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MG MGA - Vacuum advance pipe stopper

I've been using Les' approach to setting the timing over the years, which calls for removing the vacuum advance pipe from the dizzy and stopping the pipe up.

In all this time I haven't really come up with a great method. I typically use one of those plastic wine "corks" they have these days, with a matching size hole drilled in it. It usually falls off in a few minutes. Has anybody else come up with a good solution to use as a stopper?
Tysen McCarthy

A golf tee?
Graham V

Depends on whether you have a distributor with the original style compression fitting or a more modern push-on hose.

For the compression fitting I used a piece of masking tape over the threaded fitting, for the push on I stuck a golf tee in the distributor end of the pipe, like Graham.
Dominic Clancy

Rubber push on hose? That sounds useful. I didn't see anything on Moss in the MGA parts list. Is it a MGB thing?
Tysen McCarthy

Tysen. That is why I asked about your distributor and exactly how it was set up. The original vacuum advance system was a hard line with a vapor seperation "bulb" in the line. The line screwed into the intake manifold (as I remember it) and had a compression fitting on the distributor end to attach to the vacuum advance can. Since the MGA went out of production some 60+ years ago, knowing what your are working on and what may have been modified becomes very important. I have, over the years, seen the original style vacuum cannister (threaded end) and later style vacuum cannisters (push on end) used in MGAs.

Dom's trick of using masking tape to close off the compression fitting (on the hard line system) is about as good as it gets. The only thing better would be to take an old vacuum can, fill the small hole for the vacuum to come in with epoxy or solder, and screw that to the end of the pipe. It might be possible to find a compression fitting to fit the one on the pipe and use that as a stopper--I do not know as my days working on unmodified MGAs was almost a half century ago. I have learned much during that time and, possibly, the compression fitting is a standard size and a blocking mechanism might be easily made up. But, tape will work fairly well.

Rubber hose systems are easy to stop up. Golf "T",number one Philips screwdriver, a fired .22 cartridge case, a tapered punch--anything that will go into the end of the rubber line and seal it will work.

Check and see what system you have on your vehcile.

Les
Les Bengtson

This thread was discussed between 27/03/2023 and 30/03/2023

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