My Dyane bless it has never had much get up and go (mums red spesh is MUCH faster), but it's not running right.

It seems worse in wet weather but can be a bit bad in the cold too. It'll start and idle but it'll not idle comfortably after driving. If you stop and let it idle it will but if you come to a set of lights or a roundabout it'll struggle to maintain itself. Which is then made worse by it'll stall regardless of throttle position UNLESS you gun the throttle about a second before thinking about bringing the clutch up.

Added to which, some days she just struggles to get up speed. Today going into the peak district she just wouldn't go above forty no-matter what gear you were in. In forth it'd just peter out and in third it'd happily rev along to itself. She was a little faster downhill but she never broke 55mph.

Thanks to a leaking valve stem seal she's never really got old oil in her and I drive quite calmly most of the time.

After everything that's happened I've lost my confidence to jump into a big job without knowing what a likely cause may be so any suggestions would be awesome.

Regards,

Pete

*ps I do have a compression tester but I haven't the foggiest how to use it.

Pete you will just have to go through things systematically, There is plenty on here for similar problems. Do each check one at a time and try the car out. There is nothing worse than curing the problem but not knowing how you did it.

carb main jet??

Just one thing in a big long list.

true, maybe idle jet too considering lack of a smooth idle, its the first thing id check personally

Groovy, I'll start there then. I'm convinced carbs are designed and run with voodoo though.

I'd follow the advice to be systematic. It isn't effective to jump in somewhere in the middle. Ignition gap set propery, timing spot on, advance retard springs not falling apart, carb nice and clean, air filter not blocked.

Someone I know bought a 2CV a few years back with a running problem that couldn't apparently be solved. Once we got it home we looked through the stack of bills. It first got "Crypton tuned". It then had new points and plugs fitted, shortly followed by plug leads. It was then decided it needed a new coil. When it still ran badly it got a new fuel pump. The owner gave up when the next thing on the list was a new carburettor and sold it as "Spares or Repair".

It ran much better when we removed the rather large mouse nest from the air filter..........

Forcing a car to drag itself along is never a good idea. Something as simple as the timing being significantly out or running lean from a blocked jet or air filter can do a lot of damage to the engine over an extended distance.

Points, gap etc. was done not too long ago really. Air filter comes out for an inspection fairly often.

Hi Pete .....if you cant cure it over the weekend bring it down to my house on Monday and we'll take a look.
I'm not the worlds brightest with electrics,but I know my way around a 2CV/Dyane carb.

Terry

Thanks Terry but I have to be in Leeds on Monday & I won't get a chance to look at it until Wednesday.