Steve---My experience has been that the "glass filters" has too dense of
a filter if installed before the fuel pump. After the pump is OK for a
while, but there are less pretty filters on the market that does a
better job.
Still, when a fuel filter gets clogged, it should show up when the
engine is requiring a lot of fuel, rather than at idle speeds.
The vacuum retard, or lack of it, should play no part in your problem,
unless you have an open line. You could connect the Mallory vacuum
advance into the intake manifold if you can find a port, but the engine
should be happy with just the centrifugal advance. Be sure the dual
points are set properly, and check with a dwell meter if possible.
If you want to get closer to the inner workings of the ZS carburetors,*
pick up a copy of the "Haynes ZS Carburetor Workshop Manual". There's a
little more in it than you'll find in the Bentley.
Dick
From:
Steven Altomare
Since I finally got all my tests out of the way, this weekend I had a
chance to look at my car some and try to figure out what's going on. I
removed one of my 2 fuel filters. It is one of those glass ones you can
see in. Apparently it is dirty (you can't see the dirt though) because
it wasn't letting gas through. After removing this filter 90% of my
problems have been fixed. Rather than stalling at every stop she only
stalls every now and then. The filter must have been getting worse over
time because when I checked it a few weeks ago it looked ok. I feel kind
of dumb for not removing the filter earlier but since I could see in the
filter, everything looked fine so I never thought to replace it.
I pulled the bowls off the carbs and checked the float levels. The rear
carb was set probably a little low, so we set it higher. The front carb
was set well, but had kind of a gunk in the bottom of the bowl - which
of course I cleaned out. Doing this didn't really make any difference in
reference to my issues.
I guess the next step is looking at the idle bypass valves which some
people have recommended.
*To be honest I have no idea how to approach these things. I have a
Mallory Unilite distributor which does not have vacuum retard, but
vacuum advance (which we don't have hooked up). Apparently the bypass
valves get connected to vacuum retard on the distributor, which I can't
do since I don't have it. Would I be better off just blocking off the
valve? If there are no hoses hooked to the valve, does it still do
anything?
Thanks,
steven
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