Tick over and Tramlines!

[Jimchimanee]

Hi Guys,
Question time again!
I have cleaned the stepper motor and replaced but tickover is all over the place, rises and falls but just about doesnt cut out.
I havent disconnected the ECU to reset but am I barking up the wrong tree?
Whats thrown me is the distributor vac advance seems to be solid ( when sucking on pipe)could this be the culprit?
To drive it is quite tiring because there seems to be so much drive line shunt and you contsantly have to slip the clutch to dirve smoothly.
Also, do Chims normally "tramline" along certain surfaces mine seems to pick up say a dip and want to follow it even if it wants to put you in a hedge!!
Any advice as usual would be great.

[TVR keith]

Mine tramlinned badly when it was running on Bridgestone SO3's.
Fitted Dunlop SP9000 and it doesn't do it anymore.
Also make sure your balljoints are in good condition as changing those (before I replaced the tyres)made a very noticeable improvement.
Clean the butterfly and the air control screw with carb cleaner when you do the stepper motor.
There was a good post on all of this the other day

Edited by TVR keith on Thursday 16th August 17:14

[nig-gtv]

Have you tried driving with the stepper motor disconnected (unplugged)?

[GreenV8S]

Jimchimanee said:

Whats thrown me is the distributor vac advance seems to be solid ( when sucking on pipe)could this be the culprit?

That doesn't sound right. You can normally feel and hear the baseplate move when you suck on the vac line. Do you still have the slow return valve in the line? If so get rid of it, it isn't doing any good and if it's defective it may be contributing to the problem. If you have a timing light, just quickly check that it does advance when you suck on the vac line. Otherwise take the dizzy cap off and confirm that the baseplate moves when you apply vacuum. If you don't get any indication that the vac advance is working correctly then replace the vacuum cannister, they're cheap and readily available from any RV8 specialist.

[f@-pots]

I'd definately disconnect the ECU then reconnect, it worked with mine(for a while) although my best tickover fix was removing the stepper and clamping the pipe !! However I'm going to have another go with a new shiny stepper Once I've got the engine back in one piece. On the tramlining thing ,my Chim kept wanting to greet the scenery either side of the road,especially at speed it was quite scary !! One set of shiny new Gaz Gold's later , totally compliant , safe at much higher , no , MUCH higher speeds,totally different car. It may not be the answer to your problem but if you ARE running factory originals my advice would be to get them checked out..

[Timja]

My Chim (Before it broke!) tramlined a lot and felt quite unstable at high speeds. I had the geometry checked and set up and it was much better afterwards, but the camber and dips on some roads still really pull it around sometimes!

[Jimchimanee]

Thanks a lot every one will get cracking
Cheers Jim