2.1 td, won't rev properly...

[clarkey1984]

This has happened the last few days when in traffic, blipping the throttle or raising the revs in order to pull away does nothing, and it takes a good 2 seconds before the car kind of catches up and revs, once it is revving a bit if I hold the pedal position the revs drop slightly and the same issue when trying to get he revs up again.

The only thin I can liken it to is the lag/delay you would get on an old petrol car if you've forgotten to pull the choke out on a cold day.

The odd thing about it is that it only happens when you are on the clutch or in neutral, because if I drop it into say 2nd at low low revs it picks up fine, if it's in an actual gear coasting along it ok.

My first thought is to change the fuel filter, which I was going to do soon anyway, it's the not doing it when a gear is engaged part which has me scratching my head a bit.

Any ideas anyone?

[gumby6371]

Not sure about your Lucas set up but have someone watch what the cable is doing while you rev it, too much slack in the throttle cable maybe???

[madmadmax]

there is a strainer in the tank on the fuel pick up have a look at that

[clarkey1984]

Cheers guys, although it's definitely hesitation of some sort as opposed to something mechanical like the cable, it's like it's trying to rev but can't, I have a vague recollection from the mk3 escort I owned many years back where I forgot to reconnect the vacuum part in the air box and it behaved similarly, serious throttle lag, I'll check out that strainer tomorrow, as with 209k on the clock I'd bet the fuel system isn't at it's cleanest lol