Oops!

The Beast drove around to the new house without any problems (other than the usual reverse lights and overheating and spluttering). They tend to start and move a little better when the petrol is pumped from the tank to the carbs ...

Rewiring the fuel pump switch

It was decided that the fuel pump switch needed to be off an ignition feed rather than simply hot wired to the battery. Makes sense really. During the process, the chief electrician decided to rewire and snap away useless or not used wires. This took longer than expected as he must have knocked another of the Beast's dodgy earths! Following are pictures of the process and of the mass of wires removed.

What's that chuffin' noise?

After another break last weekend, and all day wasted trying to fix the car doors on the 75, I thought I might just see if the old girl would start. She did, no problems at all. I let her run for a while to get nice and warm. For some reason, there was no green leaking although it was nearly dark so I couldn't see a great deal in the engine bay. I let off a bit of choke and it still ran ... bit more ... excellent! She is ticking over beautifully. Higher revs always result in backfires but it is soundin better than ever. Sounds a little fast though so I need to get the tacho going to make sure of the tickover speed.

Due to the darkness, I killed the engine. It was then that I decided to have another go just to see. What's that chuffin' noise? It sounds like the fuel pump is about to explode! So why has that suddenly decided to play up?!

One step forward ...

This weekend was going to be it. The Beast had started last week albeit with the points distributor. All I had to do was get the fuel pump fixed properly and the seats in. Then it was going to Phil's for an MOT. Groovy.

Or perhaps not so groovy. The fuel pump is in. It is not leaking and is pumping away. It's damned noisy though as I haven't fixed it on to a rubber mounting. It will need doing but not an important thing at the moment. There we are then - a "new" distributor, a new coil, a new fuel pump, lots of new wires, clamps and leads, a reconditioned starter motor - feck all happened! There was not a v8 burble anywhere - just the metallic noise of the fuel pump rattling at the rear bulkhead and a dying battery straining under the constant pressure of this dungheap never ever starting.

Then Stewart/Stuart arrived. Huzzah, I am saved! Or not as the case was as he had to run off. He has put the original electrical distributor in and has tested the wires. But still nout happened. Although it could now be the interior gubbins of the distributor. How do I know if these ones that were replaced last week actually work? Can I have my old gubbins back please?!

To top it all, there is now another problem. Whilst cranking and trying to start it, it obviously flooded. It was at this point that I could hear a trickling and smell fuel. It wasn't coming out of the bit that we (thanks to Simon for his fuel pump assistance and trips to B&Q) had changed. It was coming from the engine. It was coming from the carbs. It was pouring from a pipe from the carbs straight on to the block! This site suggests it is a safety measure. I would love to meet the bellend who designed that "safety" measure. Although in my case, it is perfectly safe as the engine never runs thus the block will never be hot enough to ignite the leaky fuel. The MG site has suggested that the needle is blocked with some dung (possible as I drained the fuel into a (cleanish) plastic bowl) or that one of the floats is buggered, which could be due to the fact that an engine has not been started for a while (no shit!).

Previously I had a car that wouldn't get up a very small hill as the fuel pump was no good. Now I am paddling in a lake of unleaded as the fuel pump is too good. Cock! In conclusion therefore, today and probably for the rest of the week, Rover v8's are dung, Harris Mann is a tosser, BL/Rover deserved to go bust and TR7s are the worst cars ever made. The white flag is raised once more.