Here's a strange on for you........

[karaokebykris]

Just got hold of an '88 316, has had recon head with all new gaskets, uprated cam etc. Ran perfectly for the first 150 miles then during a spirited take off the engine just died on me. Would turn over just fine but not fire, dragged it home and managed to get stuck in the following day (my chinese went cold due to this problem Dam it!) car is fitted with a webber 32/34 carb. Checked for a spark and it was strong, fuel and air are both getting through. yet on turning over it backfires a bit without even firing if that makes sense. All the rockers are rocking fine and the cam is rotating as it should. Dizzy cap appears in good condition.

Any ideas on what could be wrong?

I have found out and will let you know shortly, i would just like to find out other opinions.

[polwutna]

Timing out somehow (belt slipped mebbe)?

[karaokebykris]

this was what i thought! It's a chain on these though and that was replaced not so long ago when the cam was done.

[jon_pure_british]

sounds like my problem mate,

but it started when i ran out of petrol i changed filter, and then it barely starts and abrely sits on idle without stalling. wont rev over 2k so ive bit the bullet and booked it into the garage for tomorrow morning

i know it doesnt help but atleast you know someone else is having similar problems dude, hope your car gets fixed ASAP!!!!

[karaokebykris]

Took a couple of hours of head scratching, rechecked everything i could think of

Turns out it was the rotor arm, the mounting lug inside the arm had sheared causing the rotor arm to spin on the distributor shaft essentially putting the timing out causing the spark at the wrong time therefore the backfire, quick trip to halfrauds on sunday afternoon and £4.49 later and she started first time and runs like a dream again.

Never known of this problem before and i only checked out of pure desperation lol as i had all the ingredients for it to run.

I wonder how much it would of cost me at a garage for them to diagnose and rectify this????

[massive]

You must be gutted....I hate it when my chinese goes cold

[Morat]

yeah cold chinese is worse than no chinese.

Result on the dizzy arm

[karaokebykris]

For the second time in a week my car has destroyed a rotor arm! During another spirited take off the car just died, i removed the dizzy cap and the rotor arm to find the internal lug missing again! Why am i getting a collection of lugless rotor arms? this will get expensive if it is a weekly occurence!

Anybody any ideas why my rotor arms keep breaking?

There is nothing apparent in the dizzy cap which would obstruct the arm. It only seems to happen when i pull off quickly, nothing happens when revving the car only when under load.

[johnl320]

sounds like excessive play in the distributor bearings allowing the shaft to move up and down causing the rotor to fowl on the cap. take the cap off and try pulling the shaft in and out . Too much movement and get yourself down the scrappies for another one

HTH

john

[E30BeemerLad]

is this the M10 engine?

think i'd heard of a problem of M10's destroying dizzy shafts or something when you rev the fanny off them.

Been a naughty boy living at the redline?

[Speedtouch]

Could be that your new rotor arm isn't compatible with the existing dizzy cap? I once had that problem - fitted a new rotor arm and its lug was slightly too long and munched away at the dizzy cap terminals (engine ran a bit rough which was the clue that something was wrong! )

[karaokebykris]

dizzy shaft has quite a bit of play in it looks like a new distributor. Any idea how much a new one will be? and which one do i need?