Well, it's been just over a year since I bought the
MGB, and though I've done a fair bit of maintenance
on it, I hadn't tuned it up since I picked it up from
the shop where I bought it. (Well, I did twiddle
the carbs a bit after the smog shop wrecked the balance
so that they could charge me the additional $35 for
trying to get it to pass, but that's another story.)
It had been running a little rough lately, with an
idle that I didn't care for, so I plunked down for
the genuine Lucas points and condenser and a set of
four Bosch Platinum plugs, as well as a can each of
engine cleaner and carburetor spray.
The good news started when I yanked the old plugs.
They looked just exactly like the pictures in the
Haynes manual that is captioned, "This is what you
want your plugs to look like because it means your
engine is running just dandy." (Well, maybe it
doesn't quite say that.) All four looked good, a
light brownish-grey with a fair bit of carbon around
the outside ring of the rear two plugs that hinted
at too much richness. I finished the four plugs,
replaced the points and condenser, and turned to
the carbs.
Sure enough, the rear carb was several flats too rich
(left over from the smog tuning?) I did the usual
things -- put the Unisyn on and got the flow rates
just right, then pushed up on the lifting pin and
listened to the idle speed. When everything was
well in balance, and I got the idle speed down from
1500 back to about 1000 (again, only the rear carb
needed adjustment for this), the car idled smoothly
and was happy to rev when I'd pull on the throttle
connection.
Before I put the air cleaners back on, I took the
dashpots off one at a time and cleaned them with
a paper towel. (I'm sure most of us know this,
but never use any abrasives on the inside of the
dashpots. Each instrument is a precision fit, no
really and stop laughing now, and if you make the
fitting too loose your car will never run right
again.) There was a tremendous amount of cruft
on the top of the throttle body, under where the
piston drops inside the dashpot; I cleaned the
carbs inside and out, clucked over the huge air-
passage obstruction that my spring-loaded throttle
buttons cause (now where did I put those '67 throttle
plates...?), and put them all back together with
new dashpot oil.
I tried the sewing machine oil that I mentioned a
couple of weeks ago, put the air cleaners back
on the car, and went for a test drive. Yee-HA! What
a difference a little tuning makes! We have throttle
response, we have low-end torque, we have top-end
power, we have a Sports Car again! I picked the
bugs out of my teeth and parked the car in front
of the house (I had to rotate the tires on the
GTI before the next autocross, and the garage is
the only flat space). When I finished the tires,
I asked Kim if she'd like to put the MG in the
garage. For some reason, she has never driven
this MG -- the responsibilities of parenthood, the
necessity of fitting a third passenger with the
current child-seat laws (sure, they're a good thing,
but riding in the XK-120 didn't kill me -- a little
brain damage, maybe, but...), whatever.
She found the seat adjuster, fired it up, and went
vrooming down the street. Hey, the car sounds pretty
good from the outside! From time to time I could hear
its exhaust note wafting over the houses and trees in
our quiet neighborhood... "not a raspy, rough exhaust
note, full of the byproducts of poor combustion and
bad scavenging, nor yet the lumpy, raucous exhaust note
of a hot-rodded teenager's car: it was an MG exhaust note,
and that means Sports Car" (with apologies to Professor
Tolkien and his description of a hobbit-hole).
Then she rounded the last turn and I could see her heading
for home, the sunlight glinting on chrome strips set amid
a green curve of fender and flank; the gentle but insistent
whine of gears and the throaty purr of the exhaust carried
up the street as she snicked the gearbox up to third, then
down to second and into the driveway.
"Why have I never driven this car before?" she asked.
"It's a little better than my last B, isn't it?"
"Torrey and I can get around just *fine* in this car," she
said, and pulled it up into the garage.
Now I might have to get another one...
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