Michael's bucking Scout

["Robert H. Hughes" <robhughes100@domain.elided>]

Mike,

I'm a few digests behind, so forgive me if this is redundant.  The problem you describe sounds sort of familiar.  When I first got my Scout, over a year ago now, every time I would
pull away from a stop light, it would "buck."  That is, the engine would cut out for a second, then start up again immediately, sort of like someone who gives it too much gas with a
manual transmission (is that how yours feels?  if so, maybe the analogy is informative?).  If I accellerated really gradually, sometimes it wouldn't do it.

Note, however, that my problem never extended to the highway.  Once I got to speed, it was fine.

Anyway, I messed with the carb a ton, but the thing that finally cured it was to advance the timing.  I went from 2 BTDC to about 12, and haven't had a problem since.  As I recall,
you're at sea level, so 12 might be out of the question, but maybe it's worth a try.

Also, if this is truly timing related, maybe the reason you're having trouble on the highway is that the mechanical advance isn't working.  Do you have a timing light?  It's pretty
easy to check the mechanical advance.

Re-reading your post, it sounds like you've checked the timing a million times, but maybe you could push the advance some more?

Funny, related story:  About a year ago, when I still had the "bucking" problem every time I pulled into traffic, I was driving around the Avenues in SLC doing some apartment
hunting.  I stopped at a Stop sign, and pulled away, thinking I had plenty of time to get through before the car coming down the very steep hill got to the intersection.  Well, the
Scout decided it was a good time to start lugging, and I came to almost a dead stop in the path of this car.  I floored it, he laid on the horn, and I "bucked" through the
intersection, glad to be alive but feeling very silly, since it looked like I didn't know how to work a clutch (I have a 727).  There were a lot of people staring at me by now, and I
felt very small.  One of the people staring was Karl Malone!  He was sitting on his Harley on the other side of the intersection, just staring at me.  I couldn't get a read on his
expression, 'cause he was wearing shades, but I'd like to think he was thinking, "What is that?  A Scout?  I should get me one of those for my next hunting trip..."

ihc-digest wrote:

> Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 22:07:28 -0700
> From: "Joseph M. Shaw, II" <MikeIIDC@domain.elided>
> Subject: Net probs and Scout probs
>
>   It starts off okay,
> but as it starts to pick up revs it hesitates, with a complete lack of
> ignition.  When it does fire, it seems to me like it's "pinging."  That
> is really what the sound is like is a "ping."  If I floor it it does not
> do it, but at really slow to gradual acceleration, it does it the
> majority of the time.  On occasion, it will do it five or so times
> before it gets over the RPM point where it is better again, which causes
> a major hesitation in acceleration-not comfortable to be pulling out
> into traffic knowing this is a possibility.  I think it would be fine on
> the highway, as the revs are high enough.  However, when it first
> started doing this, this is how it started and progressed to where it
> would never get over 25 miles per hour because it would "stall" so much.