New to me 78 NYB on its way but please Don't tell my wife

Seats look nice.

I've had good luck with this stuff to condition and soften leather.

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Ok. Started great! Smooth idle. Cold enrichment on.

While rebuilding carb first time, carb looked very fresh. Obvious problem with the accel pump cured. Leaks followed and were resolved one by one. Initial build showed no posted information in this carb number as to float and other settings. Hmmmmm.. Used nearest settings. Had to enrich the idle for off idle response (lean).

Advanced timing a bit last time and stumble almost gone. Stumble, now almost gone.... Still there. Part throttle just of idle rough. Main metering jet neddles observed moving up off idle then snapping down close. No internal carb leak.

Raised to higher rpm 1200-1400 rpm manually....off that “raised” no stumble but a bit rough. 2000 to 2400 rpm increase smoothed out engine but upon release, popping at exhaust minor lean backfire.

Last possible vacuum leak check before internal or manifold leak.

Next stop brake master vacuum check.

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No a/c idle voltage...

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A/C on idle voltage
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Hmmmm.. belts popping again. Lots to go on alternator adjustment. Longer matched belts to increase deflection angle might help cure popping.
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Line to compressor good and cold

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Cold at expansion block... cold as hell inside

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Check booster... disconnect

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Plugged.

No change in any of the above condition.

Time runs out... 8:30.
 
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Worry not... I’ll get this to work.

First step is to recheck the idle for proper balance. It won’t solve the problem but need to rule out any problems there.

Second... Check that the carb is screwed together tight and we have no air leaks.

Then...

Going to pull the needles and do some measuring. Mid step may be to fat for the jet it meters. I’ve got a bunch.....

But first check they are not too low by measuring the step up rod against a few others I have out.

FSM warns you not to adjust the step up.... but if it’s too low this might be the problem. Not the first time I’ve had to deal with some assemblers **** up.

Will check this before going to a richer needle or jet.

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If I can get a reverse rotation, odd firing, 90degree twin 3, with double overhead cams, triple Weber’s and dual point ignition to hold a rock steady idle at exactly 950 rpm with the A/C on..... I can do this!

As always..... One step at a time....
 
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Looky what came in today....

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Girls out shopping for a prom dress... actually asked if I wanted to go.

Changing and headed to shop to do some checking around and measuring.
 
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You are the first person that is more stubborn than my wife.
Or my cat for that matter.


You think????

Yeah, I guess I am. And, yeah.... I could rip out the whole lean burn contraption out and put in a Mopar electronic ignition with conventional vacuum advance in an afternoon. But what’s the fun in that? .......

And then..... only to find the exhaust heat riser is stuck and been causing all my problems. Or a plugged catalytic converter putting up too much back pressure. Or an intake manifold leak or some other wierd never seen before issue. (Though I doubt it).
Or something else that swapping out parts will not cure or necessarily reveal.

If the system is working correctly, it should run perfectly. That it does not is telling me I have other issues I need to address first...... Before I dig into it and start changing things and not solving the actual problem. And start and keep to the simple things first.

For example: I bought my daughter the cutest Mini Cooper countryman green with a saddle interior that she herself found. She wanted it and what was a dad to do? She gets great grades is heading to college and never asks for anything. One problem.... it ran like ****.

In the trunk was a set of used original coil packs and some injector cleaner. Ok.... that helps narrow it down. Took the Mini to the shop and on a lift, found a bunch of little ****, sorted the ignition but is still ran like ****. Number one misfire and multiple misfire codes any time I gave it gas. Service records showed it to be well maintained by an older gentleman since new. This current seller was a flipper. Took a gamble and bought my little girl her car knowing I might need to drop at least a head or possibly an engine into it. Bought it right for an ‘07 at $3250... the expensive part, the body, trim and paint were like brand new.

After about a day of ******* with it at the shop I figured it was either the catalytic or a badly worn and sticking valve. Car had 100k miles but would idle smooth with no issues all day long.

Gave up and took it to my local mini dealer where I knew some people from my BMW ownership days. They knew the car as it had been in there for diagnosis of the same problem. Turns out they thought it was a head. I told them I would leave them the car but we had to play by my rules... they agreed. First take the intake off and report... second pull the exhaust manifold and report...
they did the first...
then they did the second...

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Bad intake valve stem seal on number one
New seals and $1500 later... been almost a year and she runs perfect.

Happy daughter, happy Stubborn dad.
 
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ok....started the car and it started and ran smooth. Dead cold.

Had previously checked the heat riser and it was stuck partially shut. Hammered it a bit to loosen it and turned it to open.

