passed sva last week & had built up inspection done but on the way home engine kept cutting out, I have cleaned the main jet in the carb (had some shit in it) now it will only run for 2/3 miles before it cuts out agian any ideas???, please help now It's legal for me to drive I carn't

megasquirt

or bike engine

sorry, i might as well get the boring and predictable comments out the way first

Have you cleaned the fuel filter(s) out?? Chances are there is swarf in them from the fuel tank being new. You do have a breather on the fuel tank dont you???

tank didnt have a breather but it does now, have a new filter on and it looks a little discoloured at the bottom.

quote:

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Originally posted by ian.lucas
tank didnt have a breather but it does now, have a new filter on and it looks a little discoloured at the bottom.

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Is it a 'cough - cough - splutter' type of cutting out, or a "now it's running - now it isn't" event?

Is it a 'cough - cough - splutter'

Does the distributor have points, if so is the dwell angle correct? ? If you have points are the contacts blue? If so could be a faulty condensor? Are you using a ballast resistor and matching coil? a ballast coil without the resistor will cause problems with the points/condensor. Do you have a spark when the engine dies? Have you got fuel to the carb when it dies? Just a few things to check .
Might be worth putting your whereabouts in your profile

What is the carb.? webber, solex, standard.
When the engine stops, how easy is it to restart ?
Ive had a similar problem to this on two occasions, one resulting from a piece of debris moving around in the tank and occasionally being sucked onto the fuel pick-up pipe cutting off the fuel, the other was a damaged float valve in the carb which failed to shut off properly and allowed the fuel pump to force feed the engine. This made the car go like stink and worked fine until the engine warmed up, at which point the car would stall at junctions and would be a sod to restart - it was gassed up.
If the engine stalls after about 2-3 miles, this would seem to coincide with the engine getting up to temperature. Sounds more of a fuelling problem than an electrical one.

Next time it dies, take a plug out (probably will be hot!) before carrying on. If it's sooty black or wet with petrol then you may have got a problem with over-fuelling. If it's bone dry then maybe it's too lean a mixture. An ignition problem can show as a wet or dry plug!

This does require that you carry a plug socket, of course...

[Edited on 30/8/08 by David Jenkins]

Or a spare plug!

Check the points, and the coil - if its after a few miles, chances are the ignition system is overheating, when my coil was fubared i'd get a few miles then it would start misfiring, hesitating and generally running like a bag of nails.

Strongly recommend megajolt if you haven't already fitted it, takes all the black magic out of ignition timing.