Temp Senders, Cold Start Idle, Hunting Idle

[josh.c 10]

Morning all.

 

Car has been running terribly from cold recently, have to keep the foot on the throttle to prevent stalling until it gets warm and even then she hunts idle a little. I've checked all vac lines and all seems well so I figured I'll test the Blue temp sender with a multimeter, I'm not getting any reading from it what so ever. Worth mentioning that unplugging the blue temp sender made no difference to the idle... 'Aha, I've found the problem' I thought, so swapped the blue lead for the black to see if it made any difference, nada. Nothing. Checked resistance for the Black temp sender, same as blue, nothing. I am getting temp readings on the dash so I would've thought the black temp sender would've worked.

 

Any suggestions as to what I should do or test to aid in diagnosing and correcting this issue? :scratch:

 

Also, I read about taking the reading across the 2 pins but my sensors only have 1 pin?! I took readings using the live on the multimeter on the spade connector for the sender and negative was earthed.

 

I'm going to ask probably the most silly/important question...

 

The temp senders on the KR are at the front of the block near the Oil filter.. right?

 

Car info in sig.

Edited March 14, 2013 by josh.c

[Wullie 1]

No t entirely sure which sensors you are looking at, sound like the oil pressure senders. The KR has three sensors on the right hand side of the head beside the dizzy. They are all the same and can be checked by swapping the connections. One feeds the dash temp guage. Get the car wearm and disconnect each in turn till you don't get a reading then use that lead on the other sensors to see if you get a reading with them. If you do then they should be OK. It sounds more like a problem with your cold start injector or warm up regulator. The cold start injector is at the front right of the engine and has a blue connector. Disconnect this and see if it makes a difference. You can check it by removing it when the engine is cold, stick the end in a bottle and crank the engine to see if you are getting fuel pumped through it. Conversly when the engine is warm there should be no fuel. The warm up regulator is on the same side of the engine as the dizzy, just below and in front of it with two fuel lines going into it. Remove the plug, with the ignition on you should get a minimum of 11.5 volts accross its terminals. The terminals on the regulator shoud have a resistance of 20 to 25 ohms across them with the ignition off.

 

Edit, Does the ISV buzz with the ignition switched on?

[josh.c 10]

Ahh, see, I'm glad I asked the silly question

 

The cold start injector makes absolutely no difference when disconnected. I will remove it when I get a chance and see if it's functioning at all.

 

I will also check the warm up regulator as suggested and will get back to you on that.

 

From what I can hear, yes, the ISV does buzz but I tend to work alone and from where I stand when turning the key, the biggest buzz is what I figured was the fuel pump priming but I could be barking up the wrong tree there.

 

Worth mentioning, the car has absolutely refused to start a couple of times and the only way to get it going was to bump start!

 

Thanks for the help and please forgive my lack of skill and understanding. I'm young and naive :)

[Wullie 1]

I'm old and grumpy! When you first turn the key you should hear the fuel pump prime from the rear of the car. The ISV will buzz continuously when the ignition is on so you can turn the key and go round to the front of the car for a listen. It's just beside the cold start injector, a cylindrical thingy with a couple of air hoses connected at the rear and bottom iirc. plus a connection.

[josh.c 10]

Ahh cool that's on my to do list as well. Will get onto all of this tomorrow :) I have cleaned the ISV up before with carb cleaner as I thought it was the cause of a similar issue but that turned out to be a vacuum leak.

Fingers crossed!