I had a rebuilt Ingram '69 pump installed in my '69 Spider last year. The car ran better, but there were still issues. Those turned out to be coil and distributor related, and have now been resolved. However, the SPICA system still is giving me problems. Perhaps it is because when it was installed it was adjusted to compensate for the ignition issues???
The symptoms are as follows: On start up, the fuel pressure light goes off after a couple of seconds; the engine fires up then dies after a few seconds of normal running; on the second start the engine readily fires up but wants to die when the accelerator is pressed; on the third or fourth try with careful coaxing with the accelerator the engine revs up and will drive without stalling; after backing out of the garage and leaving the car for a minute with it idling, the revs begin to drop and it finally dies; after restarting and driving down the road a bit it seems to run fine; it doesn't die at a stop light. What I also noticed was in leaving my driveway, each time I shifted into the next gear the car would backfire once through the exhaust. After fully warm, this no longer happened. What did happen after the engine came up to temperature is that the backfiring through the exhaust increased, but not as much as before - I have been adjusting the deceleration knob. One other symptom I noticed is that taking off from a stoplight when the engine is up to temperature is a slight hesitation after acceleration in first gear - the car starts forward then has a split second flat spot then resumes acceleration. I have gone through the Ingram sequence up to the point of setting the fuel mixture (sec. 112 in the new book). I also have not messed with the thermostatic actuator as it appeared to be working in the old pump. Te engine idles at about 1000 rpm. I'm trying to set this system myself, but may have to go back to the Alfa mechanic and spend more money. Any thoughts or suggestions? Bruce Sharer Raleigh, NC -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
