So what did you do for your holiday break?

Me? I worked with Ernie on my MGB. It leaked oil, had a minor fuel leak, and idled terribly. Ernie troubleshot and repaired my MGB exactly as prescribed in the classic repair textbooks. The only difference was that he did this from memory. My instinct was to repair the leaky carburetor first; however, I was at Ernies to listen and learn from the master. The following steps detail the repair. Step 1: Ernie listened to the engine idle and suggested we start with the electronics (just as all the textbooks suggest). He pulled the spark plugs, cables, distributor cap and rotor. Cables, cap and rotor looked good. No evidence of uneven wear, burns or arcing. Cable resistance was around 3K ohms for the shorter lines and nearly 4.1K ohms for the longer lines. The #4 spark plug electrode was white and had a powder residue indicating it was running lean (see photo). New spark plugs were gaped and replaced. We re-started the engine, but it still ran rough. Step 2: While the engine was running rough, Ernie pulled the #3 and #4 spark plug cables. There was no change in idle. The engine was running on two cylinders! With the spark plug cables reconnected (and the engine still running rough), he covered the rear carburetor air intake and noticed the RPMs went up. This confirmed that not enough fuel was getting into cylinders #3 and #4. It also explained why the #4 spark plug electrode was white. Step 3: Knowing cylinders #3 and #4 were being starved for fuel, it was time to remove the carburetors. My 79 MGB stock Stromberg carburetor has been replaced with Skinner Union (SU) HS4 carburetors. Ernie suggested this setup since it is much simpler than the later SU HIF version. I always thought removing two carburetors would be difficult with all the cable linkages; however, Ernie showed me the cable lines are removed as two assemblies (choke and accelerator). The cable assemblies mechanically align within carburetor linkage tabs for simple disassembly and reassembly. Step 4: After the carburetors were removed, the fuel bowl was carefully disassembled with the three screws (Item 17 in the figure) to look for any obstructions in the needle jet hose assembly (Item 3). Sure enough, on the bottom of the bowl (Item 27) there were black particulates clogging the needle jet hose. The particulates were remnants of the rubber washer (Item 33) that disintegrated and clogged the fuel inlet hose. We also noticed the tip of the hose was compressed where the ferrule (Item 30) is located. The entire needle jet hose assembly and washer were replaced. Since this was a new carburetor, Ernie speculated the needle jet hose assembly was misaligned during original factory assembly. Over time, the misaligned rubber washer disintegrated due to the interaction with solvents in the fuel. The disintegrated rubber washer was also the source of the minor fuel leak. Step 5: Once the washer debris was removed and the needle jet hose assembly was replaced, the carburetors, accelerator and choke linkages were reinstalled. Since we installed a new jet, the jet adjusting nut(s) beneath the body of the carburetor (Item 4) had to be reset. Turning this adjusting nut upwards will weaken the mixture and turning it downwards will make the mixture richer. We ended up with approximately 2 turns from a fully seated nut baseline. Once we re-adjusted the needle jet(s), the engine idle was spot on. So far we have successfully repaired the fuel leak and engine idle. Next month, well review the annoying oil leak and its subsequent repair.