Greg,
I'll give you this tip on one condition....NEVER EVER ask the list it's opinion
on what oil to use in dashpots. You'll get as many answers as there are stars
in the sky...and it'll still boil down to whatever works best for you.
You may have turned your adjusting screws to the point where they became
unthreaded (which means you turned the ZS tool to the left too much and now one
or more of the carbs is running too lean). If you turn the adjusting screws to
the right and reach a point where they are tight then they are still threaded.
If you can turn and turn forever to the right they probably are unthreaded and
you will have to pull the air valves out of the car and get the adjusting screw
rethreaded into the needle by gently pushing the needle up as you turn the
adjusting screw to the right.
You can reset you fuel mixture to a reference point once you pull the air valves
(take the damper out pull the four screws, the cover and the spring, and pull
the air valve) and adjust the needle with your ZS tool so that the washer on the
needle is flush with the bottom of the air valve cylinder. Now wipe the dashpot
oil off your shoes that leaked out when you turned it upside down (ask me how I
know this). Let me know if you need more details than that but that will ensure
that your fuel mixture is balanced between the carbs. When you start it up you
then get to make (only) one full turn in either direction (left is leaner, right
is richer) from there but do the same for each carb. Keep track of your
incremental turns by writing down what you do...e.g. 1/8 turn to right...or you
will lose track of what you did to each carb (don't ask me how I know this) and
have to reset the needles to the flush position.
Once you have them flush turn both needles 1/2 turn to richer (to the right as
you look down on the top of the air valve...you should see the needle draw up
into the air valve which means it's becoming a richer setting) from the flush
setting. Hope that makes sense. In other words set it flush and then turn your
Allen wrench 180 degrees to the right. If it were summer I'd try 1/4 turn (90
degrees) but in cooler weather you want a little richer setting. You should be
good to go with that mixture setting and might only need to adjust the idle
speed once the engine is warmed up and the choke is off.
And the opinion that they are almost tamper proof and that there is "almost no
adjustment" may be true when it comes to using a Colortune, but you CAN make
enough of an adjustment to make a difference in how it runs (which you've proved
to yourself) and the emissions it emits.
Good Luck and let me know how it goes.
Bud
71TR6 CC57365
71TR6 CC65446
66TR4A CTC57806
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Subject: Stromberg adjustment problems
Author: "Hutmacher; Greg" <ghutmacher@stanleyworks.com>
Date: 04/09/1999 1:52 PM
Okay, I've learned my lesson...if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I made the
mistake of trying to fine tune my Strombergs last night on my 76 TR6 even
though they were running pretty well. I suspected my fuel/air mixture being
a little off. Anyway, I tried out my new Colortune for the first time and
now have totally screwed up the carb adjustment. I used the special
adjusting tool with the hex key and the barrel that fits into the top of the
dashpot. I got frustrated because no matter which way or how much I turned
the adjustment tool, the Colortune never showed any changes (medium blue
with occasional bright orange flashes). I made the mistake of continuing to
turn the adjustment tool trying to get a deeper blue color on both carbs. I
screwed something up because the color never changed but now the car runs
much worse. The car idles rough where it was smooth before, when I
accelerate hard, it seems to not have as much power and sounds "deeper". I
also did the test where you lift the carb piston up and the idle dropped
drastically (tried to stall). One thing I wondered is if I may have torn the
rubber diaphram on my rear carb in trying to turn the needle because it was
really hard to turn (as opposed to the front carb which turned fairly
easily). This weekend, I'll take the dash pot covers off and check the
diaphram and whatever else I can see. Any ideas? Also, what weight of oil is
best for the dashpots? By the way, the guy at TSI told me that the
Strombergs have almost no adjustment in the fuel air mixture. He said no
matter how much you turn the adjustment, there is almost no change in the
fuel air mixture on Strombergs since they are "tamper proof". This seems to
be supported by what I saw on my Colortune. Thoughts?
Thanks, Greg Hutmacher (bummed out because my formerly smooth running six is
now running like crap)
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