The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

hello everyone.

long time reader of the board, first time post.

new to the board, so lets see how i go.

i was given a carby 1987 l-series auto touring wagon, which had been neglected some what by previous owners.

i have it running nicely now, only when its warm though.

when cold, it fires up ok, but idles on the edge of stalling, at 400 to 500 rpm. after 5 minutes or so, it happily idles at 1000 rpm, and drives beautifully.

i have put new battery, ignition leads, ngk plugs, new dizzy cap, new fuel filter. i have confirmed that the auto choke is working correctly.

is it timing belts? or ignition timing? i doubt it, because once its warm, it pulls very very well.

any ideas anyone??

like i say, this only occurs from a cold start. its got me and my mates buggered.

the car has done 217,000kms.

thank you in advance

I would say it's just needs some adjustment of the autochoke, it's a PITA to do because you have to adjust it, test it, then if it's not right you have to wait for the engine to cool before you can do it again.

Jordan.

thank you for the response.

however, i cannot see where there is any user adjustment on the choke!!!!

and it is working, as i swapped them out from a friends car which idles nicely when cold. we even fitted my choke to his car, to test, and his car idled fine when cold. his choke in my car, also worked, but crappy idle when cold.

so its not the choke.....

compression test

OS

Is the motor running alright when cold other than the slow idle? (ie. no coughing and spluttering?). If it's just slow idle then it sounds a bit like the idle-up when on choke may not be working. Unfortunately my knowledge of subaru carbies is almost zero, but there should be some sort of idle-up mechanism that is actuated by operation of the auto choke, and it may be worth checking this is doing what it is supposed to.

now that you mention it gremlins, yes it does cough and splutter at cold idle.

i presumed that it did that because it was cold....

it clears tho, when warmed up.

purrs like a kitten....

whats your thoughts....

Hmmm, that complicates things a bit more. The rough running may just be due to the slow idle speed while cold, but then again the slow idle may be due to the rough running. When it's cold and idling slow, what happens if you apply a bit of accelerator and bring the revs up to say around 1000, does it still run rough then, or is it happy? If it's ok while holding the revs at 1000 with a bit of accelerator I'd still be suspecting the idle-up. All the idle-up does is stop the throttle fully closing while cold, so it is essentially just holding a little bit of accelerator on to keep the revs up until the motor warms up.