[t3japan]

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2023.
I purchased abandoned Japanese Silver Shadow 2 here in Tokyo in December. It barely ran and had no power steering.
I overhauled the steering rack. Done
I cleaned the fuel tank and freed the sender unit from rust.
Replaced all 3 fuel filters, cleaned the dual SU carbs,
New aftermarket ignition wires and fuel pump.
Now the awful rotten fuel smell and plumes of smoke are gone, it still has a miss and backfires and runs very poorly when cold.
Now its running very rich and soaks the plugs immediately after I replaced the fuel pump.
I guess the PO made the mixture rich to get it to start with blocked filters or the ignition system is weak.
I downloaded the manual and will figure out how to check the points .
Any suggestions?

 

[Wraithman]

A Silver Shadow II would not have points. It has the Opus solid state ignition inside the distributor.

 

[t3japan]

thanks for your prompt reply.
I did see the wires going to what looks like an igniter. So basically there is nothing to check in the distributor?
Also, it more likely to start running more advanced than normal.

 

[Wraithman]

It has the Opus solid state ignition inside the distributor.

 

[Jim Walters]

If the fuel pump is not an original type it may be putting out too much pressure in the fuel system which may overpower the floats in the carb float bowls flooding the engine. The weakener solenoid my not be functioning properly, pull off the float bowl overflow hoses to test if it is causing the fault. As a Japan market car does it have HIF or HD SU's? Did you remove the carbs to clean them?

 

[t3japan]

Thanks. I did pull the dual SU carbs and cleaned them. I also discovered pull the right bank spark plugs had little impact on the idle. That prompted me to check the right carb last night and it was completely dry. The needle valve was stuck closed and some dirt came out.
I am at my desk job today so tomorrow I’ll see if that fixes the issue.


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[shadow 11]

Each carb supplies 2 cylinders on both engine banks.

 

[t3japan]

Sooo how do the other 4 cylinders get fed?
Anyhoo, with the right carb now in action and the firing order confirmed, the car starts and revs a lot better but the A3 tick and miss is still there. Maybe the right carb need some richening. When I removed the A3 lead the idle doesnt change and that is where there is tick which diminishes as the engine warns up. Are these cars valve train failure prone?

 

[Wraithman]

Carb-manifold fuel path.

A carb feeds A1-B2-B3-A4
B carb feeds B1-A2-A3-B4

 

[t3japan]

this is what I am dealing with.

 

[Jeff R 1]

It's not a carb problem, the lifter for A3 is more then likely stuck.
I would also remove the rocker cover on the side that A3 is on and inspect the rocker arm and push rod.
Could also be a burnt or bent valve along with a collapsed lifter.

Worst case scenario:
The lifter was stuck, it could have allowed the valve to come in contact with the top of the piston and now you have a bent valve and a collapsed lifter from the valve forcing the lifter "shut" when it came in contact with the piston and now it's stuck shut along with the bent valve.

Do a leak down test on A3, or even a simple compression test will tell you that there will be very little.

And no, these cars are not prone to valve train failures, lack of maintenance and use are the problems.
Improper storage as well.

There's a number of things you can do to try and free the lifter while in the engine _ you will get plenty of advice about that, I'm not going there though.

 

[t3japan]

Thanks.
I’ll give it a try tomorrow. But the weather is shitty here so I’d rather let it idle.
I finally changed the oil which smelt pretty bad. I put 1 liter of atf in with fresh 10w30 Valvoline oil. The tapping is quieter at idle with the engine warmed up but the miss is still there. The car has no plates so all I can do is drive it a couple of feet in the driveway.
An old mechanic recommended trying some engine conditioner to help clean the valves.
Also he said the heat range on the plugs is too low and I should use a hotter NGK plug. Any recommendations?


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[Wraithman]

ATF is your best method to free the lifters

 

[t3japan]

Spoke the POs mechanic yesterday. He told me he checked that the compression was good before I got it and recommends to remove the plugs and coil lead then crank the engine. That should restore the lifter and flush out the others.
I’ll try that tomorrow.
Yesterday it started and ran a lot better but still has the miss and the ticking noise has reduced.


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[t3japan]

Today I put half a can of engine condition/top end cleaner in. Not much smoke came out. Then changes the sparkplugs and balanced the carb by adjusting the linkage. Now the idle is lower and much better. The tick and miss are also reduced. However it sprung a leak from the PS and I cant get the fuel gauge to work. Those will get looked at again on Saturday.

 

[t3japan]

I am having the worst luck with this car. I overhauled the steering rack 2 months ago. Suddenly its startled leaking from the pinion seal. Does anyone know the size of the pinion seal? Can I replace it alone? I really dont want to get into those tiny hard plastic seals in the block again.

 

[Jean7]

You should read this first , you need specific tools and experience, otherwise it leaks "necessarly"

Message 9 is important : Steering rack rebuild, parts supplier, and general...

http://rrtechnical.info/miscellaneous/rackextract.pdf

 

[t3japan]

I thought I got away with it. Getting those Teflon seals in were a PITA the get them into the housing. Really don’t want to do them again. I was hoping to pop out the top seal and replace it. I don’t plan on keeping the car.


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[Jean7]

So it might leak with next owner if it's not properly done....

 

[Jim Walters]

If you have a noticeable leak from the pinion seal the problem is not with that seal, because it is basically just a dust seal. The leak will actually be from the top Teflon sealing ring on the spool valve which was likely damaged from not using the proper tools to install and resize it and the damage is allowing high pressure fluid to escape past that Teflon ring. The pinion lip type seal is not designed nor able to contain high pressure power steering fluid, it is designed to contain any low pressure seepage from the spool valve and prevent contaminants from entering the housing.