As soon as it began to get a little temp, the choke stared coming off and it started running like ****. Missing running lean. I closed up the choke a bit and it started smoothing out. Hmmm.. checked the cold enrichment circuit and it was off. I had checked it prior with my hand vacuum cold and just after I started the engine and it was passing vacuum signal to the enrichment circuit.

Need to check temp at when it shuts off the enrichment.

Also need to check temp sensor next to the water pump. I seem to recal it should allow ground until it warms to 150 degrees farenheight.

Kept it running until it reached full warm up and all the problems seemed to disappear. Hmmmm.


Here it is running fully warmed up with no A/C
 
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Got out early today. Started my first new employee in 4 years. Things looking up.

Headed to shop to check a few things.

Think I may have found my problem....

Started by checking temp sensor at various temps. It was performing correctly.

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used a laser thermometer

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Still showing ground at just under 150 degrees. Went out just over.... Ok.and pretty quick.

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Checked for ground continuity through the throttle idle switch starting from the idle adjustment screw. It was not right.... adjusted it to make good contact with choke off.

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View attachment 185775

Same as before... ran like ****. Except. As it warmed up it kept getting better. By the time it reached full operating temp it was nice and smooth. Drove it around the neighborhood. At first it stalled at part throttle from a dead stop. When warm it worked fine, no hesitation or stall and decent pull.

More checking tomorrow of different circuits and grounding. Pursuing an idea I had today that I may have a bad ground or ground wire. Will also check continuity between different sensors and computer.

Checked the spark at distributor. Pulled the lead to a cylinder from the distributor while running to see how far it would jump... about an inch and nice and blue.
 
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Tomorrow, after a few honey do’s, I head to the shop with my FSM and finish checking a few more things. I’ll be checking mainly the spark computer harness for proper grounding and continuity.

I was able to re-repair the antenna switch that came apart yesterday. This time I glued it all the way around. Antenna goes up and down nicely now after some further careful straightening and lubrication with a few drops of 40 weight motor oil.

I’m pretty sure I did the carb correctly. But the intermittent and irregular miss, improper advance symptoms and a few other observations leads me to believe I need one of these......

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Should be here Thursday or so. My guess is that it was failing when I got it and has continued on its downward spiral. It’s a poor performance issue. The “spare” that came with it is an even worse version of the symptoms I’m seeing. Both start great but neither allows the engine to run correctly to a varying degree. One further thing I noticed was that it won’t rev under load beyond about 2500 rpm regardless of throttle position. It also doesn’t seem to be increasing or dropping advance off idle as it should. Likewise, the description of the “limp in” mode of operation, as described in the FSM, is what I think I’m seeing now. Miserable operation and horrendous gasoline consumption.

I’ve been driving my wagon all this week just to compare; and, that 440 in the New Yorker is acting like one very sick pup.

If the swap works, I’ll get another one as a spare. I also bought another couple of junker computers to take apart, test and generally mess around with. Besides, I’ll need one to gut to be able to install an electronic ignition module when the time comes for the inevitable swap to the pre 74 electronic ignition..... I’ll have to put it somewhere.
 
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I’ll get another one as a spare. I also bought another couple of junker computers to take apart, test and generally mess around with. Besides, I’ll need one to gut to be able to install an electronic ignition module when the time comes for the inevitable swap to the pre 74 electronic ignition..... I’ll have to put it somewhere.
Jav, have you met Jeff? Jeff, meet Javier.
 
That was fast!!! Ordered it Saturday when I couldn’t go to the shop.

It got too late to get anything done and it was raining like hell.

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Meanwhile, as it was raining to beat the band all weekend, I decided to invest some time in sorting some parts that I had over at the shop. I got some 6 storage boxes full of parts left over from the restoration of the Citroën SM I finished a little over 1-1/2 years ago. Not to mention misc hardware and tools that were visiting that needed to be folded back into the overall collection.

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It cleared for about 30 minutes... long enough for a quick job on the Citroën. Lost a bolt that holds the rubber joint for the power takeoff shaft that drives the accessories.....

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Unfortunately I did not lose it all. It sheared off and now I’m going to have to take it all apart to extract the remnants.

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This is the correct Bosch oil filter for my Citroen SM that has been NLA for over 20 years. I had an outstanding search set up for over a year to see if one would pop up. Just got a cache of 5 of them in from..... wait for it..... Kazakhstan
 
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You're making all this up.
Who are you really???
I toss a NOS NIB Lean Burn computer in the trash and you buy them.
WhoTF would actually find filters in Kazakhstan, a country with no computers and where a wife comes with 5 goats.
 
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