Malcolm's Targa is coming home to the US

[BQS4]

Originally Posted by crliwa I'm almost confident enough to think about driving to Charlotte in Sept.

I dare ya Craig!!

[crliwa]

It was another great day to be out in the Targa so I went to a local show that starts at 7am on the beach .. before the crowds start building . after the show I put my my 3 1/2 y/o Grandson's car seat in and off we went ...then of course his 2 y/o sister needed a ride and they didn't want me to leave their 7 month old home so into the BACK SEAT went the "big" kids and the baby up front for a very brief ride up and down the block. ..

So just how far is Charlotte? .. after a few more short trips I'll make the decision as to whether or not to drive to the Nationals.

[Ooooner]

Craig,
Glad you are thinking about coming to the Nationals in Charlotte. You will not be disappointed. I have driven the New York City to Charlotte route many times to go visit my daughter. It is around 10 hours when you come down I-81 but depending on where you are in New York, it may be easier to come down I-95. But I-95 is tough with all the traffic.
It's not a bad trip at all. The time seems to go by pretty quick except your butt gets a little tender!

[gtzero]

Originally Posted by crliwa It was another great day to be out in the Targa so I went to a local show that starts at 7am on the beach .. before the crowds start building . after the show I put my my 3 1/2 y/o Grandson's car seat in and off we went ...then of course his 2 y/o sister needed a ride and they didn't want me to leave their 7 month old home so into the BACK SEAT went the "big" kids and the baby up front for a very brief ride up and down the block. .. So just how far is Charlotte? .. after a few more short trips I'll make the decision as to whether or not to drive to the Nationals.

Craig,

We need pictures!

[crliwa]

Hi All.. never took any pics of the Targa w/ my 3 grandkids riding shotgun.. They'll be back in NY (FROM WISCONSIN) in October so I'll take some pics .... showing that an Opel GT w/ a back seat makes sense.
I'm getting the Targa ready for Charlotte while trying to get out to local shows etc. BUT I've had a few issues.. My son wants me to consider tearing the car down and redoing a lot of things .. but I'm trying to to deal with things as they come up..
Most recently, I lost the bolt out of the bottom of the drivers side front shock on one trip. Next the chrome nut on the rear pop out window disappeared while out for a drive... thankfully John Grosh is sending me another. The sun visor fell down..ordered a new plastic piece from OGTS while waiting for the metal one's to be restocked. I also ordered the blue gear for the speedo as the gear in my getrag was in pieces when I pulled the cable to see why the speedo didn't work.
I'm very happy w/ my decision to trailer and not attempt to drive the Targa to Charlotte. I used to drive my '73 everywhere but it's going to take me some time to build up my confidence to take the TARGA on longer and longer trips..

[crliwa]

As many of you know the Targa decided to stall and not restart after dinner Saturday night.. Thanks to everyone that tried to get it running especially Tom C with his stock of spare parts that allowed us to replace the plugs and coil and who knows what else. It did start and ran for a minute on Sunday morning while sitting on the trailer.
After I left the car at Roy Bells I understand that Tom and Harold tried again. with no luck.. well here's the good part.........when I decided to move it from the trailer to the garage I first backed the trailer up close to the garage and began rolling it off. Knowing it would only run for a minute I didn't want to use it up going downhill. I turned the key and it fired right up.. all the gauges were working.. even the gas gauge which BAZ had noticed was on empty and we were hoping that I simply ran it dry ..not so. I drove it into the garage and let it run (w/the garage door open) .. waiting for it to die.. after 10 minutes I turned it off. I was thinking of taking it for a drive but it was starting to rain and I really don't like walking home ..even when it's not raining.

Ok, so we know it died after about 20 minutes when it was "warmed up". It didn't resart after sitting an hour.. it did start and stalled within a minute after sitting overnight.. it started and ran today after not being started in 5 days..
Bill Hoffman made a suggestion on the "home safe Thread" and in addition I'll start trying to check various things in an effort to find the culprit.. any suggestions graciously accepted.

[opelenvy]

I haven't watched the other thread so I don't know what you have tried. A bad coil could be the culprit. Have you swapped it?

[BQS4]

Originally Posted by opelenvy I haven't watched the other thread so I don't know what you have tried. A bad coil could be the culprit. Have you swapped it?

