Sunday, October 17, 2010

Soot - I Probably Should Have Called a Chimney Sweep

My ailing MGB has been given a fall tonic and seems to be in rude health once again.

The old girl refused to run when I planned to load grandson #2 into the passenger seat for his maiden trip in an MG. The car began to run on two cylinders and then died, never to to restart.

I've had
spark plug issues and installed a PerTronix ignition system, but I can't seem to keep it running reliably. Pulling the spark plugs showed that the back two were sooted up. The front two looked fine. I cleaned and re-installed them and it wanted to run and it did- badly.

Richard Cunningham offered to give me a hand on Saturday and as an extra bonus, Don Pritchett came by on a secret mission for the upcoming British Car Festival. Both of them suggested that the back carb might be running rich and Richard made the adjustment. The car started and seemed to be happy. I then took it on a high speed blast on the Causeway to blow it out, as it were.

With thumbs up from the assembled experts, I met my brother Alan and his wife Debbie who were out in their '76 MGB and we went for a drive on some of the twisty roads of Baldwin County. The car ran flawlessly and I came back home feeling confident that the running problem has been solved.

If you see a yellow MGB on the road with a windshield full of smile - that's probably me.

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