Dear Comiserants:
Well, I've been under the bonnet of the B off and on for several days
now. I've discovered many new and exciting things.
1) Now, the dash indicator is red almost (but not quite) always.
Fan belt is tight, coil is new. I've done a pretty good job soldering
and patching the choke wire ... I'm getting good continuity on it
with no evident shorts. No blown fuses. Wires at the back of the
alternator are tight. Ground strap seems fine. Unless I miss my guess,
at this point I'm going to have to assume (sigh) that my alternator
is about to expire. Any last thoughts before I pull it?
2) Weber 32/36 DGV carbs do, indeed, have a vaccuum port. It's on
the inboard side, on the body near the mating flange with the intake
manifold, just under the choke. Neither manual I have mentions this
little bugger, but everything I did to make the carb work right, won't.
No matter what I do, with the damned mixture screw all the way out and
almost falling into the header, the car still runs rich. My only
thought was "Gee, I have a vaccuum leak someplace". Dizzy is fine, I
get no leaks spraying gumout around the brake booster port, the manifold,
the header. I've checked, and all my air rail blocking studs are in. No leaks
there. But lo, here's this little bit of a tube sticking out of the side of
the carb, and I say, 'Hmmm'. So I put my finger up to it, and sure enough,
vaccuum. Plug it, and voila. No more vaccuum leak. Idle settles down. Mixture
screw actually seems to adjust the mixture. Take heed, all ye WeberHeads.
Boyo, do I feel stupid. A year and a half of trying to solve this mixture
thing, and there it was.
3) Brit-Tek. Love em. Bob, ya did a fine job. Parts fit, correct parts, no
mix-ups, good (okay, shoot me now) Lucas parts, no bizarre aftermarkets. Very
friendly, knowledgeable service. The only beef I had was UPS's long delivery
time ... that's not Bob's fault. Next time I'll request Airborne. Oh, did I
mention great prices, too? Great prices. Thanks, Bob!
4) Boy, am I having fun with my new hood. DPO used fabric adhesive AND pop-
rivits on old hood at the header rail. Robbins hood, pretty nice, but all the
lift-a-dots aren't precisely in the right place. What a difference a quarter
of an inch can make. Oh, and I think the DPO used contact cement on the seal
for the header rail; I'm going to have to use sulfuric acid to get it off.
Or maybe a small hydrogen bomb. I've saved almost all of the top-fitting
responses the last couple of weeks. The $175 or so that Motorhead quoted to
put the hood on is starting to look good. Sheesh.
Well, that's it for the update this week. Forward any relevent suggestions!
Corey
75 MGB 'Rags'
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