I knew Delilah was running too well for it to last, she's finally decided to show me how much she likes Simon showering Joyce with attention.

On driving over to Peterborough today for a hospital appointment, she started cutting out/stalling at low revs, such as waiting at a roundabout, traffic lights etc. I hanaged to keep calm and not get flustered at the busier junctions, but changing down to first was a guaranteed stall - seemed to not want to run at tick over at all.

However, on the open road, she was going like stick! So you kind opinions are needed or I'll be coming up to Haberdashers in the Kia, and that just will not do!

BTW she has electronic ignition if that helps...

Bx

It's just a guess, but there's a wee screw on the front of the carb, it controls something to do with how it idles (nothing like a detailed technical explanation), I've had one fall out before, the car still drove fine until it was left to idle, and it stalled.

Thanks Russ - will have to have a look tomorrow, if it's fallen out...

Blocked idle jet .....8mm brass nut on front of carb ....blast it through with WD40 ....if that dont work,remove and blast through again with WD40.

Thanks Terry...think I hear an echo though the ether!

Terry,
the idle jet isn't open to atmosphere, so there's very little point in hitting it with WD40 whilst it's still screwed into the carb.
It needs to be removed and any obstruction sucked out, as the fuel flows into the tiny drilling at the 'sharp' end and exits through the 3 radial drillings.

Becky,
Simon will know exactly what to do, if he thinks back to the National meeting at Helmsley.
An old car which refused to idle, even after the carb had been taken as far apart as was possible, but nobody had managed to find the idle jet?

ken

i use compressed air to blow out jets, and carb, also have a jet cleaner, (spikey probe things in different sizes) although they can tend to bore the jet out if you use the wrong one,

if a bit of dirts got in idle jet would explain all, might as well clean carb while your there>??

bearing in mind ive only ever taken outboard motor carbs to pieces

edit
also, my motor bike suffered the exact same symptoms as delilah, wouldnt idle, and once she stalled, you had to wait a few mins, or she wouldnt start, very embaressing at a busy roundabout, and that was blocked idle jet, happend about 30 times in a year that i owned the bike, damn newsense,

Had a very similar symptom when I collected my 2CV last year - ran well on the road but wouldn't idle at junctions.

It was also very distinctive in the manner in which it wouldn't idle - as you slowly released the throttle, the revs would fall accordingly until it reached a certain level at which point it would just completely DIE! This level was, I dunno, around 1.5-2k revs? - ie: a partial throttle opening. Above that - fine; below - complete shut down. If I pressed the throttle at the point of death, it would pick up again, but no way was it going to run below that - it was almost like an on/off switch.

The cause turned out to be exactly the same as in the old Ford Pinto engine in my previous car which had developed the exact same behaviour overnight - a leaking inlet manifold.

Noticed that at least one of the carb nuts on the 2CV was a bit loose; removed carb, made up some gaskets to replace the - ahem - non-existent ones, and problem was completely cured.

I had an idle jet fall out once, resulting in exactly the symptoms described in the OP. When I got home, I fitted a spare jet from a scrap carb in the, which cured the problem. Then months later, while fitting a CPD valve, I found the lost idle jet wedged behind the fuel pump.