MG Car Repair: firing order, piston movement, coat hanger

Question
I have a 1977 MG Midget. Can you tell me the firing order and is there a picture that shows the order on the distrubitor cap?

Answer
Hi TJ,
The firing order is 1342 as it is on all inline four cylinder car engines. As far as where #1 is in the cap, that depended on who ever was either in the engine or if someone had replaced the distributor drive gear so you can't count on it being where the factory put it.

It is not hard to figure out though. Remove #1 plug and put the car in 4th gear with the hand brake off. Use one hand to push on the top of the front tire so as to role the car forward while you use the other hand to hold your thumb over the open plug hole. (If it is too hard to role, remove all of the spark plugs). As you move the car forward you will soon feel compression forcing your thumb off of the hole. Stop then and put a piece of stiff wire like a piece of coat hanger or such in the plug hole and slowly move the car forward so as to feel the #1 piston movement. If your wire moves up, keep rolling forward until it stops and starts back down and then carefully move the car backwards so as to locate TDC (Top Dead Center). Now remove the distributor cap and note which pin in the cap the rotor is pointing at. This is #1 and going around the cap will be #3,4 & 2 in a counter clockwise direction.
Howard