July 2019
old six cylinder burst into life then
stopped. We did that two more times,
each with success. I returned to the
engine bay and noticed the piston in
rear carby was fully open. I wriggled it a
bit, it dropped down, I turned the key. It
started and then idled beautifully. Prob-
lem solved. The RAA indeed!
I now had a new problem, why did it
stick open? I checked the carburettor
piston, damper and the suction cham-
ber/bell, cleaned them and reassembled
them. They were much better but still
not perfect. I tried starting the engine
one more time before
closing the bonnet
and it started beauti-
fully and idled as it
has done for the past
20 years. Ahh, I fixed
it, well with a little
help.
shop to buy six new NGK BP6ES. I
checked the gap at 0.024-0.026” and
replaced the old plugs. I started her up
again and presto problem fixed. A big
sigh of relief, and thankfully no more
problems.
Why do problems often occur in twos or
threes? Is it just me? Maybe it’s just
magic! Bad Magic!
Remember ladies and gentlemen keep
‘em tuned,
Rich
The following morning
I hopped into the old
‘C’, turned the key, it
started but was run-
ning roughly. “Oh no,
what now”. Actually,
that’s not what I said
but I will not write that
here in this respect-
able magazine.
I
opened the bonnet,
checked the carbies,
they seemed OK.
Next thing to check
was the plugs and I
removed each lead
one by one and found
plug number five was
not firing. I had an old
plug so I replaced the
missing one and the
engine idled like it
should. So off to the
The MGC SU carby with stuck piston
13