1108cc engine reluctant to start hot or cold

[malcolm]

Claude has never been very good at starting and I assumed that was because the fuel drained back past the pump after he had been sitting for a while. The fuel filter stays full with the new fuel pump so that's not it. And the petrol is new. The engine runs perfectly once it is going so it's not going to be compression.

It's got to be ignition. The engine is very sensitive to choke on a cold start so it's going to be a weak spark. It's not too expensive to swap out the coil, leads and condenser so I'll probably work through those and report back on what fixes it. Most of the rest of the bits are new and the ignition timing has just been set.

But there have been a few threads in the past about poor starting. What fixed yours?

 

[JdeW]

This thread https://www.renault4.co.uk/forum/th...age-and-the-t-piece-mystery.11316/#post-77880
might address the problem. @Andy McGhee as well as myself wrote about it.

Mainly the "problem" occurs only in the combination 1108cc Cleon engine with the Zenith 28if carburetor.
With my first R4 GTL 1983 I never had any problem because that particular modification was already installed as the 1108 cc Cleon engine needs a 3 lead fuel pump not the standard 2 lead.
My second R4 GTL 1985 (still in full restoration mode) came without modification and the problem as you describes occured as well.

Maybe buying the original 3 lead GTL fuel pump and installing the modification may solve the problem. Ofcourse in combination with the period correct type of fuel, so don't use the nowadays dreadful terrible E10 types of rubbish fuels.

 

[orsome]

Hi, i had always had same problems but finally i got it over, i installed a cheap one-way "valve"(it's the silver thing before the filter in pic) plus big one petrol filer before the pump and now it fires up by the very first attempt every time.
i also tried to adjust the aftermarket pump distance from the connrod by reducing the 4mm distance piece to approx 2mm's but it only made the float chamber to flood !

 

[JdeW]

Good solution indeed and nice to see a fuel hose which the Dutch text "Universele brandstof"

 

[malcolm]

I think I've found a fix for the issue I was having. I've replaced the (aftermarket) coil with a spare and it will tolerate choke when cold now. Resistance in the old coil was a bit low in the secondary winding so I think something has gone wrong in there. The R4 coil measures 3 ohms positive to negative connections and 8k ohms positive to HT lead connector. The old one was down at 5k ohms.

My spare is a ballasted coil running with a resistor but no direct 12V feed from the starter. The starter wire goes to earth when the starter isn't running so I don't think I can run a ballasted coil. I would order a Bosch Blue coil but they are out of stock.

Edit > Found a normal R4 coil. Van starts first time now.