Hey, Guys,
I have experienced the acceleration sputtering problem with both my
Midget and Bugeye. Not at the sme time. They would start and run fine at low
RPM but broke down when I tried to wind them up. The mysteries made me nuts
and turned out to be simple, fuel system related deamons.
On the Midget it was an obstruction, some piece of gasket or whatever,
that lodged at the junction of the feed pipe and float chamber. Tiny thing,
but it was enough. The Bugeye ailment was due to my over tightening the
dashpot screws. The carb body may be a bit warped, so when the screws were
real tight the piston wouldn`t rise freely. Easy fix.
Also, I know of someone who had an elusive sputtering in his MG that was
electrical. That ended up being a faulty ground wire in the distributor. Seems
it would be fine at low speed but the movement of advance mechanism somehow
affected the thing and it would short at higher RPM.
Then, there was last September, the only time my Bug went out under its
own power and came home on a stretcher. Not a sputter exactly. Just coughed
and died. One second I was tearing along at 60; the next I was on the side of
the road in the dark getting funny looks from kids in passing cars. US Route
1. Almost exactly on the Mason-Dixon line. Two miles from home. Might as well
have been in Tibet. How I ever got by driving these things through the 60s
without AAA, cell phones, and credit cards beats me.
Anyway, back in the garage, I spent a bad day replacing the usual ignition
suspects, one by one so I could place the blame. Except I saved replacing the
rotor till last because it looked Ok. Sure, I cleaned the old one right off,
but put it back in. Of course it was the rotor did it; although I still don`t
see anything wrong with the thing. I had a new rotor in my road kit all
along...What I`m saying is: Don`t overlook the impossible. Or the obvious.
Always check the hot ignition lead on the battery first.
Cheers,
Bert Shirey
60 Bugeye/66 Midget II
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