(Home) Spacecruiser - new owner

Great to see there are people who are willing to share their knowledge with other owners.

Where is the best place to find out about spare parts for a spacecruiser (1989)or general info about the car?

cheers everyone.

Anthony

- (#385) Anthony Conder, 29 Mar 05 05:46

Why dont you try ( http://www.mpvi.net/ ) Ace answers is the web site. Lots and lots of information on there about. I always find it very helpfull along with this forum.


- (#385) Dan, 29 Mar 05 06:23

Bought this Cruiser last week and as usual the previous owner was not honest with me. Little faults he could have warned me about but didn't. Too many and too trivial to list here, but it sticks in my throat.

He said he disconnected the battery overnight to ensure a good start in the morning but said he felt it needed a new battery so he knocked a bit off.

Actual fact the alternator wasn't charging so the dash battery light never lit, but several other lights did so it wasn't at first noticed being unfamiliar with the car.

Because the alternator was not giving a charge no current went to the auto choke when ingnition was switched on and several attempts were needed to coax life into the engine. But it ticked over rather fast at 1000 rpm on tickover.

After I renewed the wiper blades with the correct ones they all worked satisfactorily. The tailgate door handle didn't operate as the hinge pin had slid out and the handle wasn't operating the inner door mechanism, this was fixed.

The auto electrician came down to put his instruments on the alternator and declared it dead, took me tenner and departed. Now all he did was to remove the alternator plug and replace it.

Whe I came to start the engine a little later, it fired up for a few seconds up to 1000 revs and just died, even running the engine at 2000 for a while made no difference, but it seemed a bit lumpy like unburnt fuel in the exhaust.

Lifting the engine lid to inspect found no pipes off or anything wrong.
The only noticeable thing was the throttle stop screw was not touching the small cam plate attached to the small vacuum servo.

Si I decided to increas the revs by screwing in the thottle stop screw. In doing this I managed to get it idle at 1500 rpm but any slackening of the screw and dropping off of revs made the vacuum operate and the cam plate move away from the throttle screw and the screw becoming inoperable and the engine revs dropping off and stopping. I could start the engine and it would rev but the minute I released the throttle the revs dropped right off because the cam plate moved away from the throttle screw.

The only way I can get the engine to run is to disconnect the tube to the vacuum servo and plug it.
I still cannot decrease the tickover and the minute I start to decrease the revs the engine stops even when at running temperature.

The engine is not as sweet as it was and when I shut down the engine tends to run on, but it is not overheated.

The engine doesn't use any oil and there do not appear to be any wear defects.

I shall fit a new set of plugs tomorrow and see if that makes any difference.

But does anyone have any ideas as to curing the problem please ?

- (#385) Rik vonTrense, 31 Mar 05 10:00

Welcome Anthony.

Rik,

Get the alternator off and tested by a Lucas or the like agents. You may find it is just the regulator and not the whole thing that is kapot.
Once you have that sorted out get it tuned, it will either save you hours of tweaking or pin point a fault(s) rather than changing everything!
While you may think getting the alt off is a pain think of all the Townace owners who have to take the floor pan out to even see theirs!

Best of luck.

- (#385) Clive (Bristol), 31 Mar 05 10:12