George, the coil was swapped at the diner, no luck....

[Bill Hoffmann]

Originally Posted by opelenvy I haven't watched the other thread so I don't know what you have tried. A bad coil could be the culprit. Have you swapped it?

For background, the engine apparently became rough towards the end of the ~7 mile drive from the speedway to the restaurant, and stalled in its parking spot. It would not restart after dinner. There was a strong fuel smell in the exhaust as well as raw fuel dripping from the tail pipe. The coil and plugs were changed, and the #1 spark plug wire showed a spark while cranking. I checked that the coolant temperature sensor was securely connected, but did not verify its functionality with a meter (something else I would recommend). I also checked the air flow meter to make sure the flap was not stuck open. About that time the trailer showed up and we pushed it in. The next morning it started and ran for a short time. I suggested later that the fuel pressure might be high, possibly due to a split or disconnected vacuum hose. That's where we are. This car has Bosch LE fuel injection or some combination of f.i. systems.

Bill

[oldopelguy]

I'm wondering if the fuel guage not registering is a hint to there being some electrical connection not making contact all the time. The fact that it would only read "E" with fuel in the tank (not moving when switched on) at the same time the car wouldn't run might be more than coincidence.

Do they make "noid" lights for the Opel injectors, so you can see if they are getting a correct pulsing signal?

[crliwa]

Thanks again for the continued help... The Targa started again and I am able to drive it...but I'm not going far from home.. this is good and bad in that I can't find or fix a problem when it's not present.. erratic stuff like this is the worst... how I wish it had been the coil when we swapped it after dinner.. I'll keep everyone up to date...

[crliwa]

I did some poking around ...checking for a vacuum leak etc.. didn't notice anything obvious.. two other thing I want to mention.. prior to going to Charlotte I have had, on quite a few occassions, a problem which feels like the car starving for fuel as it starts to buck when accelerating in 1st or 2nd gear. 2nd.. I left Loews by driving over the track..BIG MISTAKE.. the bottom scraped a lot...Gene didn't see anything noteworthy when he looked under the car at the restaurant but I'm going to get the car up in the air and check all the lines running from the Fuel pump etc.. In the meantime I went and got gas before the price jump today and had no problems.. but it was only a few minutes of driving..

[Motor Mouth]

Craig,

Have you had a look at the cold start valve? It might be sticking 'on' and therefore leading to the over fueling and then stalling?

The Targa's running from memory is running the LE injection system and it might be this that's causing the problem, i've seen a couple of GT's over here with the same problem.

Hope that helps?

[DennisGardiner]

Years ago I had two problems that were similar>

1. no hot engine start;
cure: boils down to holding the gas pedal down at full throttle and crank
the starter 4 - 10 seconds to start.

2. sputtering under acceleration, getting worse further I drove
cure: removed the sock from the gas tank

[gtzero]

This is sounding very similar to what I've been experiencing for some time. Craig, does your car run fine one minute and then start to buck and lose power the next? And then suddenly, the power kicks back in and all's fine?

I was stranded one night and I had to call AAA after trying to start my engine for about 30 minutes. She'd crank and crank and crank...but no start. The driver told me to crank the engine while he banged my gas tank from under the car with a rubber mallet. WOW, that sounded KINKY!!! And suddenly, the car started. Junk in the trunk. Or in this case, in the tank.

Ever since I got the car back from the body shop, it's been behaving like this. I took my tank out a while back to have it cleaned and resealed. All was fine until the bodyshop incident. I suspect they dropped stuff into my tank by accident. They had to do some work around my fuel cap. I just haven't had the time to take the tank back out. So I've been living with it. It gets scary when I'm trying to overtake someone and suddenly, there's no power!

Manny

[opelenvy]

Originally Posted by gtzero The driver told me to crank the engine while he banged my gas tank from under the car with a rubber mallet. WOW, that sounded KINKY!!! And suddenly, the car started. Junk in the trunk. Or in this case, in the tank. Manny

Manny, there is a body panel under the tank. So he wasn't actually banging the tank at all, not to say that junk in the tank wasn't your problem.

[gtzero]

Originally Posted by opelenvy Manny, there is a body panel under the tank. So he wasn't actually banging the tank at all, not to say that junk in the tank wasn't your problem.

Hi George,

Poor wording on my part. Was in a rush.

Manny