MG Midget Forum

Hi, i'm new to the forum thing. Sorry if this a duplicate question, i checked out as much as i could before submitting this. I purchased a 1974 Midget in mid May of this year. When i took delivery of the car it ran well. My wife and i were out for a drive and i notice i was loosing power. I put the peddle to the floor and it barely moved. I limped it home and saw that the throttle rod (linkage) had twisted. So i had it welded and it evently twisted again. I located a new'ish one online, installed it, and for a short time everthing seemed fine. Now coming to a stop it stalls and It wouldnt idle properly. So i had the carb rebuilt, checked the fuel flow, added new cap, rotor, points, condenser, plugs, wires, vacuum line replaced, and did static timing. Last night i had adjusted the carb. and it sounded beautiful, finally got it to idle. I let it run to make sure there were no changes. All was good, so i took it out, ran perfect through town, no stalling, ran it out through the country, and it ran perfect. Then starting back home i notice a slight popping noise as i slow down it worsens, sputtering and stalling. It's like it was starved for gas, had to push it home. Any thoughts are appericated. Thanks

Take a plug out, if it's wet spark problem, if it's dry and maybe white, fuel problem. Go from there first.

I will check that this evening, thank you.

Plugs are wet. I did static timing again, new plugs, and checked gap in points, also re-check fuel flow. Now its running at high idle and really rough.

Just a shot, how old is your coil?

Welded? Twisted? just what kind of carb are you running and how hard are you mashing the pedal? The linkages on SU carbs are 1/4" thick steel rods. You would likely snap the cable and/or break the brass throttle shafts before you twisted those. You shouldn't need to weld anything in the linkages. There are supposed to be two clamping bolts on the throttle linkage and two on the choke. This is so that you can properly adjust the balance between the carbs.

I would start by checking to make sure that your fuel pump is working properly. What kind of fuel pump are you running? is it the original su or is it aftermarket? Pictures would be a big help here.

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Seth Jones

1971 MG Midget

www.SpridgetGuru.com

I really don't know the age of the coil, maybe it's time for a new one.

If its the coil opening up internally once it gets hot, it will most likely start and run when it cools off. If you haven't touched anything and in the morning it fires up, then it's a good chance it's the coil. Another possibility is a bad condenser, even if it was just replaced. You have to have timing and point gap correct to to have a baseline vacuum. Breaking carb linkage? You have a problem. Some ting not right, grasshopper. Bound linkage, besides the obvious breaking could also be the cause of high idle. You may have got it to idle but if you adjusted the carb to compensate for it you may have caused a new bag of bull. Disconnect all linkage to the carb including carb to carb if you are running dual carbs. Now adjust the carb(s). Now connect linkage between carbs first and work your way back looking for the binding problem.

It's a Weber DGV, sorry i may be using the wrong word to discribe it, it's the gas pedal linkage. It appears it had weakened where the two pin holes are located closest to the pedal side.

Adjust the cable at the carb so that when the pedal is all the way to the floor, the carb is full open. (and dont press so hard...)

Do you have a timing light or vacuum gauge? you can set the timing with the engine running very well. Static timing is just to get the car running.

Vacuum is very easy, turn disti to highest vacuum and back off 1". Setting with vacuum compensates for any engine wear to most optimum advance.

Sorry cant help with webers, maybe someone else can.

I appreciate all the advice, thank you.