Recently acquired a 1980 230g that had been sitting in a yard for 9 months. Couldn't get it to fire up when I looked at it but because the price was right, I bought it anyway as I want to eventually swap the engine. The guy said he had it running before storing it but who knows. I had it towed out of there and brought it home.
After charging the battery and trying to start it a bit more, it eventually fired up but ran pretty rough, although enough that I was able to move it a block. I had real trouble driving it up about a 200m hill and had to put it in 4lo or it didn't have enough power to do it. Parked it and assumed it just needed a good tuneup so started by taking the carb apart and cleaned everything. After putting it back together, I didn't have much of a change, in fact it probably ran a bit worse now. Took the carb apart again to make sure I didn't screw anything up when I had it apart. Put everything back together again and same issue although even worse (seems like I make it worse every time I touch this thing) and now it doesn't really want to idle/run at all.
Someone suggested checking the ignition system and as I was working on this, I took out the distributor to clean the contacts in it and while doing so I dropped it and it shattered... So I went to buy a new distributor cap, rotor and spark plug wires. These appear to impossible to find but by cross matching my old parts with other brands plus lots of reading, I thought I had found replacement. They just got here, two weeks later and the only part that is correct is the distributor cap… so at least I’m back to square one but with a new distributor cap. Unfortunately that had nothing to do with my issue. Installed the new cap and same issue as before. I’m not very mechanically inclined when it comes to engines so hoping someone can listen to this and have some idea what’s going on:
Video in 2 parts:
When cold, it'll start with no throttle but after it has started and died once, I have to use a lot of throttle to get it started again. Then it'll run for maybe 10-15 seconds and die again, regardless of how much throttle I give it.
Obviously I have some kind of exhaust leak and some belt squeal but I hadn't bothered to look at these yet unless it could affect this issue which I didn't think it would.
I have done the following:
1. Cleaned carb
2. Lightly sanded spark plugs to remove carbon deposits (would replace but can't find a replacement spark plug around here)
3. Set spark plug gaps properly
4. Replaced distributor cap
5. Lightly sanded distributor rotor contacts to remove dirt
6. Replaced fuel filter (it's clear and I can see fuel in it so it doesn't seem to be a fuel delivery issue?)
7. Added about 20L of good fuel in case the 9 month old fuel was bad (worth draining tank?)
Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.
After charging the battery and trying to start it a bit more, it eventually fired up but ran pretty rough, although enough that I was able to move it a block. I had real trouble driving it up about a 200m hill and had to put it in 4lo or it didn't have enough power to do it. Parked it and assumed it just needed a good tuneup so started by taking the carb apart and cleaned everything. After putting it back together, I didn't have much of a change, in fact it probably ran a bit worse now. Took the carb apart again to make sure I didn't screw anything up when I had it apart. Put everything back together again and same issue although even worse (seems like I make it worse every time I touch this thing) and now it doesn't really want to idle/run at all.
Someone suggested checking the ignition system and as I was working on this, I took out the distributor to clean the contacts in it and while doing so I dropped it and it shattered... So I went to buy a new distributor cap, rotor and spark plug wires. These appear to impossible to find but by cross matching my old parts with other brands plus lots of reading, I thought I had found replacement. They just got here, two weeks later and the only part that is correct is the distributor cap… so at least I’m back to square one but with a new distributor cap. Unfortunately that had nothing to do with my issue. Installed the new cap and same issue as before. I’m not very mechanically inclined when it comes to engines so hoping someone can listen to this and have some idea what’s going on:
Video in 2 parts:
When cold, it'll start with no throttle but after it has started and died once, I have to use a lot of throttle to get it started again. Then it'll run for maybe 10-15 seconds and die again, regardless of how much throttle I give it.
Obviously I have some kind of exhaust leak and some belt squeal but I hadn't bothered to look at these yet unless it could affect this issue which I didn't think it would.
I have done the following:
1. Cleaned carb
2. Lightly sanded spark plugs to remove carbon deposits (would replace but can't find a replacement spark plug around here)
3. Set spark plug gaps properly
4. Replaced distributor cap
5. Lightly sanded distributor rotor contacts to remove dirt
6. Replaced fuel filter (it's clear and I can see fuel in it so it doesn't seem to be a fuel delivery issue?)
7. Added about 20L of good fuel in case the 9 month old fuel was bad (worth draining tank?)
Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.