Ken G's Journal

For the last 3 weeks or so in my spare time I've been trying to get this car started and I was having no luck. it was turning over but there was no combustion. I changed and re-gapped the plugs, set the static timing, verified the firing order, saw spark going to the plugs, multiple times, but it just wasn't starting.

Earlier today I moved it into the driveway and tried to start it and again the same, no combustion. So there is sat this afternoon. I came back and was going to plug the plug to check the spark again with my daughter's cranking the car and while I was showing them what I needed, it started up. I couldn't believe it.

Now my daughters are convinced they are good luck charms and that is all good too. :-)

The car idled well, but still at 1500rpm. The weber carb will need a winter rebuild. I've got a couple of oil leaks to sort out, the temperature gauge was wonky off the scale to the Hot side as soon as the car started so that is something I need to fix. But I'm so glad it is running again.

Which means next week I'm going to get everything around to pull the engine. The plan will be to pull the engine, swap in the overdrive transmission and clean up the engine compartment over Thanksgiving and get it all back in before Christmas.

Just a short edit. I started it up and let it warm up a bit and was able to do a warm compression test. Looks good so far.
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It was a busy week and even a busier weekend and I've had no time to work on the car. I hope to sort out the starter issue this week.

I did manage to take a drive over to See Dick Mortitz to pick up my refreshed Over Drive and have a nice chat. I feel very lucky to live so close to this guy.

If I can get the starter working and the car started then of course I'll move on to bigger and better things. Yup I've got to pull the engine to install the new tranny. The question is what will it snowball into once the engine is out. Clean and paint the engine compartment, replace the clutch, replace the hard pipes? We will see, but one thing is for sure, this thing will be on the road come spring 2023. (Even if I have to tow it behind my 4Runner.. lol)

Well I had the car running on September 4th with the new starter and using the rewired set up from the earlier MGB's (wire coming from the fuse box and a 3 ohm coil) While I was waiting for the diode to put the wiring back to the original design I cleaned up the dash wiring replaced the turn and brake lights with LED's along with the flashers.

Nothing that I thought was too critical to the operation of the car.

When the diode arrived I connected it to the starter, replaced the original wires and had the expectation that it would start right up. Well nope.
Car was turning over but not firing, OK fuel pump wasn't pumping so I quickly realized it was the roll over switch, easy to resolve, but did it Nope.

No spark at the plug, hmm weird, power to the coil, Ahh the negative wire to the distributor was lose, fixed that now has spark. Still nope.

I changed the wiring back to use the set up I had before the diode arrived (with the 3 ohm coil) to remove other variables that had changed since it ran last.

Checked static timing, made sure the #1 cylinder was up, rotor at 1 o'clock, cables at 1,3,4,2 clockwise. Of how did they get flipped. changed the wires to counter clockwise, cleaned the plugs, checked gap. Using my inline spark thingee I see spark at the plugs. got a little bit of a back fire but nothing much.

Today I went out to try to start it, and now the new high torque starter is clicking but not engaging. Power to lights and hazards.
I put the battery on the charger and going to let it change all day.

The worsee thing about this is that not that long ago it was running and I'm doing the same steps with no luck, frustrating

I spent a bit of time last night working on the lights, turn signals and hazard lights.
I had been doing some testing and not really having much luck, so I started at the beginning with the diagram, checking connections and verifying lines and made some progress.
- Both the headlights are working on dim and bright along with the dash indicator.
- Three of the four running lights are working.
- The hazard dash indicators are both blinking and the right front and rear right side lights are on.

I'm actually pretty happy with the progress, I installed relays for the headlights and those are working well, I just need to continue the methodical work one light at a time and get the left side up and running.

One thing I don't understand is the set up of the turn light. It is a double filament bulb with 3 wires coming off of it, a green, red and black. If I connect the red and the green wires the light comes on as a running light and as a hazard/ turn light, but If I also connect the black (ground) wire it totally stops working. It has me scratching my head, but I'm sure there is a logical explanation I've just not gotten to it yet.

Due to some minor issues with the wiring I removed the dash on the 1976 red MGB to allow some easier tracing of the problems.

I sorted out some of the issues in the brake and turn lights, changed the bulb on the alternator light, installed a voltage regulator. Installed relays for the head lights.

I received the diode for the starter so I'll be changing the coil back to the 1.5 ohm and use the "correct" wiring setup.

This week, I got rid of the 77 MGB, there were too many ongoing issues and I needed to cut my losses. So we're a one MGB family again and my spouse is quite happy about that.

Next up continue to get the switches and lights working, add an electric cooling fan, swap out the coil, set the timing, fill the clutch and brake master cylinders and see what we can do from there.

Based on some direction from the forum I was able to narrow the issue to the throttle linkage. I reset that and upon restart it holds a steady 1500 rpm. I adjusted the return stop and was able to get it to 1300. Still high but workable for now.

I have some other issues I need to sort through, I turned on the hazard lights and got the front right turn light on, the back left turn and reverse light and the right brake light. Clearly a bit of work to do there. The turn indicator lights came on with the hazard switch so that is good.

The red alternator light came on but it seems that the alternator is putting out juice.

The Tach and the oil pressure gauges were working but the fuel and temp were not reading anything. There may not be enough gas in the tank and I might have not let the car run long enough to get a reading for the temp.

One other thing I noticed is that there is some exhaust coming out of the joint between the exhaust manifold and the tail pipe so that might need a tighten up.

Overall I don't think it is too bad.