Conference terri::cars_uk

621.0. "MGB Won't Start" by DELNI::OLESIN (Steve A. Olesin) Wed May 31 1989 23:11

				My MGB won't start 

I've just proudly rolled my 1978 MGB out of the garage for it's summer in
the sun and found that it was already on holiday !

SYMPTOM :	Won't start

DETAILS :	I actually did get it started and logged all of 22 miles
		on it before it retired.  The original symptom was very
		difficult starting which was overcome by my stuffing a
		screwdriver in the Stromberg's little throat.  I think this 
		provided an over-abundance of petrol which satisfied the 
		MG gods until I got it back to the garage.  Since then it
		has refused to start.

		The present symptom is the engine turns over and has combustion
		while the ignition switch is in the START position but fails to
		run.

WHAT I'VE DONE TO DATE :

Rebuilt the Stromberg 175CD carb ( except for the metering needle and seat )
	( this was in response to the above screwdriver symptom )

Checked the ANTI-RUN-ON device ( OK )

Attached timing light to center post of coil  ( this is where it gets 
interesting ).  The thing I found was that the high voltage was present
while the switch was in the START position but would go away once the
switch was returned to the ON position.

I quickly turned to my handy HAYNES MGB MANUAL and found the notation telling
me that this is symptomatic of a bad COIL BALLIST RESISTOR. Great ! I gets me
enthusiastic self back to the garage where patiently waits my MG and start to
scan for the location of this broken device. HAYNES has conveniently omitted
the location and description of this thingy that will fix all my problems.

QUESTION :

Have you ever had any experience with this kind of problem ?

Do you know what I should look for ?

Do you know what I should do ? 

    Please put all future MGB releated material in note 1266. 
    
    This topic will be write locked
    
    Richard (co-moderator)