Two months ago I became the proud, if somewhat clueless, owner of a
'75 TR6. Being a very inexperienced mechanic I decided to try a
simple project as my first one. The car idled fairly rough and there
is some hesitation when accelerating at low rpms. So I embarked on a
tune-up. I adjusted the valve clearances, replaced the plugs, checked
the distributor, and while setting the timing noticed something
strange. The car was ideling and when I removed what I think is the
Vacuum Retard hose from the distributor... nothing happened. I
checked the shop manual and it says that the engine should speed up
some 500 RPMs. I'm fairly certain that it is the right hose since it
is the only one connected to the distributor and I see no other places
to connect a vacuum hose. I plugged all the various ends of the hose
and connections with my finger and felt no pressure of any kind.
Hmmm. So off I went to examine another TR6 to see how it behaves.
Lucky for me the nearest TR6 was in my driveway and belongs to my
roommate JB Zimmerman (it is a '71 instead of a '75). Even without
the steering wheel, it's on our kitchen table, his car started right
up. I let it warm up and then removed his Vacuum Retard hose and
bingo, up 500 RPM to around 1300 RPM. I then traced JB's Vacuum
Retard to the carbs and discovered that it was connected to a socket
on the bottom of his rear carb. On the top of his rear carb is a
rougly 1/4" hole which is unused (I mention this for future
reference). His front carb has no holes on either the top or bottom.
Then going back to my TR6, the '75, I immediately noticed that my
Vacuum Retard is connected to a brass-like fitting in the top hole of
my rear carb. Examining the bottom of my rear carb I could find no
socket like JB's until I looked under the FRONT carb! There it was,
looking just like JB's exect it was under the front carb and had a
rubber boot fitted over it.
What's going on here? Is this a difference between model years? Did a
DPO reverse the bottom halves of my carbs? How do I fix this, if
indeed any fix is required? Any help would be much appreciated!
Ben Lubetsky
MAK Technologies, Inc.
lubetsky@mak.com 185 Alewife Brook Pkwy.
(617)876-8085 x1111 Cambridge, MA 02138
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