appears it doesn't go as far after the restart before it stalls again). If we drive slower it seems to last longer. Tonight, after it stalled, we drove back at around 50 MPH and it made it almost all the way back before stalling. If I had driven at higher speed, it would have stalled sooner. 
 
Here are the ideas people have suggested, or I have thought of. I have shown in brackets what we have tried or checked out so far. The numbers are the number of folks making that suggestion:
 
Note, we have already replaced the distributor body to eliminate a sloppy shaft which was causing erratic point operation. This cured another problem (difficulty revving over 4000 RPM and an erratic tach needle). This did not have any effect on the above symptoms. 
 
  1 - Point wire [LOOKS GOOD, NO WEAK SPOTS]
  2 - Clogged fuel sock or filter
  1 - Fuel related
  5 - Coil [RULED OUT - REPLACED WITH KNOWN GOOD]
  1 - Distributor 
  1 - Coil feed wiring
  1 - Replace distributor
  0 - Radio capacitor [RULED OUT - REPLACED WITH KNOWN GOOD]  
  0 - Clogged AC fuel filter
  0 - Junk in tank that floats over pickup when tank ~ 1/4 full
  0 - Undersize orifice in carb inlet / needle seat [RULED OUT - PROBLEM DID NOT START WITH LAST CARB REBUILD; RECENT CARB REBUILD DID NOT CHANGE SYMPTOMS]

The fact that it takes some cranking to restart, but then restarts instantly if shut off makes me think fuel starvation.
 
HELP! This problem is driving me crazy(er)! Any more ideas?

-- Doug Mackintosh
Corsa member since 1996
Corsa/NC member since 1996, Virtual Vairs member
Corvair owner 1969-1971 and 1996-on


      __________________________________________________________
Not happy with your email address?.
Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html


More information about the VirtualVairs mailing list