Bob,
If the starter relay spontaneously fails (corrosion or moisture caused), the
starter will engage. I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't happened to me. There
I was, alone in the warehouse with my car collection, happy as a lark.
Suddenly, an MGB 35 feet away decided to start itself. It scared the bejeezis
out of me. I calmly put my tools away and ran like hell out of there. Went
home early that night.
Good reason to stop this dangerous practice of parking in gear. Use the
parking brake to hold the car. if it doesn't work.... fix it.
Jim
Bob Howard wrote:
> Dave,
> I am a believer in the cut off switch too, having one in my TD and one
> in my MGB-GT. Not only for the reduction in the chance of electrical
> misfortune, but simply for the convienience, are they great.
> A week ago Friday, I got a call from a club member whose '76 is her
> daily driver. She took it from work to get lunch for the staff, returned
> to the office and parked it. Later, some of the staff were laughing about
> her parking her B in a snowbank. Seems that she left the car in gear,
> starter chose to engage, and powered the car across a parking lot, up a
> curbing, and into the bank where it stopped and the starter turned the
> drivetrain until battery and starter died.
> They still haven't figured out exactly why this happened. As I
> understand it, the wires running up from solenoid to relay and to the
> distribution junction were both fried. Who knows--could have been
> ice/snow abrasion or build up, something run over on the road--just no
> real way to tell.
> However, had a $25 switch been in the car, this could not have happened
> to an unattended vehicle, and a minor problem could have been much more
> serious.
> Bob
>
> On Sat, 05 Feb 2000 11:53:22 +0000 Dave Houser <mgs4dave@warwick.net>
> writes:
> > With all this talk about batteries and box sizes, I hope everyone
> > replacing their batteries also installs a battery cut-off switch
> > there
> > too! For safety's sake, it's a lot easier to throw a switch than
> > trying
> > to unscrew those five dzus fasteners or watch the flames go ever
> > higher.
> > I put em on all my MGs and I'm resting a little easier.
> > Cheers,
> > Dave Houser
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