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MG MGA - I was my own 'DPO'

I got my 62 roadster running and licensed earlier this year, including an emmisions test. I was disappointed with how it ran. The problem was erratic and sometimes it would barely run. I rebuilt and installed a second set of carbs, ran the same. Changed coil. Changed distributor. Checked compression. Re adjusted valves. Cap rotor wires plugs points condenser all new. Checked and rechecked dwell and timing.
I messed with the car and never got it right.
I finally gave up, swallowed my ego, and called an old friend. Paul Dierschow owner of Sports Car Craftsman. Trailered the car up to his shop in Arvada. This was my first time to this location so he gave me the nickle tour. Great shop.
By the time I got back to my shop they had it figured out. The tubes from the carb vents were broken off when I got the car. As part of the rebuild I soldered new tubes in place of the broken ones. The tube on the front carb was soldered shut. Without a vent the fuel pressure would pressurize the float bowl and force fuel out of the jet tube, flooding the front carb. He melted the excess solder out of the tube and the car runs great.
Finally we were able to enjoy the car. My wife was able to drive the car with it running perfect.
R J Brown

Don't feel too bad. I think all of us have had our moments - whether or not we admit it. I once put a brake pad on backwards and was wondering why my passenger side brake was making so much noise.

I've heard much better mechanics than I admit to even worse.

It happens.

Darian
Darian Henderson

RJ, you'll have to do a lot better than that to get a DPO title. My DPO brazed the door sill trim onto the bottom of the door and put enough Bondo on the car to build a second Grand Coulee Dam.

Oh, and he thought a Nash Metropolitan engine would be a good replacement for the original engine. Fortunately, he never got around to installing it.

There's a big difference between an honest mistake and poor workmanship due to laziness or excessive cheapness (is that even a word?).

Glad you finally got it figured out and are now enjoying the car!
MGA Larry

Colorado requires emissions tests for cars built before there were emissions requirements to meet? What standard of performance are they basing the test on?
David Breneman

I want to know HOW you passed any kind of emissions test with the car running that rich!
David "At least CO does not require it to pass the OBD2 test" Lieb
David Lieb

Hats off to the mechanic who solved that one.
Del Rawlins

RJ,
I agree, to get the DPO award you would have to do MUCH MUCH worse. The guy I got my 61A from is in the running for the DPO award. He bought the car and drove it for two years with the parking brake cable duct taped to the rear axel, the "parking brake" that he used was a pair of tire blocks. He never bothered to check the rear brakes for if he had he would have found that they were rust in position. The wheel cylinders were solid rust. He also figured that the car runing rough was do to the "cam" that the previous owner had put in the car instead of the burned valce on the #3 cylinder. This same DPO figured that the reason the dash lights did not work is becuase of the lucus electrics and had nothing to do with the wiring harness that had been torn apart under the dash.
JP Jim

Emission test limits for 70 and older are 5.5 CO and 1000 HC. This test is repeated each year if the car bears normal plates. Collector plate can be purchased for any car over 25 years old and are good for 5 years. As long as you keep collector plates on the car no retests are needed. If the car is 58 or earlier and has collector plates no test is needed. Any time a car changes hands it must be tested, unless exempt.
One of the real frustrating part of this dilemma was that at times it ran great. I had it running 2.5 CO and 300 HC on my emission test machine. It did pass the state test.
I relayed this information in hopes that a plugged vent won't frustrate any of you as it did me.
R J Brown

R J is not entirely correct. In Colorado there are no emission tests west of the continental divide. With the majority of cars on the road now being fuel injected I think the testing is really a waste of time and money.

LaVerne
LED DOWNEY

Laverne is correct the front range counties are the only areas that have an emission test. To get our highway money back from the Feds we have to go through the charade of an emissions program. It is a definite waste of time and money.
R J Brown

What a strangely east-coast-oriented way of thinking that the counties on the east side of a western state are considered the "front" range. :-)
David Breneman

The east coast is totally irrelevant to the term. We are on the "front" of a real mountain range. As in the "Purple Mountains Majesty" The last real range of mountains between here and the Atlantic. "Front" because all people are a bit arrogant in their ethnocentrism. Just like those Utahans who live on the back side of our mountains call their area the Wasatch front.
Denver is about in the center of the state. West of us is referred to as the western slope. Starting at the fringes of the metro area is the eastern plains. This way of thinking places us at the "center" of our world.
Being that the "WEST" starts right here in Denver I am always amused that those living in the eastern half of the central plains of this great land think of themselves as "Midwesterners". "Mid" of the WEST appears to me to be that line between Utah and Nevada.
R J Brown

The "West" starts in Denver? I thought it started in Spokane. :-)

Seriously, thanks for the geography lesson. I live on Puget Sound and it's funny how many people come here and think they're on the coast. "Where's the Pacific Ocean?" they'll ask. "Well, it's about 100 miles west of here, on the other side of that mountain range (the Olympics)!"
David Breneman

This thread was discussed between 19/10/2008 and 25/10/2008

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