Hi all, I have been trawling this forum since sending a user request in a few days ago. I was unable to view attachments until now. Thanks for a great forum. I am currently based on Maatsuyker Island, Tasmania. It's just myself and my partner for 6 months and we have limited spares for 'Dave' the Daihatsu. We have nearly every tool in our workshop though. Dave is an S81P 4X4 547cc (think this is correct?). This S81P has the diff lock button. Maatsuyker is a coastal island and cops extreme weather, as you can imagine corrosion/rust is a big problem here. My background is not as a mechanic but I have always been a home mechanic and from this have moderate knowledge for a home DIY person. Service history of car: I think Dave was last serviced in 2015 prior to us. On the 22nd December 2017 we changed: engine oil, spark plugs, fuel filter, condenser, air filter. The only other spares we have are points, v-belts and all fluids. I believe timing was last set in 2015. Problem with car: On the 23rd of January 2018 I was driving Dave from one end of the island to the other (it is less than a mile long). The final hill is quite steep, we use low range to get down it. When I got to the bottom of the steep hill and backed into the turnaround spot Dave began to run really rough. By this point I would say I was on more level ground at the bottom of the hill. He wouldn't accelerate smoothly at all, kind of felt like he was running on one cylinder? After about a minute of barely idling and feeling like I couldn't rev the car at all he died. I tried to start Dave again and he would run but only without any revs at all applied. With revs he would die. He wouldn't run for more than 10-15 seconds and also sounded like he was running really really badly. At this point I didn't think there was anything I could have done a month earlier to cause this. Troubleshooting so far: Initially just tried to re-start the car which obviously failed. The battery looks original and as it's a 1 mile walk each way with no other vehicles I had to carry the battery back to charge it last night. I have a large capacity battery which I brought up in a wheelbarrow in the meantime with all my tools. Then I thought maybe the fuel was low and coming down the hill and done something, we do have a problem with water in the fuel here so we use a fuel funnel that gets rid of water. I added another 20L and still had the problem. Yesterday I checked all plugs and leads and found one lead out of three that wasn't clipping into place properly (far right one looking at car from passenger side and remembering this car is RHD in Australia). The inner metal bit that clips onto the plug had separated slightly, I cable tied it tight in the meantime and it now clips on better. I checked to see if the distributor was loose, it wasn't. I pulled off the inspection plate and looked at the engine for anything obvious. I pulled off the fuel hose before/after the fuel filter under the car and fuel was coming through. I pulled the air intake hose off and sprayed some aerostart in there and tried to crank it again, it fired slightly and didn't seem that different to not spraying the stuff in there. I hooked up the other battery and tried to start it again, it turns over and fires, occasionally it sort of starts for a second then dies. Once it ran barely for a few seconds without any accelerator. With accelerator it dies straight away. I also noticed that what I think is the choke mechanism wasn't flicking back properly. I'm talking about the mechanism that operates when you put your foot on the accelerator and pump the gas, the little metal clip is then pushed against the choke mechanism. I lubed it up and now when pedal is depressed and it hits the choke lever, then released, the choke lever flicks back nearly all the way. Seems a bit dodgy but unsure if this could really be the cause of all my issues. Messing around with it didn't seem to help starting it. Just took off fuel line from fuel pump on top of engine and cranked car (in video) and fuel pumped out. seems that fuel pump is ok. believe air is fine which leaves electrical! Other info: I don't have a timing light here and don't know how to set timing in this car. It's been a long time since I set timing in any car and that was with a friend who was a mechanic. I do have a sheet of paper with timing instructions but no pictures. I also have spare points but am hesitant to change unless I need to as I don't want to make any problem worse. To get a mechanic out here is very expensive and has to be via boat or helicopter, I want to avoid that. I have found a few posts that suggest issues like this could be fuel pump, timing belt. How do I go about checking those items? Is the fuel pump located on top of the engine just next to the carburettor? The vehicle has been running better since we serviced it a month ago. Plugs used were NGK BP5ES. Condenser: GD209. Spare points are: GD215. (ALL NGK). Fuel filter is ryco Z92. If anyone is interested we have an instagram: @thelighthousekeepers I will acknowledge help from this forum in any posts we do. Like I said I'm a pretty handy DIY mechanic but am a more visual learner than from writing so if you want pictures please let me know. Unfortunately since Dave is up the other end of the island and we don't have mobile phone reception here It will take me some time between posts (30 minute return walk). Cheers!
Ok so it's day three. I noticed a few loose earths and tidied those up. Then cleaned up the choke and it seems to work now. Condensation was in the distributor cap and used contact cleaner on that and it fired up again! Electrical gremlins!
Glad you got it figured out, I bet that salty sea air plays havoc on all the electrical systems. I was looking at some of the pictures of your island how the heck did you even get that little truck up there?
Hey mate, Me too! Just a little bit stressful haha! Would have been a damn expensive trip to get a mechanic out here! The car was brought out underneath helicopter (sling load), because they are so light it worked! I'll see if I can get a photo for you. That's how all our gear was brought out 5 months ago too. You can lift about 750-900kg under the chopper.
