[Mgs] Oh No! Harness burnt up!

[Marc]

Hi Paul -

You are, of course correct! I discovered that after looking at the very 
nice schematics at http://www.advanceautowire.com/mgb.pdf  (Set your 
print options to tile, the tape the pages together for a nice large 
color schematic)

I killed the ignition immediately, but once the smoke was there, it was 
already too late. It only took seconds...

My son & I removed the dash yesterday, and it appears that the bullet 
connector to the radio had worked itself loose and shorted on 
something... It's melted right to the end of the bullet, and throughout 
the harness. The browns that fed it are charred, and some smaller wires 
burnt through. The ignition switch is also fried. The dash sub-harness 
appears fine. You can follow the melt line through the main wiring 
harness though...

I thought the accessory line was fused, but either I've been DPO'ed, or 
I'm just wrong. Either way, I have a mess on my hands. The trick now 
seems to be avoiding "project creep". The repair has already expanded to 
cover some things I've been wanting to address, and now "might as well" 
since it's all apart anyway.

So far this means clean and lube the wiper wheel boxes and motor, and 
chase down a working clock, and a speedometer that works properly. 
Replace all the washer tubing. A new headlight switch. And since they 
are out, glassbead the demister vents and respray. Of course all new 
bulbs upon dash reassembly/install.

The item I'm really waffling on is removing the windscreen to replace 
the seal which has seen better days. Then of course, does it pay to 
reinstall a 27 year old glass that is showing it's age? And new glazing 
rubber and all the joys associated with that...

Big problem with pulling the windscreen, is then do I pull the front 
fenders to address the seams by the windscreen that are showing signs of 
a problem beginning to form? Of course that means some painting 
required... And so it goes...

Marc



Paul Hunt wrote:
> The white/green is the accessories wire i.e. for radio etc. (the 
> solenoid wire is white/light-green and goes to the coil +ve).  On an 
> American LE (i.e. 79-80 model) that is all it is used for (on some 70s 
> models it fed washers, wipers and heater fan via an in-line fuse), so 
> either whatever is connected to it has shorted out, or the wire itself 
> has become trapped and the insulation cut through, or possibly the 
> bullet on the end of the wire wasn't insulated (i.e. with a bullet 
> connector) and that touched the body.
>
> It could have damaged the ignition switch as well as the browns 
> feeding it coming up from the solenoid.
>
> PaulH.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> I started up my LE and within seconds heavy smoke erupted from under the
>> dash. I turned off the key, jumped out and disconnected the battery.
>>
>> Digging around, I found the white/green from the ignition switch melted,