Barney,
Nice looking "A". Your friend is lucky to have you around.
Dave 72 B
-----Original Message-----
From: Barney Gaylord <barneymg@ntsource.com>
To: mgs@autox.team.net <mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2000 10:18 PM
Subject: Interesting MGA, and the Prince of darkness
>Such a great day for a cruise.
>
>On Wednesday I accompanied a club friend to assist with inspection of an MG
>for sale. The car was nice, he was hooked, so he bought it. Today
>(Thursday) he went back with the cash and picked up his freshly restored
>glossy black '59 MGA roadster with 25 miles on the odometer and not a speck
>of dirt. Ah, the glory.
>
>I had a suspicion that a freshly restored car with no mileage was going to
>have some teething problems, so I stayed near the phone, and sure enough it
>rang. Heading home he had driven it about 60 miles and stopped at a
>friend's house for a little show and tell and a cool one, and when he
>wanted to continue on home the car didn't. On the phone the symptoms were
>explained as no electrical power to anything, no lights, no starter, and
>using jumper cables with a car with a good battery and alternator didn't
>help. After a couple more questions and more hints I was guessing no
>connection on the battery to chassis earthing cable. Since it was only 25
>minutes up the expressway I figured it easier just to go check it out
>rather than to play guessing games on the phone.
>
>And so it was, with twin 6-volt batteries, positive earth, and the earthing
>cable firmly attached to the forward mounting bolt of the left rear shock
>absorber. I switched on the headlight switch and found 13 volts between
>the "+" post (earth terminal) and the car body. With all that fresh paint
>on the chassis the cable end was getting very little electrical connection,
>but tightening the shock mounting bolt made the world right again.
>
>And then the next problem. Headlights working again and the starter
>spinning over like a top, but no fire in the cylinders. A little more
>probing turned up no spark and no power to the ignition coil. One more
>step back revealed a broken terminal on the back of the brand new ignition
>switch. This switch has just two teminals, both attached wih rivets and
>"U" shape to accept two push-on connectors each. One of the "U" connectors
>had pulled off of its rivet, obviously a manufacturing quality control
>problem. A jumper wire with alligator clips was sufficient to bypass the
>ignition switch to get him on his way again.
>
>Now it doesn't surprise me one bit that a freshly restored car has some
>teething problems. But I was a bit taken at the coincidence of having two
>seemingly unrelated electrical problems simultaneously after a pleasant
>drive with no problems, but before it could be restarted. I think maybe it
>was just the Prince's way of introducing himself to an old fellow with a
>new toy.
>
>So if you have a viewing screen about 1024 wide and can stand a 129K
>download you might like this:
> http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg/guest/59_mga.jpg
>
>For those with smaller screns or less patience there's a 29K lite version
>here:
> http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg/guest/59_mga_s.jpg
>
>Barney Gaylord
>1958 MGA with an attitude (and a new heart throb)
> http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
>
>
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