Does your car let you down every time you try to start it, or those wipers only work when it is not raining? Perhaps the indicators go dim every time you apply the brakes, and the horn only operates when the lights are off. Before you go out to buy new lights, horns, switch gear,…
Speedo Troubles? Failures of the right angle speedometer drive adaptors are often caused by the required washer (Moss #324-720) not being installed. This causes excessive end load and premature failure of the angle drive’s pinion.
Don’t assume that removing the thermostat is going to help. More often than not it will make the problem worse. Thermostats, aside from limiting water flow to the radiator when the engine is cold, control how fast water goes through the radiator. This may not be a big deal with the car sitting still and…
Sluggish clutch action (hard to engage, slow to release) may be caused by deterioration of the flexible clutch hose due to age or proximity to engine oil and grime. Even if the hose looks okay, the inside may be swollen shut. Jerry Johnson Vero Beach, FL
The choice of carburation has really become confusing. Each carb. Type offers its own combination of advantages and disadvantages. To clarify some of the confusion, we will be running a test series using a street driven 1975 MGB as a guinea pig. There won’t be winners and losers, the idea is simply to give you…
Poor acceleration and “sputtering” during acceleration may be due to a low oil level in the carburetor dashpots. Automatic transmission fluid works well in some carbs, but not in others. The old recommendation of “the same oil as used in the engine” is a good place to start. If this gives too lean a mixture…
Rebushing carburetor bodies and fitting new throttle shafts is a major part of a proper carb rebuild that is often overlooked. Vacuum leaks due to worn bodies and shafts cause rough idle, poor performance and poor fuel economy. Checking the shaft and body clearance is a simple matter of wiggling the shafts up and down….
After installing a re-build kit in an SU carburetor (especially an H-series) it is sometimes impossible to achieve a sufficiently lean mixture by manipulation of the mixture adjusting nut alone. Before resorting to the quick and make-shift solution of lowering the needle in the piston, examine the sketch below carefully and compare the actual carburetor…
SU Throttle Shaft Tip Have you replaced a throttle shaft on your favorite British sports car lately and wondered how you were going to pin the idle adjustment lever and the throttle stop lever to the throttle shaft? Or better yet, how do you drill the hole for the mounting pin, and keep the concours…
SU carburetors are some of the simplest “full function” carburetors ever put on relatively modern cars. However, since they work so differently from most other carburetors, few people in the USA really understand them well. Many, if not most, problems attributed to these carbs’ being “out of tune” are really faults of the ignition system,…
