Andy
I have been following your troubles for the last little while and was
pleased to read that things were looking up....until the end of the story.
You have had many very knowledgable people giving you help and it looks like
you are now close. The one thing I haven't heard is anything about the coil.
This is a long shot but if the car is running great now and then suddenly
stops and will not startup right away, but will start and run again after a
little cool down, the next time this happens check the coil. A member of our
local club had a similar problem and when we checked the coil it was VERY
warm, a new coil fixed his problem. I had a similar problem with an old MGA
as well, everyone diagnosed it as a fuel problem or perhaps the ignition
switch. After much fiddling I happened to knock the coil wire and the car
started. It was an old coil with the screw on terminal and I had not
fastened the wire to the distributor cap in properly, cheap fix for an
annoying problem.
Brian
1950 MGTD
1959 MGA Coupe
1974 MGB GT (daily driver...yes even in the snow)
----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. Moyce <amoyce@pol.net>
To: <mg-t@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2001 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: Still not running well
> I appreciate everyone's input on this perplexing problem, and determined
> that I would need several weekends to try all the suggestions rendered
thus
> far.
> Had an interesting session with TA Terry's favorite mechanic, Laurence
> Anderson in Berkeley. We drove the TD over there and it sputtered and
missed
> much of the way. Stalled at a couple of stoplights, mostly kept on
running,
> though not smoothly.
> Laurence operates a small shop in an industrial mall sandwiched between a
> Ferrari shop and a custom motorcycle place. Inside his garage there were
> five or six Rolls Royces ranging in age from 1920s to relatively modern.
> There is also a steam car from the 1890s and another tiller-driven gas
> horseless carriage, plus some steam engines and model steam locomotives
the
> size of kids' pedal cars . He's a man in his mid to late 50's, quiet
> spoken, with an air of confidence that is encouraging. After telling him
> the symptoms and what we had done so far, we each wondered which side of
the
> hood he would raise first. He went to the right side and started
> disassembling the float chambers on the carbs. He found some powdered
rust
> in each chamber, and also that the float height was badly out of
adjustment
> for each. On the front carb, there was significant wear on the pin holding
> the float lever in place, and one of the fiber washers (the round one with
> three recesses along the inner circumference) was missing. He cleaned the
> chambers and reset the floats, using an aluminum cylinder of the correct
> diameter, and then spent quite a bit of time adjusting the carbs, using
only
> that thermometer-like balancing gauge and his ear. Then we test drove it .
.
> . dramatic improvement in performance, though still some scepticism from
> driver and passenger. He then went to the left side and advanced the
timing
> . . . no lights, just rotating the dizzy by feel. He test drove it, then
> advanced the timing a little more, drove it again, and reset the timing to
> his prior setting.
> His conclusion: no "smoking gun," just several minor things that could
have
> contributed. Recommends driving it and bring it back as needed. Cost me a
> hundred bucks, which was worth the price of admission.
> Performed flawlessly on the way home (10 miles) freeway and all. On the
> final leg, it stopped cold when I stopped for a stoplight. It wouldn't
> start after three or four cranks, so I pushed it to the curb. Tried again
> and it started right up, ran well all the way home. I haven't had time to
> look at it since then.
> My next plan is to check the filters on the fuel pump, as well as some of
> the electrical connections . . . engine ground, low voltage ignition
circuit
> and ignition switch. There's still a mystery out there.
>
> Andy Moyce
> 52 TD
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