Revisit the work you did before it started playing up, particularly since it
seems to have become hard to start immediately afterwards.
Is the timing and mixture *still* correct? Is dwell/contact gap correct?
Is the tach flickering or steady? If steady then you can ignore any
intermittent connections in the ignition LT.
Clip a timing light on each plug lead and watch the flashing - is it
irregular in time with the misfire or steady (easier to spot if the missfire
is at lower revs than higher, of course)? If steady you can ignore ignition
HT.
That would tend to leave fuel and mechanical problems inside the combustion
chamber. Check the compression. Light smoke could just be incomplete
combustion, heavy smoke could be mechanical problems inside the engine.
FWIW.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
From: Garner, Joseph P. <JPGarner@UCDavis.Edu>
To: MG list (E-mail) <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2001 11:40 PM
Subject: from happy to dodo in 60 seconds
> Oh guys, today is not a good day. Driving back from getting breakfast and
> the car (79 MGB) has died. symptoms:
>
> misfire
> serious loss of power, and loss of revs
> grey-blue smokey exhaust
> occassional strange noise - never heard it before and don't know how to
> describe it, a little like metal spinning very very lightly on metal.
>
> oil pressure is fine. water temp is fine.
>
> we made it home under our own steam. just. very very slowly.
>
> I replaced the air filter, leads and plugs last weekend (all parts from
> moss) and it has been running fine all week. Well, it's been a little hard
> to start and misfiring for about the first minute of warming up, but once
> warm it's been running beautifully.
>
> Also last week checked that the Timing is on (10 degrees btdc), and the
> mixture is correct when warmed up (i actually was planning to adjust it,
but
> didn't need to).
>
> Any suggestions at all would be helpful. Towing the poor bugger to
laurie's
> is even an option right now, I hate to see my baby in such distress.
>
> thanks
>
> Joe
>
>
> _________________
>
> Dr. Joseph Garner
> Department of Animal Science,
> University of California,
> One Shields Avenue,
> Davis,
> CA 95616
> USA
>
> tel: + 530 754 5291
> fax: + 530 752 0175
> _________________
|