10-09-2020, 07:51 PM
Well, for anyone reading or interested, I ended up removing the control lever and re indexing it a 'notch' back, which cured the dead travel, but the car still seemed to be holding back, even for a nad.
I then took a closer look at the pump and looked specifically at the fuel (smoke) screw. The collar was loose, and the yellow paint was missing from the locknut. Normally I would have expected someone to attempt to 'tune it up' a little by screwing it in, but the collar was present and slack on the screw thread, and that got me thinking, maybe someone screwed it out??
Gave it a half turn clockwise, and the grunt is restored, it feels almost sprightly and has good pull from less than 1000 rpm. Was still scratching my head as to why someone would 'detune' an already slow car like that. Further reading into the MOT history indicated a smoke test failure about 6 years ago; some scrote mechanic probably thought this was an easier way to get it through a test, instead of giving it a thrash, changing fuel/air filters, checking that its actually diesel in the tank and not tar/chip fat/old gearbox oil (delete as appropriate)
Tldr: car sorted, it was 'detuned'
I then took a closer look at the pump and looked specifically at the fuel (smoke) screw. The collar was loose, and the yellow paint was missing from the locknut. Normally I would have expected someone to attempt to 'tune it up' a little by screwing it in, but the collar was present and slack on the screw thread, and that got me thinking, maybe someone screwed it out??
Gave it a half turn clockwise, and the grunt is restored, it feels almost sprightly and has good pull from less than 1000 rpm. Was still scratching my head as to why someone would 'detune' an already slow car like that. Further reading into the MOT history indicated a smoke test failure about 6 years ago; some scrote mechanic probably thought this was an easier way to get it through a test, instead of giving it a thrash, changing fuel/air filters, checking that its actually diesel in the tank and not tar/chip fat/old gearbox oil (delete as appropriate)
Tldr: car sorted, it was 'detuned'