I've just had a valve job done on my '77 280E and the car is now idling very badly. It doesn't appear to be the cam timing.

This morning, the power just died while I was going up a hill, to the point when the car stalled. But by the time the mechanic got there, it started fine.

They found that two of the six (new) plugs were totally clogged, and they suspect that a partly corroded warm-up governor is enriching the fuel too much, exacerbated by my frequent short trips to and from work.

They have replaced the plugs and temporarily cleaned-up the governor. The engine now runs better, but there is still lumpiness during idle and I suspect that the problem will recur.

My suspicion is that because the problem is still present when the engine is warm, it's not the warm-up governor.

Any thoughts, gentlemen? Is the governor the likely fault, or are there other faults that could be causing this? Such as the overvoltage relay or distributor? I can't afford to get into one of those ghastly situations where you end up replacing part after part in the hope of tracking down a problem ...

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1977 W123 280E
286,000km

[This message has been edited by AucklandGuy (edited 07-17-2000).]

[This message has been edited by AucklandGuy (edited 07-17-2000).]