Moving off in 1st gear car wants to cut out

[dragonfly]

When I try and pull away in 1st gear the car wants to cut out. It idles fine but unless I give it more revs or slip the clutch it wants to judder and cut out.  The clutch cable (self adjusting) has been changed (the old one had too much play) and the gearlinkages have been replaced. I adjusted the gearstick as per Haynes as it was a little stiff going into 1st.  After adjustment engaging all the gears in smooth.
Any ideas?

[maxp]

This is going to sound obvious but have you tried adjusting the idle screw?

At idle, the throttle switch is active, which puts the car suprisngly in idle mode.
In this mode your ISV will compensate any shortfall by giving the the engine enough air to maintain a decent idle.

Move your throttle past the threshold and it switches off again.


Unscrew the idle screw a few rotations (its on the tb) and you should be ok.

[dragonfly]

Not tried that. I thought perhaps it was something like the cold start valve.

[maxp]

Not tried that. I thought perhaps it was something like the cold start valve.

When the engine heats up does it get any better?

[dragonfly]

It's when it's warm I have the problems (giving the battery some time to charge up as it's been sitting). The car idles at 1000 rpm when hot.

[dragonfly]

Well a quick update - cleaned all the sensors around the head (they where covered with gunk) and started the car. The issues I had seem to have cured themselves - so I'm a happy bunny! 

[mattkh]

......cleaned all the sensors around the head (they where covered with gunk

Hi
Now you have to see where the gunk was coming from.

[dragonfly]

Weeping gasket - it's on my list of things to fix!