DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Everybody should have an intermittent miss every now and again.

By the time you've gone through the fuel system, the spark system and the air system to find the problem, you end up with everything in tip top condition and the car drives so much better than it ever did before.

Looking on the bright side that is.

I like your positive outlook Mike!

If doing all the above doesn't fix it i'll be applying a box of matches to the bloody thing :D

How old are the carbs? Parts wear and you may get air leaks around the butterfly shafts .

They aren't that old - I've checked the shafts and they seem to be in good condition and not leaking. I'm replacing all the gaskets / seal everywhere to make sure leaks are eliminated.

Good move

Not Chinese/ US replicas.... I hope?

No they are genuine Spanish Webers

Well I tried to take it out for a test run this morning after rebuilding the carbs and reinstalling them.

I got 30yds down the street and the gear linkage failed - the threads had stripped in the coupler where the conical screw goes. I was livid. Anyway after 4 hours of messing around fixing that and another couple of things I managed to take it out a couple of times and so far so good. It didn't miss a beat. I need to take it out for a longer run next weekend but fingers crossed...

A good way to end the weekend, hopefully that's fixed it.

We have found that the new webers rarely work properly out of the box so we stopped fitted them straight on. They seem to be made well enough but the factory assembly process is lacking finesse.

We often find the the idle mixture screws have been wound in so tight they have distorted for example. The throttle plates rarely snap shut as they should. Our standard procedure now is to completely strip, ultrasonic clean and reassemble them before fitting, with an additional 2 hours added to the estimate.

Mine weren't new - not sure how old they were but they had been working fine. Turns out there were some foreign bodies in there and once i'd taken them completely apart and flushed everything out and reassembled them they are now working great and the engine is running well. Except its a bugger to start. I need to spend some time fixing that but at least once it has started it goes well. The job is never finished is it?

Mr Pharmacist wrote: The job is never finished is it?

It seems not. I'm always driving along, listening for the next thing to go wrong. I think it pays to be vigilant, the moment you start enjoying the scenery... that's when the engine drops to bits.

What ignition do you have Stuart ? Do you use a distributor ?

Yes i do Mike - a good old fashioned one with points and things. I did have electronic ignition but i whipped it out as part of my investigations into the running issues.

I am very tempted by one of these but my money is currently being spunked at an alarming rate on new lighter bits for the car so i can get up Harewood hill 0.01 seconds faster.

https://www.123ignitionshop.com/gb/tune ... ering.html

So i'll have to wait for a bit before i get that. Unless someone wants a kidney. Anyone?

I've been considering the 123 too. They get good reviews but mainly from folk who have replaced old sloppy distibutors. The distrbutor I have in the 356 is grade A, tip top condition having being restored by Ed Falls at Vintage Werks and more recently looked at by Prill which wasn't cheap.

I was thinking there's no point in fitting a new fangled 123, my distributor being touched by the Great Himself (and Ed Falls) but then it occurred to me this would be an ideal test review.... my perfect dizzy against the 123 distributor. I'm convinced it's a good plan but like you say, it's not a cheap plan.

I digress. Your starting problem could be a timing thing. Have a go at setting the static timing accurately with a multimeter or test lamp and see how you get on.

I'm only considering a 123 because my engine isn't standard so there's no standard dizzy available and having one of these might allow me to get a bit more from the engine. Then again it's going well at the moment so maybe I just shouldn't fiddle!

I will get my engine guru (my Dad) to check the static timing as per your suggestion next time he's round - I'm in the process of changing a huge battery to a weeny one do need to get the starting sorted or I'll end up with a flat battery pretty quick