Bruce, Your first symptom sure sounds like your microswitch that controls the fuel cut-off solenoid is going south. When the microswitch is on, the fuel cut-off solenoid is powered and the fuel supply is reduced to the engine. Normally, the SPICA logic section controls the microswitch but when the switch goes bad, then it can go on/off at will. As a test, remove the electrical lead off the top of the fuel cut-off solenoid and see if that improves performance. One thing is that Wes always replaces the microswitch so it is strange that this is happening so soon. And if it is the microswitch, you'll have to remove the pump from the car to replace it.
One thing to look at is to make sure that everything is working smoothly underneath the cut-off solenoid. You'll need to remove the solenoid from the pump and see that the lever under the cut-off solenoid operates smoothly going up and down; it shouldn't hang up anywhere. The lever is what the cut-off solenoid needle presses on to cut off the full within the pump. I would go back to the beginning of the SPICA setup procedure in Wes's booklet. The thermostatic actuator gap setting needs to be adjusted periodically since over time the TAs performance degrades a little bit at a time. It took me many an go thru of the setup to understand just what was being adjusted and why. The .018" TA gap at around 180F coolant temp determines many of the settings on the pump... Bruce and yes, my microswitch is fried and needs to be replaced; rebuilt by Wes about 10 years agon. Also if I start my car when it is somewhat cool and only run it for a short while, many a time I have to pull off the wire to the cold start solenoid to get it to start again. The cold start solenoid is adjusted correctly to one test I do but my engine just thinks that there is too much gas starting the second time around. > 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]
