Practically Classics Forum

As Luxo says, but perhaps the petrol is a bit aged - it may just be a matter of emptying the tank and putting some nice new stuff in.

Or you could do what my neighbour did with his ride on: spend a week taking it apart because it had similar symptoms to your Midget. He checked the piston, bearings, valves and so on and found nothing wrong. Then he noticed some mucky stuff come from the inlet manifold (that was then lying on the floor with the carb attached). He checked the filter in the tank and noticed it was gunged up, flushed the tank out and got a lot more gunge. Cleaned the carb out and soon had the engine was running beautifully after what would have been ten minutes' work! I think most of it is back together now - four days after he got it running!

I did suggest it was fuel related, but he is a retired ship's engineer ...

id go along with the old fuel too, one job for my singer over the winter is the tank out (its fitted inboard of the boot so in great condition and easy to access) and give it a good clean with some marine clean, going to fit a new fuel line front to back as well.

Kev

I always have fuel problems with the mog as it sits around doing nothing for the majority of the time, it is always gutless and conks out until it gets some fresh fuel mixed in to the tank. it seems happy enough as long as it is at least 50% fresh, 50% 1 year+ old stuff. Then I don't drive it for 6 months and the cycle starts again

Just going back to the fuel pump, it will be a mechanical one on the 1500 surely, unless its been done away with and replaced.

The diaphragm can fail so the pump could still be the problem, if replacing the pump I believe there are two different lever types that drive the pump so you may have check which type is on your pump before getting the replacement.

I'd be thinking carb problem or blockage though. If the carbs have the seperate float bowls it might be worth taking off the lids when the car stops and checking the fuel level? as this might confirm blockage or pump problems if low on fuel.

Have you also checked for flooding? and are the spark plugs wet / dry when you remove them to check for spark?

One other thought, its worth remembering that a spark plug can spark outside the engine and look good, yet fail to fire when under compression in the engine.

It isn't that common, but not too long ago we had a mini that started being a little difficult, idled rough, ran rough, and lacked power. It got that bad that it wouldn't even move under its own steam. After much messing about it then refused to start at all even though there was fuel and there appeared to be a spark with the plugs removed.

Given that the plugs were only a few weeks old I faffed about a good while before swapping them in desperation. Started straight up and ran like a dream from then on.

So, perhaps unlikely but it can happen, If you are starting up sweet enough, then perhaps even less likely but worth keeping in mind. Its always worth swapping a few of the basics for known good ones if things get difficult.

I'll admit that sometimes I mend cars and don't even know what the problem actually was, if it runs rough and fuel is present and getting to the plugs its always worth giving the ignition system a good going over, never trusting a part just because its new or appears ok.

Thanks for all the advice guys, tested out all the ignition bits and they were fine, so concluded it was fuel the pump appeared to be pumping fuel so carbs was my conclusion - cue a trip to a local classic car garage because I just didn't have the time or experience to be playing with carbs this week, and really want to get using it ! (It drove the couple of miles to the garage fine, bit lumpy and threatening to cut out at junctions but learning to coax the throttle helped a bit!)

It turns out it was the float needle sticking/faulty and the fact it had been stood for a bit before I bought it meant that the carbs were out of balance. New parts ordered - and back on the road next week hopefully!