HI-ACE 78 Good mechanic needed in Glasgow

[bettyblue]

Hi all, we have a beautiful 78 Hi-ace campervan. All packed up and ready to go to Europe but an intermittant fault is preventing us.

She loses power every so often, but then if you pull over she goes again within 5 min. Can drice 200 miles without it happening or it can happen 3 times in the one day. We have tried everything we could think of, replaced the dizzy, the leads, fuel filters, points, ballast resistor, alternator. But the problem keeps coming back.

We really need a good mechanic in the Glasgow area.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[ifc63]

This may or may not help but I assisted fellow member Dave Clarke with a similar problem a couple of years back on his 1967 Corona RT40. It suddenly developed a habit of cutting out intermittently when hot but would readily restart after a short time. Dave had replaced points, condenser, coil etc and was happy the fuel system was good.
I stepped in, went over all those areas again but noticed one thing which would cause those symptons. We rectified this and Dave has now put some big trips on the car with no issues.

Now following on from a discussion at our recent AGM, I could now ask you if you are a full TEC member with up-to-date subs as it is thought some people are using the forum to ask for our experience in older Toyotas and then disappearing without as much as a thank you !!!
But I find it difficult to overlook a cry for help from a fellow Toyota enthusiast as opposed to a fellow Toyota Enthusiast (the importance of the capital E )
So whether you are small e or large E, what I found was that the little braided wire in the distributor that earths out the points plate to the distributor body had broken. When the engine was cold and heat hadn't caused expansion in the distributor body, an earth was found through the various shafts and components. Heat was causing this earth path to break down as would be expected hence why Toyota saw fit to use an earth wire.

Now this may or may not be your issue, but either way I hope you sort it and have an enjoyable trip.

Regards, Ian Condliffe - Website Administrator.

[bettyblue]

Hi Ian,

I really appreciate the speedy reply and I we will have a look at this today to see if it is the problem in this case.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to us. We are Very Keen Toyota Enthusiasts but we are even more keen to get going on our trip.

Going to have a bash now and see if this is the magic solution. Otherwise fingers crossed that we can get a good mechanic.

Thanks

Mary (ps the van is called Betty not me)

[ifc63]

The other thought I've had took me back over 20 years to a little Fiat Panda I had. This would run brilliantly at low speed but no power higher up or if you adjusted the timing would idle poorly and not pick up well but would motor really strongly at high revs.
This ended up being the mechanical auto-advance mechanism in the distributor being stuck.
Have you checked your timing with a strobe light to see if advances correctly when revved?

Also TEC member John Farndell ( johnbluerio on this forum ) runs an S-reg Hi-Ace camper, maybe he can throw some light on your problem.

[bettyblue]

thanks again, timing has been checked by mechanic. So we will start with your first suggestion.

Our van is a T plate of the same as John's rio!! Unfortunately ours is not in as good nick as it was modified from original when we bought it.
But is still looks good to us, same colour as well!

cheers

[johnbluerio]

Sorry can't be of much help its the usual problem with intermittent faults when things get hot Fuel filters HT leads plug tps ( plugs even) Sounds as if you will need to go through the whole illimination process.
Not happened to me yet so if you find a solution would you post it
Have a good trip

[bettyblue]

well..... Our wee van is back from the mechanic and the verdict is...... Inconclusive! He checked the electrics, the fuel system up to carbie, and suggested that the fault mayb in the carbie. So really no further forward so back to looking for a good mechanic in Glasgow or drivable distance or someone who can rebuild a carbie! HELP!!!!!!

[ifc63]

Sorry you are still struggling. As you say you really need someone local to you who can try and diagnose this for you. If you can answer me a couple of points I'll try and think of other things it could be.
Does the van stop completely (as in cuts out) or by "loses power" do you means it keeps running but with no great urge to it?
Is there any rhyme or reason as to when the fault occurs as you say it can be 3 times a day or 300 or so miles. As in, does it occur more if it's raining, hot, cold or after a long run/pulling hard up a hill, that sort of thing. It might help someone on here with a diagnosis.
I'm thinking of things like if it has an auto-choke is this not opening fully or dropping back on, is the fuel pump intermittent (electric ones can overheat, manual ones can suffer from worn operating cams giving poor supply under load). Also is the fuel tank breathing properly as it could be blocked at the cap etc.
The other thing not to overlook is that some replacement parts might be faulty, I once stripped most of a Triumph Bonneville engine to try and cure an oil light coming on, only to find the first thing I'd replaced ( the oil pressure light switch) was faulty and was giving the same fault even though it was a brand new genuine part (Thanks Mr Triumph )
As you can see there are so many variables when it comes to intermittent faults. I see this a lot in my job as a motorcycle technician, sometimes you can find it straight away, other times it takes hours of trying things in a logical fashion to find a fault.
Once more, I hope you get it sorted.

[bettyblue]

Thanks for you help.... yes we are def still struggling!

"Does the van stop completely (as in cuts out) or by "loses power" do you means it keeps running but with no great urge to it?"
- it loses power so within about 30 secs - 1 min it goes from running like a dream to no acceleration, to quick find a place that is safe to pull over, before she completely conks out (recently involving free wheeling backwards down a hill to get out of a blind corner). She will always start again first time, occasionally getting enough power to move to a safer location. Othertimes she just starts and dies straight away. ALWAYS after 5 min starts first time and drives normally again.


Is there any rhyme or reason as to when the fault occurs as you say it can be 3 times a day or 300 or so miles. As in, does it occur more if it's raining, hot, cold or after a long run/pulling hard up a hill, that sort of thing.
no pattern that we can work out, seems totally random. It happens, hot/cold, high/low revs, uphill /down hill/ flst.

I'm thinking of things like if it has an auto-choke is this not opening fully or dropping back on,
its a manual choke

is the fuel pump intermittent (electric ones can overheat, manual ones can suffer from worn operating cams giving poor supply under load). Also is the fuel tank breathing properly as it could be blocked at the cap etc.
we are relooking at the fuel pump now, it is a manual one. And with the fuel tank breathing, we checked this by removing the cap when it happened and trying a few different combos, cap on off and listenng for pressure, but this was also inconclusive.


Might be time to relook at all the replacement we have used but gee whiz this is turning out to be an expensive and lengthy endevour. Which isnt so bad if its your second car. But when the van is all packed up and waiting to go on a trip to summer (fast approaching autumn) trip of a lifetime to europe it is becoming a drain on the savings and the soul!!

Still could be worse i suppose!!