chargerbandit

Battery is 1 year old, 55Ah and it had this problem since it was new... in an ideal situation I would try another battery when I get my hands on it.

I peeled back the insulation on the blue wire and the wires are great, I noticed when the wire is unplugged and ignition on it has 12v, as soon as I plug it onto the alternator it only has 1 volt?

Took off the blue wire, rigged up another wire on that terminal and touched the battery 12v wire that goes on the alternator and it works, guess there is a short in the blue wire since the car also started pretty rough until the car started charging, doesn't happen if I don't hook up the blue wire. Going to run a separate new switched 12v to the alternator and problem solved then.

So I am having this problem for a while now on my 1990 Favorit, when I start up the car the battery light stays on and the battery is not charging (approx 12v at the battery), as soon as I rev the engine up above like 3000rpm the light goes off and the battery starts charging (14v). I have just replaced the alternator with a new one and the problem is the same, any ideas? Grounds look fine.

Looked at the intake pipe and turns out something broke inside of it so the flap was always sucking in exhaust air so I just permanently set it to closed, seems to help a lot. Still a bit rich I feel because I can smell it.

Winter mode?

Thanks for the info, I just find it weird because this never happened on my old Favorit and it was a really beat up and neglected one. I do feel like it is running a bit rich - black condensation from the exhaust and sometimes when I want to accelerate from a stop theres no response from the gas, kicks in like a second later.

So my Fav has been running good for a while now, drives good but I'm having a problem where it wont start hot, need to crank it for a bit and hold the throttle open for a few seconds and then it slowly starts up. I have replaced my carb base gasket again, got my hands on a metal plate one because the rubber ones just seem too sketchy to me. Also replaced the idle cutoff valve. If I drive it around and shut it off, it doesnt want to start up. Fires up cold no problem. Any ideas?

One more question - car runs perfectly, checked the alternator charging voltage and its about 12,7v at the battery, is that normal for these cars? Its a brand new battery. The battery light also comes on when the car starts but after a quick rev of the engine it goes away, my old Fav also had that but never any issues.

None of the people that work here have knowledge in carbs and old Skodas anymore, mostly younger mechanics. These cars have been pretty much off the road for the past 20 years here. Luckily we have the internet and a lot of documentation, found a good PDF of Pierburg 2E3 diagnostic which helped a lot, diagrams helped me figure out where fuel should be coming in.

IT WORKS! I was absolutely sure I had done everything right up to this point so there was just one thing left... clean the carb and rebuild it. My distributor position was indeed wrong so thanks for that tip. i took it all apart, brought it to work (conveniently I work at VAG/Skoda) and I cleaned the carb ultrasonically with a tool to clean fuel injectors. A ton of dirt came out and most importantly unclogged the main jet which was fully shut with dirt. Got myself a Pierburg 2e3 rebuild kit and put new membranes and gaskets on... ofcourse came up on an issue along the way, idle cutoff valve gasket fell apart totally and I did what the old time VW mechanics did... double oring and teflon tape. Put it back together, used some extra sealant on the crappy base gasket, waited some time to cure, tighten down again... STARTED UP FIRST CRANK LIKE IT NEVER EVEN STOPPED. Learned a lot from this, now I can easily say I can make a Favorit run, learned distributor timing, valve clearance adjusting, carb rebuilding etc. Now it just needs a few bits and its back on the road. Thanks for any help. And PS... I bought THE LAST carb body gasket directly from Skoda so theres no more of that except aftermarket.

I removed the idle jet, idle cutoff valve, cleaned it all out and no effect. I haven't messed with carb settings it ran perfect before the engine was removed.

If I take the line off the carb and crank the car fuel squirts out... fuel clearly gets into the carb even when I took it apart the float bowl was full of fuel, there must be an issue with sucking the fuel inside but I have no idea what to look for from there on. I removed the filter that is in the inlet on the carb too and it was clean. If I press the throttle I can clearly see fuel squirting in through the top jet and it also runs if I keep pressing the pedal, just doesnt add fuel on its own.

