Getting the balance right

Welcome to The Special’s latest acquisition: a 1967 MGB GT we bought at an auction last year.

Diversions kept us away from getting some serious use from the B and once in the driver’s seat poor starting steered us to a multitude of woes, beginning with the carburettors. Well, after we’d replaced the entire exhaust system with a stainless steel type.

Recalcitrant starting, idling rougher than a badger’s backside and a general unwillingness to get the power out pointed towards a poor carburettor set-up, so they were sent away for a rebuild using the kit supplied by MGB Hive.

With the carburettors re-built and new air filters on hand, the induction system was re-assembled pronto, the key turned and, hey presto, it jolly well fired up straight away. But delight soon turned to minor despair when, in reality, things were no better than before.

The now-spiffing SUs were seemingly just not doing their job, but in reality the lumpy idling was waving a crooked finger towards the ignition. New leads weren’t the problem and the distributor and points were ok too. As Dr Watson might have asked of Sherlock Holmes, what about the plugs?

And there the trouble lay. All four plugs were, amazingly, bent, the electrodes off the vertical to varying but always alarming degrees. A quick dash to the local factors for a fresh set of NGKs cured the choppy running in an instant.

While we were at it we laid in plans for further BGT refreshment, beginning with a MASSIVE service, hotly followed by door adjustment and tailgate replacement. And then the MoT-test. And then? Fingers crossed daily driving – the B needs some miles under its unpainted wire wheels.