MG Car Repair: 1978 mg midget, plug gap, nowere

Question
i have a 1978 mg midget that ive been driving every day till about a mounth ago.someone tried stealing my car long story short i had to cut out the ignition lock and replace the the ignition. i replaced the points plugs wires and carb to a two barrel webber.it will start all thoe i have to play with the distributor,it sounds bad when running go to drive it no power drives but nowere near how it used to.gas is spitting out the top of carb tride eveything i could regappinig the points setting tdc plug gap cap rotor pionts plugs restabbing the distributor

Answer
Hi Gene,
Did steal it or tried to steal it? If they got it running, first thing to do is run a compression test. If that is ok (135 to 165 on all cylinders) and only if that is ok you can proceed and set timing to specs.

After that proceed to the carburetor. First check fuel pressure to the carburetor (1.5 to 3 PSI)

If everything is ok up to that point check float level and clean the carb out (including the jets) and test the accelerator pump to see that it is pumping fuel on a quick throttle opening.

Don't skip anything in this sequence and don't change the order that it is in and you should find the problem.

Howard