Thanks for the replies on my TD which refused to run above 3000 RPM. The
story below reveals all.
Humble Pie
Sometimes it takes a simple inanimate object to teach us that we're not as
smart as we sometimes think we are. This was driven home for me recently by
the car affectionately known as "Charlie".
Having been successful for the first time in may years in having Charlie
actually make it both ways to and from the GOF under his own power, I set
out to see if we couldn't repeat that performance. Knowing that June was
going to be a busy month, I resolved to get an early start on just simple
"tweaking and tuning". Nothing elaborate, mind you, just a little cleaning,
tightening, and general poking about. Just the sort of thing to give one a
bit of smug satisfaction when you can hop in and go for a quick nip down to
the local ice cream shop and watch the heads turn and hear the occasional
phrase like "I used to have one like that. Sure wish I hadn't sold it." You
know the sort of thing.
Well, after several hours of tweaking this and tightening that, I was sure
ready for some of Selma's best Zanzibar Chocolate Almond. So I summoned my
better half, and off we went...
...for about a half block, that is. Charlie's not used to all that
attention, and probably didn't know what to make of it. He simply wouldn't
go above 3000 RPM without missing badly.
"Just a loose plug wire", I said confidently.
No so, all four were tight. A couple of more hours in the garage, confirmed
that nothing obvious was amiss. Mind you, not everything was perfect, but
certainly not bad enough to explain Charlie's sudden illness.
Over the next few days, virtually everything that I could think of was
checked, rechecked, and often replaced. This included plugs, points, coil,
condensor, distributor advance, dashpot oil, carb needles and jets, choke
linkage, and on and on...
Yet after all of this plus several calls to Fig and Mr. Bill, no solution
was in sight. Everything I did was met with a marginal improvement in low
speed smoothness and apparent eagerness to run. But yet that nagging miss
remained above 3000 RPM. I was sure it was an ignition problem. Finally, an
appeal of "as much beer as you can drink and food you can eat" lured the
doctor into making a house call. The appoinment was set for Saturday morning.
At about noon, Jim Trudgeon and Bill Juettner arrived. Quickly, Bill
confirmed that everything electrical appeared OK, or at least not bad enough
to cause "the miss from Hell".
"Take off the air cleaner mainfold", the doctor ordered.
A few tweaks on the mixture adjustments (and some mystical incantation
whispered into Charlie's left carburettor, I think) and Bill was into the
drivers seat and off down the street through a steady rain. A few moments
later he was back, shaking his head. Fearing the worst, I asked "What's the
problem?"
"Only that I don't think that's the right engine for that car. It goes too
well. You try it.", Bill said.
A few minutes later, I was back grinning from ear to ear. Charlie was happy
to rev all the way up to 5000 RPM with no end in sight.
"You mean to tell me that it was simply too lean", I inquired trying to
learn yet another mystical rite of MGs.
"Thanks for the beer", Bill grumbled as they drove off.
As I said, sometimes one eats humble pie.
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