MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Starting From Cold

During the past few months I have had a problem starting from cold with the choke. The engine was trying to fire on only about 2 cylinders. When it finally caught it spluttered for a few seconds then raced away to about 2500+RPM and only came back to normal when I pushed the choke back in. The car would then run like a dream and always start first pull when warm and/or with no choke.

This morning I finally made some time to look under the bonnet. The picture shows what I found.

The front carb choke lever clevis pin had departed company with its retaining split pin and dropped out!

Explains a lot. No idea how the split pin dropped out unless I forgot to open it out when I overhauled the assembly about 9 months ago. Amazingly the clevis pin was still sitting on the chassis wedged into a corner.

Steve



Steve Gyles

I don't use split pins anywhere these days. 16mm R clips from Spalding Fasteners on everything makes life a lot faster and easier

Dominic Clancy

Dominic. Much the same with me except for the carbs. The repair kits I bought from Burlens came with clevis pins and split pins.

Steve
Steve Gyles

What you need Steve is a Weber DCOE like on my engine.
It does have a choke but now I have got more used to the DCOE I never use it, just a few dabs on the throttle pedal which operates the accelerator pump and the engine starts.

I will admit that the Weber/1950 cc combination has a slightly negative effect on the fuel consumption, 24 mpg as compared to your 30+ mpg.

But for me, the 20% increase in fuel consumption is more than made up for by the vast savings in the costs of replacing all those expensive choke linkage split-pins! ☺

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn. What?.....and give up my stub stacks!! No way.

As much as I was mortified to find the link detached I was delighted that the problem was so obvious when I opened up the bonnet. I had all sorts of visions about readjusting the levers, mixture settings, float levels etc. The fix was so simple! I still don't know why the split pin parted company. I am usually meticulous with that sort of thing during assembly. But I guess it could only have been down to me.

Steve
Steve Gyles

I thought I had the same problem but mine was even simpler. I was pulling choke out what I thought I was reasonable amount but it turned out I was just taking up the slack in that ancient mechanism. Silly me
Paul Dean

This thread was discussed between 28/03/2019 and 02/04/2019

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.