My new 144 - starting issue

[scooters]

Hello all,
being a wee bit lazy but am massively pushed for time on this one so thought I would pick your brains incase there is anything I should know about peculiar to the 144.

Essentially, I collected thie bright orange 1972 144 Auto yesterday in Bristol and drove it to St Albans no problems (despite lack of indicators and wing mirrors - joy on the M4!!)

anyway - last night on the way home I stopped to collect Fisn n Chips and when I returned to the car the car would not start - I was in my suit and the food was getting cld so I left the car and contacted a mate to rescue me.

Now - I have not looked under the bonnet at all yet - the starter motor is strong - there is no smell of fuel. My quesiton is - is there likely to be any fault which could be common place with this model before I start my investigation? I have had fun and games with Volvo fuel relays in the past on both 240s and 940s.

The car was running very well if a tad hot - before this happened

any advice would be appreciated

cheers

[Citizen.Agfa]

What-ho!

Unless the car has electronic ignition then start with the obvious choices - plugs, points, condensor, coil.

Any car needs fuel and sparks so if you have a spark then check the fuel supply.

Let us know how you get on.

C.A.

[capt jack]

As CA has suggested, sparks and fuel would be the place to start.

A qucick check to confirm a spark at the plugs is easy. Points need to be set up properly, and you'll need to b sure that petrol is getting through but if all appears OK here I'd suspect a possible problem with the selector switch on the auto gearbox. It's supposed to stop the car being started in anything other than P or N, and it controls the reverse lights.

Other culprits could include the ignition switch, a poor earth somewhere, a faulty condensor, a dodgy coil, fuel pump problems etc etc etc.

Good luck - hope you get it sorted

Jack

[scooters]

thanks chaps - as the car is in a public car park and I need to appeal the ticket then I will be calling out the RAC on this occassion as I need thier paperwork to appeal the ticket!

as the starter turns over I am suspecting dodgey earth/coil rather than the auto inhibitor

anyway, will let you know what happens

r

[john h]

Is it a carb engine? If so, it could be fuel vapourisation in the carb when trying to restart after leaving it for a few minutes with a hot engine.

If it starts up OK when it's cold, this would be a strong contender

John

[scooters]

thanks all -
it looks like the car was fitted with an ignition advance/retard control on the dash - of course the first thing I did on driving this home in traffic was to play with all the knobs and I enjoyed twiddling what looked like a volume control which didn't seem to dim any lights, make the wipers go quicker or turn up the radio. - anyway - looks like I had advance the ignition too far by twiddling and the timing was out for starting - turning the knob down had the desired effect.

However, I'm not sure if this is the case and whether this is even connected - I haven't had time to explore it yet but I buy the condensation in the carb especially as it is a retro fitted SU rather than a Stromberg

I'll update you when diagnosed!

[Derek UK]

"ignition advance/retard control on the dash" ?

I thought they went out in the 30's. Interesting though if that's what it really is. Instant thought, rheostat for dash lights but I don't know 140's very well.

[ClassicVolvoShop]

Originally Posted by Derek UK

"ignition advance/retard control on the dash" ?

- Maybe the choke-cable is re-connected to a un-tightened distributor?.. What an invention!...