MGB & GT Forum

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by a friends house to see his MGB, in the early stages of being painted - which is really cool to see.

While there, I made the big mistake of saying that car was really running great. I joked and said I knew better than to say this, but I did it anyway. I even knocked on wood!

Well, you knew it could not last and that my words would come back and haunt me. Less than a hour later, I pulled up to a stop light and my car just died. It would not idle on its own. The only way to keep it running when stopped was to pull on the choke or keep the gas pressed down. When going, it ran, but you could hear a popping in the exhaust and the engine was knocking.

I limped home and immediately started looking for the problem. From first glance, everything looked OK. Nothing jumped out as the problem. Everything seemed tight and even the carb linkages look fine. I looked at all the hoses and everything was connected, and I could not hear a vacuum leak anywhere.. ...but it just would not idle

Then, while checking the carb linkages for the third time, my hand hit the hose running from the vacuum advance to the intake manifold.

I then realized that somehow the nipple that screwed into the intake manifold, where the vacuum advance hose connected, had come unscrewed. It was just sitting right on top of the hole where it screws into the manifold, so from just looking, you could not tell that it was loose. Thus, it was leaking vacuum and I had no vacuum advance - but I never was able to hear a vacuum leak coming from the engine.

A simple fix of reinstalling the nipple - tightly - and now my car runs great again.

I just think it was the "MG Demons" getting back at me for having said out loud that my was running good.

I have learned my lesson to keep my mouth shut!!!!!

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Oil leak?? What oil leak? That puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower!!

Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will itch and you'll have to pee.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-01 07:57 PM by saanich2006.

least you found it easily!

And yes, keep your pie-hole shut! hahahahahaha

A trick I learned from a John Twist rolling tech session is when looking for issues with the carbs or ignition, spray carb cleaner around the carbs and vacuum hoses and watch for an engine speed change. That would have identified your vacuum leak very quickly.

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“Ideological certainty easily degenerates into an insistence upon ignorance". Daniel Patrick Moynihan

In any debate, the side which strays from civil discussion is usually the side that lacks confidence in its debate position or in the merit of their arguments. Making personal attacks on the opponents instead of staying on the subject is also a sign of weakness.

Anyone who feels compelled to respond in kind to any perceived slight is often suffering from narcissism.

John Twist + "nipple" = you submit the punchline...

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79 MGB with Weber 32/36
It's yellow and his name is Brian.

You're luckier than I? Last year I bragged here there and everywhere (after fixing clock & dimmer rheostat) that my car was running 100%, EVERYTHING worked! A few days later my washer pump was barely pumping. Saw that fluid was just at hose end, & I thought filling reservoir would fix. Was thinking I was going to post to MGE that this was the easiest fix I'd ever done, when to my chagrin, topping washer fluid did nothing!

"When I regained consciousness" (Canadians should get this - old "Air Farce" (sic) comedy radio joke), realized it was pump, and spent a few hours taking apart and trying to fix.

In end I had to buy a new pump.

Now car runs again 100%, but say it with a bit less bravado.

Robert, I'm glad it was a simple and easy fix, and yes, sometimes it's tempting the Gods to say too much.

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Early 1974 MGB with OD, SU HIF's, 72 spoke chrome WW's, Schlemmer distributor, DuBois fuel pump, Limey's relays, Gerry's column kit.

You're scaring me Robert. Our roadster has been parked in it's Arizona garage since mid April. It was "running when parked", and very well (knocking on wood as I type) I would add. We return in early November, so I'll find out if anything has gone wrong it our absence. Always worry about rodents, but there are so many other possibilities.

Steve

Suggesting a quote from Monty Python about nipples exploding...

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Oil leak?? What oil leak? That puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower!!

Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will itch and you'll have to pee.

Reverend, please!