Subject: [Mgs] MGB Fun and Games

From: Mark J Bradakis <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 07:46:36 -0600

I've been messing with Little British Cars for some time.  First one I 
drove was a Mark 2 Sprite.  Nearly killed us all.  I was used to driving 
the family wagons, honkin' big land yachts where you don't make a turn, 
you come about.  So at the wheel of my friend's Sprite, I started to 
make the turn way in advance, and to my surprise just a small movement 
of the steering wheel resulted in an immediate turn.  Wow!

The first one I owned was a 1969 Triumph GT6+, which I bought in '76 or 
'77, can't remember.  Now decades later, I really wish I had kept 
records of each and every car I bought and sold, commission numbers, 
dates, price, etc.  Anyway I got hooked and LBCs became a large part of 
my life for many years.  I ended up running Intermountain Vintage Racing 
at one time, and holding half a dozen "road" races each summer out at 
the old Wendover, Utah airport became too much of a chore, putting more 
into it than I got out of it.  I just got burned out, turned my back on 
IVR, the British Motor Club of Utah, Utah Region SCCA, Vintage Triumph 
Register, pretty much everything.  Luckily I did not turn away from Team 
Net, kept maintaining the mailing lists.

My cars sat neglected, the Fat Chance Garage became just a big storage 
space, junk everywhere.  But deep down a tiny spark remained, kept alive 
by sticking with Team Net, especially a private Triumph racing group.  
Went to a number of Kastner Cup events over the years, most recently 
Buttonwillow, California, May of 2019.  That event got that hidden spark 
burning a little brighter.

So I am working on getting back into it.  Currently assisting a young 
fellow up in Layton, Utah, with his collection.  Currently a squaretail 
Spitfire, a Midget, a very nice rust free TR4 he just bought and three 
MGBs.  Over the last month or two the work has focused on getting the 
green '73 B running.  First big problem, the rear SU HIF4 was dripping 
fuel.  Obviously a needle valve that wouldn't close.  He pulls the carbs 
off, I bring them to my garage.  I clear a small space to work on them, 
and await the arrival of a rebuild kit.  Go through the carbs, take them 
up to his place.  He bolts them on, rear carb STILL leaking gas.  Off 
they come, back to my garage.  Turns out I made a simple mistake, forgot 
the sealing washer for the needle valve.  Fixed it, check my work on the 
front carb.  Took them back, bolted them on, no leaks!  Took some 
cranking, but got the engine to fire, sort of run, finally warmed up a 
bit and a nice idle.  And on occasion, it revved nicely.

But the rear carb has a serious problem with backfiring and spitting out 
small clouds of fuel droplets.  More so than I remember from past 
experience working at my friend's shop.  I suspect a burnt, cracked 
intake valve at the moment. But it was running, that's progress.  I plan 
to go back up to Layton, about a 25 mile drive north, with a compression 
gauge, and my trusty old timing light, see what that tells us.

But I am enjoying getting back into it, even though my skills have 
certainly gathered a bit of, shall we say, patina to them. Wonder if I 
should buy a Bentley's MGB manual?  Triumph manuals I got.

mjb.

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