hi guys
have been rebuilding the series 1 for a few years now..bodywork and cosmetics more my thing than the mechanical side so bear with me here..anyway..fired up the engine and she starts 1st turn of the key every time and sounds sweet enough on giving her some throttle but just refuses to idle..conks out..turn key again..pump primes and starts again no problem..lasts about 5 seconds and dies again..i have fiddled with the allen key screw on metering head and the idle screw itself but its beyond me so don't want to mess about too much with it..i know this is difficult guys but any clues or ideas would be greatly appreciated..would love to hear it idling the way my series 2 does.

 

My guess would be you have an air leak somewhere, check all your hoses (tight seal and not split), boost and breathers and that your Oil filler cap is sealing tight and your dipstick is sealing properly, also there must be a bung of some sort in the mixture screw hole (when your not adjusting it) or it will be leakig air in there as well!

 

thanks for the reply karlos..sounds possible..will get started on checking the hoses..any ones in particular or just all of them i suppose??could you explain a bit more about the bung..not sure what you mean..anytime i have adjusted this idle screw on the car it seems to do nothing at all.

 

Ive noticed that too!