A long and troublesome issue

[SteveF_911]

I just want to post a problem that has plagued me for nearly two years and the final sollution.

November 2005 I took my car a 1966 2.0 to a track day. The car had been ultra reliable for years and had done many, many laps of race tracks for 5 years without a issue.

On that day I notice that when in mid corner on about 1/2 trotle the engine had a slight misfire.

My initial assumption was fuel I thought the fuel level may have been low in the webbers and this was causing stavation mid corner.

Drove the car home with no issue.

March 2006 my next track day.

After driving to the track with no issues I went out for the first run of the day. Half way through lap one car start to misfire and not rev past 3,000 RPM.

I pull in the pits and check electrical connections.

After checking all the connections I head to the paddock for a quick test off track, car runs fine.

Line up in my group for the next run again 1/2 a lap and again no power.

Park the car in digust and drive home at the end of the day, car performs fine.

Assuming the problem is electrical I order a new set of Magnecor leads, new cap, new rotor new points and test CDI box.

July 2006 I venture back to the track it is a cold day and the car performs fine. I post a PB a second quicker than my previous best on the track.

Assumption electrical problem fixed.

August 2006 I enter a historic race on a street curcuit. Again problems car will not rev past 5,000 RPM and tacho is jumping wildly from 1,000 to 8,000 rpm randomly.

I am leading my class so I push on with the problem trying to swap over ignition part between runs. Second last run of the weekend I miss a shift a destroy 1st gear and diff.

No problem I come home with a first place trophey.

Priority now is to fix the gearbox and install a LSD.

March 2007 enter in a hill climb for a bit of fun. Again the misfire is back.

I now have a car that misfires only when the engine is hot and has been doing some hard work.

Lucky for me on the drive home the car starts making a howling noise and the tacho again goes wild, jumping from 1,000 to 8,000 while in top gear doing 60.

When I get home I listen for where the howl is coming from. The best guess is the distributor. 18 months to find the cause of a random misfire.

Dianosis was a bent shaft and flogged out bushes and as the distributor got hotter the tolerences got worse hence the misfire.

Lesson is that we live and learn, and now I can go back to the track and wait for the next challenge.

[tab tanner]

I had a VW vanagon haunt me with the same problem. Remember this the hardest problems are the ones you will never forget. I'm glad you found it Best of luck on the repair