I hope everyone has been doing well, Its been a while since I last posted. Long story short I acquired a Corvair (with a four speed). I just got the carbs rebuilt and decided to take it out on the highway. It was fine until I got off and went home. At a stoplight I noticed that it idled rough. Further down the road I was in fourth gear going the speed limit 30, however when I put my foot on the throttle the speed didn't change and the spedo stayed at 30mph. At another light when I shifted into 1st it was very sluggish then picked up. Finally I heard backfire. I had this issue before, but that was fixed with a new set of points. This however sounded a lot louder than before. I know a lot is going, but any help would be much appreciated.
Spend some time looking at things. Throttle linkage, engine mounts, point gap, loose wires, loose carb mounting nuts, pcv hose, etc. Let us know what you find. Condensor might be it, they usually cause intermittent rough running, though.
If the car has been sitting, another possibility could be corrosion from the tank. Was the fuel fresh, and do you have an inline filter? It could be crap from the fuel tank. Because of the lousy fuel we have today, I experienced this with one of my trucks that had been sitting for a few years. Bob
If its been sitting for years, and you have not already done so, I would start by replacing every piece of rubber in the fuel system! The rubber hoses don't last forever, and modern gas doesn't help the old rubber at all. Gene
Agree that fuel lines and filters are the 1st thing to look at. Make sure the coil wire is all the way into the coil too.
Look at all of the throttle linkage to be sure there isn’t a worn out part that will mess up the synchronization (the carbs were re-synchronized when installed, right). I have an in-line fuel filter at each carb too. Also look carefully at the distributor. Clean? Broken or almost broken wires? Cap and rotor clean? After romancing the carburetors to perfection I found that the condenser wire on ours was broken, I installed a Pertronix conversion and it runs like a fine Swiss watch. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A problem with those Corvair Rochesters is that over time they develop leaks around the throttle shaft. A basic rebuild won't fix that. Try spraying some carb cleaner at the base of the carb where the shafts exit and see if idle changes--if so, they leak. Also, as @bchctybob said, they should be synchronized
Did you lube the dist. cam ? Sounds like your new points are closing up, or if they're new chinese points, they've failed.
It seems like age nothing as far as I could tell was ever changed in the engine so it was running on original parts, and finally went after I pushed it too hard.
As far as I could tell it was running on the original parts and I blew it after pushing it too hard it does seem like the piston rings however.
Well that’s a shame. The same thing happened with ours, a nice clean little car, it leaked badly but ran. I stopped the oil leaks but soon found very low compression. You didn’t mention what year yours is, ours is a ‘62 Monza. I didn’t think it was worth rebuilding the 145 so I bought a badly rusted ‘65 with a rebuilt 110 horse, 164 and swapped it in. It’s all stock except for the Pertronix but the car runs great now. I’d love to put the 140 horse heads and carbs on it with some headers, maybe someday. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Corvairs are very different to work on but easy. The engine and trans comes out with just a floor jack, jack stands and some end wrenches. The engines are great, like working on an aircraft engine. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That sounds pretty sweet and I would love to put headers on mine. Mine is not exactly Hamb friendly as mine is a 68 and I love it.
You should love it, they are a lot of fun. I ran autocross with a '65 for several years, a long time ago; some wild rides keeping that rear engine behind me. If I didn't spin out on at least one run, it meant I wasn't trying hard enough. With a late-model Corvair ('65-'69) you're right at the Hamb's cut-off, which seems to drift between '64 and '65. The Hamb cut-off is more or less intended to eliminate muscle cars, which a Corvair ain't. In my opinion (for what that's worth) any late-model Corvair is Hamb friendly enough, as they were essentially unchanged from '65 onward.
My son picked up a '62 Monza for $200, we changed the oil, put in a battery, put in some gas and started it up. We had to clean up the engine compartment because it was covered in feathers. Yes, feathers! Apparently the previous owners experienced an engine fire when they came into town off the interstate and used their down pillows to beat out the fire. No damage was done because we had no problem starting the car.
I kept all of the ‘65 four speed stuff, every nut, bolt, rod and bracket. Even the trailing arm brackets and the torque boxes. I would really love to upgrade our ‘62 with the later independent suspension. I’m afraid time isn’t on my side though, I have other projects to finish and I’m slowing down. I do wonder if anyone’s done it and how hard it was. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
