Maybe electrical problems on British Cars are contagious, or maybe the
cars gods have a sense of humor. When my MGB would not start after
work on Monday, I grudgingly asked a coworker to give me a ride home
in his 92 Honda Civic. Boy was that embarrassing. But yesterday, he
did not show up for work, and just a few minutes ago, he poked his
head in the door and asked for a ride home tonight. It seems the
electrical system lost a relay or somthing, and he won't get his car
back until this weekend.
What happened to my car is not it's fault. It is partly mine, and
partly my uncle's. For some time (okay, ever since I bought the car),
when you turn the key to 'start', it has not sprung back. I fixed the
problem by getting into the habit of turning the key to 'run' after
the engine started. My father did the same.
The weekend before last, I went camping, and since I was taking a lot
of stuff, and since my telescope does not fit in my car (yet), I took
my mother's. My uncle was visiting that weekend. The morning he was
leaving, while I was still camping, he tried to start his Taurus. No
go. So, Chris borrowed my car to go to Trak Auto. He drove over
there with the ignition switch in the start position! When he tried
to leave the store, the car would not start. Heck, nothing would
work. Not the radio, nor the headlights. I went over there and
rescued the car. I managed to get it started by rolling it in 4th
until I heard a pop from the starter, then roll started the car to get
it home. When I was safely in my driveway, I shut it off and
immediately tried starting it again. The starter was a lot noisier
than it used to be, but it seemed to work. I did this a couple of
times with the same result. Later that evening, I went to the store
with no problem.
I took the starter out to look at the teeth. The teeth on the starter
and the flywheel were a little boogered up, but I thought maybe they
will polish down with use. Put the starter back in. Let the car sit
a week and drove my mother's car to work, since I had to do a lot of
hauling.
On Monday, I decided it was too nice a day to take the station wagon,
so I put the top down, and started the B. Same noisy start. Drove to
7-Eleven. Started fine. Got to work. Worked. Al Gore had a
reception for all us Naval Observatory people, so I wore a suit to
work for the first time since my first day on the job. After the
party I had 30 minutes to change, and go play a volleyball game.
I made the mistake of letting the car know I was in a hurry. I turned
the key, and nothing. No radio, no fuel pump clicking, no lights.
Did the roll start thing again - and it worked fine. Drove out to the
main gate. I had to stop because of all the people leaving the Veep's
place, and right there, in front of all those people, the car stalled.
Roll started it again, and drove out the gate. Some jackass ran a red
light, and I had to slam on the brakes. Stall. This time, it would
not start. Rolled it down the hill, in 4th at 20 mph, then 3rd, then
2nd. I know the engine was turning fast enough to start, but nothing
that ran on electricity showed any signs of life. So I parked it and
asked for a ride home.
Yesterday I replaced the starter, and tried it again. Car is still
dead. Deader than a doornail. I say, "time to call AAA". Then I
notice the taillights are on. I get it and try to start the car, and
it makes the click click clicking of a starter trying to engage, but
not quite able to. I decided the battery needed to be recharged, so I
took it home last night to do that. It needed it a little, but I
don't think enough that it would fail to turn the engine over.
And that is where things stand. I will be putting the battery back in
at 4:30 this afternoon, when the people at the British Embassy start
leaving and I can park the station wagon next to the MGB. I hope that
I don't have to do anything radical like replace the flywheel. Maybe
I could just file the burrs off the teeth.
Anybody have any suggestions as to how I can fix this? The starter is
the late model pre-engaged type. Thank you.
James
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