My recently resurrected 1979 MGB is suffering two maladies that I believe
that I have a handle on, but I would like other opinions in case my thoughts
don't pan out.
The car is extremely hard to start. I have visually reset the timing
after the rebuild, but my timing light will not fire when hooked to the #1
plug wire(It fires on all other wires) indicating that the #1 cylinder is not
receiving spark. The car is missing and pulling the wire has little effect
on the idle (Yes, I did try switching wires- this is a #1 spark phenomina).
While the engine was in the shop, I cleaned the distributor(original Lucas I
believe), and I did move the gap between the timing rotor and the impulse
pickup. I suspect that I will have to readjust this. Does anybody have a
procedure and/or the gap specs?
The other area of concern was that when I broke in the cam, the
catalytic converter glowed a bright red indicating an over-rich condition.
This may be related to the fact that the #1 cylinder is apparently not
receiving spark, or it might be related to the fact that I also took the
opportunity to adjust the Zenith Stromberg 175 carburetor while the car was
down. First suspect is the fact that I used the "mixture adjustment tool" to
bottom out the mixture needle and then I opened it three complete turns per
my Haynes manual. Would this cause the over-rich condition? Which direction
do I turn it to lean it out? I also adjusted the choke(For the life of me,
I haven't figured the effect of that strange contraption). Which way do I
turn it to pull it off earlier? Thanks again for your help!
Tom Green
1979 MGB
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