230CE COUPE ,Misfire

[RAD]

Hi all ,Havent been here for a while!!
My '83 123 series coupe has developed a misfire ,more noticeable at idle ,and less noticeable as the revs increase (by 1500/2000 rpm it will drive ok ,with slight misfire) It is difficult to pull away from a standstill without stalling .It will start ok from cold ,and some days the misfire will be hardly noticeable even when pulling away .It could be running really rough ,then suddenly the prob dissapears!I know nothing of these engines ,but if it was a simple crossflow Ford I would say it felt like plugs/points/leads,or maybe fuel delivery (slow running jet??)...carb choke stuck 'on'? So many gizmo's attached to the engine,I cant detect an obvious fault.Any one got any ideas? Many thanks in advance.
Regards Rod

 

[MarkCL]

When was the last time things like plugs/leads etc were changed? Or possibly could be an injector issue - only way to know with that though would be to take it somewhere they could do a flow test on it. Probably best to start with the cheapest things and move up really - check earthing points, plugs & leads, maybe run some injector/fuel system cleaner through with the fuel..see whether any of that helps & get back to us for one of the more technical guys to maybe help with some suggestions. You could also always take it to one of the good independants listed on here that are in your area Good luck.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Bolide]

If it has a carb, and has vacuum advance & retard, I'd start there. It has fixed valve timing so, assuming the timing is correct, it's either a fuel delivery problem or lack of spark

You could try disconnecting the fuel feed to the carb, pointing it into a container & running the fuel pump (insert fire & explosion caveat here) to make sure it's getting sufficient clean fuel. And you could try a Halfords inline neo spark tester on each HT lead in turn to check the leads, coil & distributor

At the end of the day it's not that different to a Ford so check the same stuff as normal - leads, plugs, condensor, rotor arm, dizzy cap, fuel pump & timing

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[vijilants]

230CE is injection

 

[stever]

When this happened on my 123, a change of HT leads cured it. Try running the engine at night to see if there are any blue sparks.