A FIAT WAS BROUGHT IN TO BE GIVEN A TUNE UP AND FIND OUT WHY THE ENGINE WOULD STALL AT IDLE AND WHEN BRAKING. THE FAULT WITH BRAKING AND STALLING WAS A BIT STRANGE AND NORMALLY ASSOCIATED WITH A LOW FLOAT LEVEL IN THE CARBURETTOR SO THE FIRST JOB WE DID WAS TO CHECK AND ADJUST THE FLOAT LEVEL. NOT A PROBLEM HERE THOUGH SO WE HOOKED UP TO THE CRYPTON TUNER AND GAS TESTER. IT SHOWED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING TOO RICH (BURNING OF TOO MUCH FUEL), AND THAT THE IGNITION TIMING WAS NOT CORRECT AT SPEED DUE TO THE DISTRIBUTOR ADVANCE MECHANISM NOT WORKING CORRECTLY. ALSO THE VACUUM VALVE IN THE AIR CLEANER WHICH WAS BLOCKED, THEREFORE NOT PROVIDING HOT AIR TO THE CARBURETTOR WHEN THE WEATHER WAS COLD. ALL THESE FAULTS WERE SORTED OUT - THE DISTRIBUTOR FORTUNATLY ONLY NEEDING INTERNAL BOB WEIGHTS OF THE DISTRIBUTOR UNSEIZING TO ALLOW THEIR NORMAL OPERATION AND THE REMOVAL OF THE DELAY IN ACCELERATION. WITH BOTH THESE JOB COMPLETED IT WAS A READJUSTMENT OF THE SETTING TO BELOW THE M.O.T. REQUIREMENTS AND THE USUAL ROAD TEST TO CNFIRM THE REPAIR HAD BEEN COMPLETED THE ROAD TEST WAS GOING WELL UNTILL THE CAR STALLED AT A ROAD JUNCTION, AND LIKE BEFORE STARTED UP ON THE FIRST TURN OF THE KEY. ONRETURN TO THE GARAGE WE LOOKED FURTHER INTO THE PROBLEM. ON THIS MAKE OF CARB THERE IS A THICK RUBBER GASKET BETWEEN THE INLET MANIFOLD AND THE BASE OF THE CARB, AND BY GENTLY MOVING THE CARBURETTOR WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING FOUND A TELL- TAIL HISS OF AN AIR LEAK. AFTER A COUPLE OF WIGGLES A SPILT APEARED AND THE ENGINE STALLED.THE PROBLEM WAS SOLVED. WHEN THE CAR STATIONARY IN THE WORKSHOP THE SPLIT WAS BLOCKED BUT WHEN ON THE ROAD THE CARB WOULD MOVE FOEWARD OPEN THE SPLIT, THE MIXTURE WOULD GO OVER-WEAK AND THE ENGINE WOULD STALL.

After taking on a few jobs after previous people have abandoned  them in the middle we should have known better. The particular job    in question was a Fiat X 19 that had been worked upon at the     owner's house by a mobile mechanic. After fitting a new cambelt the     mechanic couldn't start the car, and despite fitting other new     parts and spending a lot more time on the car it still wouldn't go.     In the end he gave up completely and never returned to the car. We     had the car brought in to the workshop on a trailer since it seemed     very possible that major engine damage had occurred by incorrect     cambelt fitment. Fortunately this was not the case since a cylinder     leakage test showed the valves and pistons to still be in good     shape. The cam timing had been set wrongly though so this was then     put right, but the engine still refused to start. Next it was found     that a new Ignition Coil had been fitted incorrectly, by having the     ignition suppressor connected to the wrong side of the coil and the     terminals connected the reverse way around. Still no go, trouble     with taking on jobs like this is that the faults are not naturally     occurring faults, and so are often a lot more difficult to find.     Next the contact breaker points came under scrutiny - an     intermittent poor contact problem was sorted out here, and then the     engine started. Pretty horrible running though, and it needed the    distributor removing and re-locating before we could tune it     properly. After tuning though there was still a major problem - no     oil pressure at idle speed on the dashboard gauge and not a lot     more at speed. Checking the oil pressure with our workshop gauge     revealed normal pressure so the problem fortunately lay with car's     instruments. A new oil pressure sender unit and healthy oil pressure     showed once more.  Most of a day's work to sort out in the end, a     lot of which we couldn't really charge for. Now why won't that builder     fellow return my messages about finishing  work I started 6 months ago ?.