She’ll be Home for Christmas
Several months ago, I wrote about some fuel system issues after Angie and I went on a nice Sunday drive. It’s taken 4 months, but here’s an update.
The long and short of this update is I had to wait for my MG expert to have some surgery and recover.
While Pearline was down and the mechanic was recovering, I decided to have the distributor rebuilt. I sent it off to Jeff at Advanced Distributors in Minnesota. Jeff is a bit of a legend in the performance car world as someone who knows every detail about a distributor and how to tune it for different conditions. From doorstep to doorstep, it took about a month. I put the distributor back in, but I didn’t try to mess with the timing because I was pretty sure we’d be doing that later.
Last week, I checked in on the LBC mechanic and he said to drop Pearline off on Wednesday, and he’ll have time to give her a look. As it happened, I had a doctor appointment in OKC that day, so the timing was perfect. After my doctor appointment, I stopped by his shop in North OKC. He was still a bit tender from the surgery, so I did what I could to make things easier by fetching tools and operating the starter.
The problem I had with the fuel system was the fuel pump. It is still the OEM model and had never been removed from the frame of the car. So, for 50 years, that pump has been exactly where it was. Mike tapped on the pump a few times with a screwdriver handle and then had me turn over the engine. A few more times, then a few more. Suddenly, we had good fuel. The problem was debris in the fuel pump that needed to be dislodged. The tapping got it going into the fuel filter, which we then cleaned.
After that, he tweaked the timing and checked the firing order of the plug wires. Then, he cleaned and gapped the plugs. Finally, he cleaned the carbs and set the idle to 1500 RPM. When I left, she was purring.
In and out in about 3 hours. Same day service can’t be beat!
On Mike’s advice, I’ve ordered a replacement OEM fuel pump, still made by SU. With the holidays, it will probably be January until it gets here. She’s running just fine for now and I’m not planning to stress her out, much.
I’ve spent the last 36 hours driving Pearline wherever I can. I’ve easily put 100 miles on her within 15 minutes of home, just to make sure she’s working correctly. I think we’re good until the next problem.
So, she’s home for the holidays and I couldn’t be happier.
Peace to you all.
