'79 westy runs like a champ!! (until it gets warm)

[ktasche1]

Hey all,

My '79 westy starts up, idles, and runs beautifully - until it gets warm (which may be only a 1/2 hour of city driving). Then it will stall at a light, I'll start it up again, it won't idle, repeat a couple of times, and finally after about a minute of this, it'll run again. Then I park it for a while. Tonight, I could get it to idle, but as soon as I put it in gear and give it gas, it dies. It would seem to be a heat thing, because it runs great when cold. Any suggestions?

thanks.

[keifernet]

A few easy things to check are, points.. closed up or burnt contacts....
Head temperature switch... (on head on #3 cyl)
White ground wires... plug on center of case bolt under the left side of the intake runners and center section...
vacume leaks, hoses off or split...
try any of those for starters.....

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being a '79 I've got one my problem is the opposite idles rough til it's hot then idles perfect, I wonder if in your case it's the 02 sensor, I'd replace that and go from there you have no points to check . let us know what the problem turns out to be

[ktasche1]

Although, I would've sweared it was a fuel/Air problem, it turned out that my ignition coil was going bad.

I had checked for spark, got some, but it was a bit irregular and not all that strong. The spark off the coil to the distributor was orange and not the preferred blue-white. I replaced the coil for $20 and it seems to do just fine.

Of course it all makes sense now: the weak spark could overcome the pressure of the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder when cold, but once heat helped to weaken the spark further, the engine would die. Once cool again, it would run, die, I'd let it cool, and run again. I suspect this would've continued until the coil was so bad that it would n't even start. I'm just gald it wasn't a forbidden FI problem. Adios