MG Car Repair: 76 MG Midget runs great then dies, electric fuel pump, gas piston

Question
My 76 Midget will run fine for about the first 2 miles (my commute to work) and it will suddenly die and not start again unless I let it set for a couple of hours. Fortunately, the past two days it has died close enough to the parking lot for me to push it the rest of the way!

I installed a new electric fuel pump and in-line filter about two months ago.

I was having carb problems a few weeks ago until I filled the damper reservoir with the proper amount of oil. Seemed to fix that problem immediately.

When it dies, it doesn't really spudder out or try to keep going. It's like I just turned the key and shut it off.   

Any ideas? Thanks so much for all of your attention to the questions on this forum!


Answer
Hi Bryson,
All Gas piston engines only require three items to run, compression, fire and fuel. (with conditions on each)

Compression will not usually go away and come back again so you can look at fire and fuel.

Fire --- Fire (spark) must be a strong spark (blue in color) and happen at the correct time. This is easy to test. Pull a spark plug and attach it to the plug wire and lay the plug on a metal part of the engine and spin the starter. You should see a thick blue spark. (not in bright sunlight)
This test MUST be done when the car is in it's failed mode (not starting)

Fuel --- Fuel must be available to the combustion chamber and a combustible fuel and in close to the correct fuel/air ratio. This is also easy to test for. Take a can of starter fluid (available at most any auto parts stores) and spray a little into the intake when trying to start the engine.
This test too MUST be done when the car is in it's failed mode.

These two tests WILL show where the problem is. Further tests are required to tell exactly what in the section is failed. But those are not difficult either.

The fact that you replaced a part a short time ago is useless information because any part can fail at any time and if you skip testing something because it was recently replaced it WILL cause you delays in finding the cause of a failure.

You will find the section that failed with the above two tests. Once you have the section that failed let me know and I will give you further tests in that section if it is not clear what the failure is. If it is in fuel, don't just put another fuel pump on it, run more tests.
Never replace a part until tests prove that is the failed part.
Howard