Had someone crank and I kept spraying brakeclean in there and it kept running no problem.

Here it is, the wires on the second pic are black - white - bare - yellow and a ground on the housing nut. The spark plug leads are in one of my previous posts, I put them on just like your pictures.

I set the ignition timing again I am positive its good now, set the valves to 0.2mm, added fresh fuel, cleaned out the idle cutoff valve which does work - clicks when it gets power. Car still wont start on its own, as soon as I press the gas pedal 2-3 times it fires up no problem, doesnt stay idling, does not like more than 15% throttle, clearly fuel starvation? Any ideas why its not pulling in fuel? I also resealed the gasket base again just ti be sure.

@RicardoM I set the distributor exactly how you pictured it on TDC at compression stroke (removed 1st cylinder sparkplug and after it blew out air and the mark was aligned on the crank). Starting it up only ends with pops which means its not right, no clue why.

I'm not saying you're wrong on the distributor position, it's just very weird that none of the markings line up in that position and the car wont fire even for a bit. I used Hondabond high temp which is fuelsafe, also used for assembling motorcycle engines, gearboxes etc. I used the black rubberised gasket, its the only one I could get my hands on, I checked it to make sure it was straight as I've heard about these failing from factory but I wont say its perfectly good after installation. I was looking into some troubleshooting of the Pierburg 2E3 or in this case the Jikov, the new gasket does not have the extra hole which I believe used to be a ground so I will add an extra ground to it. I have replaced all the vacuum lines and checked for any broken gaskets. I have a 2e3 rebuild kit at home so I might just rebuild the whole thing to be sure if I don't find the cause. Will be reading all these topics and hopefully find a clue somewhere.

Well I did it how it says in the factory manual and the result is - not starting, at all. I would appreciate a good step by step guide how to do it right. I checked the gasket with a straight edge and the gasket was pretty flat, cleaned up all the surfaces really well and added some extra sealant where the carb meets the gasket to make sure its a tight seal. Guess I have some more testing to do.

OK update... finally got a new carb base gasket, even added some sealant to be sure, cleaned out the carb etc... Car starts up and revs for a bit if I keep giving it gas, otherwise it wont stay running, it just stumbles and dies. I tried putting the distributor into that position like @RicardoM said but in that position it wont even fire for a second. If I turn the distributor to the left like I have now it starts up after a few pumps of gas, also revs pretty nicely but dies out soon. So whats next, I havent adjusted my valves after rebuilding the head which would be the next step? Any other ideas? Possibly old gas? Clip of the car running - https://streamable.com/md4tp3 Pic of my distributor position

The way I have it set now runs good when I give it some gas but it eventually dies out... I can see the rubber gasket lifting so i will be replacing that and then trying again. Here is a video of it running. https://streamable.com/sntiqn

My bad, forget everything I said... did some more reading and figured out the actual top dead center (when 4th cylinder valves are overlapping and its not at 0 degrees, more like -10) and turns out the distributor was 180 degrees off, threw it back on, set the rotor to the mark and it fired right up. Sadly it dies pretty quick if I don't keep giving it gas, I guess its an issue with fuel or big air leak - turns out the carburetor rubber base is pretty destroyed so that is probably my issue?

Whats super weird is I found the picture from the day I removed the engine... My distributor was rotated totally different?

Ok I loosened the distributor nut and moved it so it alignes, I get sputters and almost starting but it doesnt, backfires a bit. Hows the correct firing order? Looking at engine pictures from google everyone has them hooked up differently and its confusing. This is crank mark at 0 and distributor pointing on the mark.

The weird thing is I haven't messed with the distributor itself at all, its only been removed off the engine to be cleaned and put back... how do I get it right? I aligned the little slot on the bottom with the slot inside the case... do I need to loosen the nut on the distributor housing and rotate it?