Crashly

Well I obtained a 1977 Targa today that has been sitting outside uncovered for many years. Yesterday my wife and I went and picked up the car and winched it up on the trailer. The first thing that I did was to suction the gas out of the tank. This was pretty simple as the nose of the car was on a down slope and all I had to do was take out the fuel level guage and suction it out. Really simple. After I installed a new battery I could not get spark so I cleaned all of the terminals in the back drivers side engine compartement and applied di-electric grease. Sure enough it fired right up!! It went up to around 1500 rpm for a minute or so then it worked its way down to around 700 and held a nice steady idle. No real smoke at start up. I was surprised at this as the car has been sitting for years. The only real problem that I could find so far was the Bosch Fuel distributor is leaking between the top and the bottom where there is a gasket. Do the banjo bolts tighten the didtributor down? Can the gasket be replaaced without a complete rebuild. I know that the there is a slight posibility that the gasket may swell up now that there is fuel in it, but the possibility seems slight.

psychoideas

Hello and welcome!
There is no gasket between the two halves, only a metal shim that forms part of the valve system for metering the fuel outflow.
i successfully rebuilt mine after every fuel injection specialist told me that once apart I will never get it to seal again.
You must be pretty handy to have a go at it because the tolerances in there are really tight. Let me know if I can be of any help.

good luck.

Crashly

Thanks for the offer Frank, Is there any way to tighten up on the two halves? I found one web sight that has them for sale for $300 rebuilt and it seems like a fair deal. Then I would simply just need to readjust it.

psychoideas

There are two types that I know of. The later ones have an adjustment screw adjacent to each fuel delivery pipe. The early ones do not have this but are adjusted via shims that are inside under the springs of the delivery valves.
However these adjustments only make sure that all six lines are delivering the same amount of fuel. This should already have been taken care of when you collect your new unit. No adjustment should be necessary by you.

Once installed you may need to check system pressure(SP), cold control pressure (CCP) and warm control pressure (WCP)again SP is set via shims in the Fuel distributing unit and should be pre set when you get it. CCP and WCP are set within the Warm Up regulator.

Yes you can attempt to tighten the two halves but you must remove the distributor from the air box. Undo all fuel lines and remove the three screws that you can see on the top of the unit.

Be very careful lifting the unit off that the plunger doesn't fall out of the bottom of it. (very tight tolerances, for it meters the fuel amount)

From underneath I think there are three screws that hold the two halves together. Give them a shot.

It defies logic, but I wouldn't be surprised if the leak heals it'self. Run the pump for a minute each day.

Oh, and maike sure you put a new fuel filter in it.

let us know how you go

Crashly

The fuel dist is still leaking. I was wrong about there being a normal gasket that would swell up. After shopping around I may try and take a crack seperating the halves and doing a clean up -rebuild on mine before sending it away. Pelican parts has a good write up that one person did and it seemed to work. It seems pretty basic. Unfortunately there is not a rebuild kit for these fuel distributors. Have you rebuilt yours? On the top of mine I have five flat head screws, from what I understand three of them unlossen the distributor, I guess the other two meter the flow??

Peter Zimmermann

I agree with Frank, this is one of those weird leaks that just might fix itself. That said, are you sure it's leaking at the seam, and not running to that point from above or behind? I think that the chance is far greater that a fitting on the forward side (that you can't see) of the distributor might have a small leak. Put a wrench on everything, check the forward side with a mirror, and then start the car and try to identify the exact point of the leak. There is a fire danger doing this type of diagnosis so be careful and have a fully charged extinguisher nearby!

FYI: Be very, very careful with your selection of a rebuilder! A fellow Rennlister has been going through hell trying to get his CIS car sorted, and it sounds as though not all rebuilders are up to the task!

HarryD

If you feel brave, try this.

Crashly

Yes it is definately leaking from the seam. The leak is closesest to the back of the car andis easily visible.One rebuilde strongly suggested that I put a new wur as well when the distributor is replaced. Can I rebuild this myself? Harry thanks for the link, I am feeling brave so I think that I will do the rebuild on the distributor this week.

Jay Laifman

First, I recently had a problem with my FD. Our research found that 73-77 FDs are simply NLA from any source, even Bosch for new or rebuilt ones.

Second, here is a warning that I have already said once, and I'm sorry to those that will read this again, but I will constantly pop up here to tell anyone who raises the issue, again and again, DO NOT BUY A FD REBUILT BY PYTHON! I personally brought mine to Python and they put it on their tester that they test each of their rebuilds with and it came back with flying colors. The results were close to perfect. So, I ignored it as the problem and ended up pulling apart the whole engine and spending $$$$$$$$$$$$ only to find that there was nothing else wrong with the car. I had the FD sent to another shop. They found multiple things wrong with it!!!! So, that just goes to show you how bad Python's tester is. And, it goes to show that Python has no idea if its tested FDs are good or bad. I have since learned that they have a reputation of delivering faulty parts.

Oh, and a Python rebuild is in the range of about $300. A Bosch one was about $1,500. You do get what you pay for.

psychoideas

crashly,
Pete raised a very valid point. Please buy and install a whole set of copper washers that are above and below the injector line connections on the FD. Trust me, (and Pete) it may solve your problem and they will still be beneficial if they don't.

Do not buy a new Warm Up Reg, They are really basic and should be OK. It just needs to be tested and you can do this yourself if you have access to a good (at least 110psi) fuel Pressure gauge.