1974 MGB sluggish during acceleration

[AustinMG]

Hello all,
I have a '74 MGB that is sluggish and seems to be missing during acceleration. It idles reasonably well and while in neutral I can hit the gas and bring it up to about 2500 rpm, but also misses. I changed the spark plugs and wires with no affect. Last night I was driving it and during 2nd and 3rd gear acceleration is very sluggish, but once I get to 4th gear and maintain 55 mph or so it runs reasonably well. Only during acceleration does the problem occur.
Any thoughts? Thanks.
Austin

[oldthudman]

Well, it's been awhile since you posted this problem..........I had a 74 (b-gt) and took it to be tuned to a sports car shop.....Brought it back home and it was running rough......Checked the plugs, the pots, etc. Finally decided to check the timing.....Hooked up the timing light....Unscrewed the distributor and started turning.......Normally, of course, turning your distributor causes the motor to start dying when you hit the end of the tick marks..........Didn't happen on the bottom end as motor kept running..........Seemed to hit a null point and started back up to center......When it got back to center the motor smoothed right out.....Ran great after that...........

Had never seem that before.......Not a motor expert, so have no idea what that was all about.......

HTH

[danielsatur]

It sounds like a little tweek in the timing!

[oldthudman]

Originally Posted by danielsatur

It sounds like a little tweek in the timing!

Don't know.............I've had 2 other MG's and those engines didn't respond like that.....Turn the distributor to either end and the engine would start dying...........

[paul J]

Originally Posted by AustinMG

Hello all,
I have a '74 MGB that is sluggish and seems to be missing during acceleration. It idles reasonably well and while in neutral I can hit the gas and bring it up to about 2500 rpm, but also misses. I changed the spark plugs and wires with no affect. Last night I was driving it and during 2nd and 3rd gear acceleration is very sluggish, but once I get to 4th gear and maintain 55 mph or so it runs reasonably well. Only during acceleration does the problem occur.
Any thoughts? Thanks.
Austin

You didn't say what carburetters you had on the car. If their SUs, the vacuum chambers could be gummed up along with the dampers. What it's doing doesn't necessarily mean it's the ignition. If it's a 32/36 Weber conversion, a problem could be stemming from it. PJ