MG Car Club of South Australia
MGC NEWS
MGC conversations with Richard Mixture, July 2019
H
Why won’t my ‘C’ start!
ello again, it’s Richard here. Well,
the other day I went out into the
garage and hopped into the old ‘C’. I
turned the key and waited for the old six
to fire. I waited and waited and thought
this is taking longer than usual. Some-
times, I remember the instructions from
my old mate from up yonder, you know
who I mean, that nice old Queenslander,
Bruce, who says turn the engine over for
a couple of seconds, then go inside and
kiss your wife goodbye, then back to the
‘C’ and turn the key and it starts in-
stantly. Quite often I feel that involves
far too much exercise, so I just sit there
turning the engine over until fires. To-
day it wasn’t going to fire!
So, what was going on I asked myself?
I opened the bonnet and supported it
with my trusty broomstick, specially de-
signed and shortened and given to me
by the previous owner, Mel. I peered
into the engine bay at that lovely six-
cylinder engine and thought today it is
not so lovely, in fact it was being annoy-
ing. I checked the plug leads one by
one, ouch, yes there’s six sparks there.
Fuel supply was next. I checked the
fuel bowls and yes there’s fuel in each
one. Then each plug came out and yes,
they all worked, then I sniffed the plug
hole and there wasn’t much in the way
of that petrol aroma. Hmm, what next.
Yes, I wondered if a few passionate
words might help? Nope, that didn’t
work either.
So, I called my neighbour, Phil, to see if
he had any good ideas. He’s older than
me so he must be wiser, well, in fact
being wiser is just what I wanted right
now. His wise comment was, “do you
12
have any Aerostart?” “No” I said, “well,
I have somewhere in the shed, I’ll have
a look.” I didn’t hold much hope be-
cause his shed, while quite large, has
more stuff in it than AC Pearson.com
has in his labyrinth of sheds. If you are
mildly overweight, say anything larger
than a slim rat, well, you’d never make it
down the corridors. I pity his wife when
he dies. With any luck she’ll died first,
but then I’ll be left with emptying the
darn thing out. Anyway, he couldn’t find
the can.
Maybe it’s time for a cuppa, yes, Eng-
lish Breakfast. Well, while sipping away
and pondering the problem at hand, Mrs
Mixture, that wonderful Director General
of Indoor Duties, came up with a won-
derful idea; “ring the RAA” she said.
“Me” I exclaimed, “ring the RAA! What
would they know about our ancient old
thing? It doesn’t have fuel injection, nor
sensors for this or that, there’s no
blueteeth to plug in your cordless mo-
bile phone and you can’t plug in a scam
tool, whatever that is. No, I won’t do
that.” So I went back to the infuriating
old ‘C’ and turned the key once again …
still nothing, so I came inside and called
the RAA! I had an hour to get the old
thing going before they arrived, so the
pressure was on. I can’t be beaten, I
can fix this bloody old thing, I can get it
going. Sadly, I did not.
The RAA arrived and the well-dressed
technician said his boss had lots of MG
laying around in his workshop and
promptly gave me a business card for
AA Automotive. He then went back to
his van and returned with a can of Aero-
start! I removed the air filters, he
squirted and I turned the key and the