[Mgs] Electrical Nightmare

[Barrie Robinson]

Hello folks,

I feel oh sort of superior! An unusual feeling in the MG world as I am a 
novice.  When I built my MGB GT V8 I was determined to make it bullet 
proof even if it meant not being "original". There is a chap, whose name 
escapes me, who put out an electrical wiring harness design which was 
"point to point". He was a big time engineer in Triumph so I followed 
his design and actually bought parts form him.   It had a central 
"control box" with solenoids, fuses etc etc.   So that's what I have in 
my GT.   Bags of fuses and there are no branches causing confusion.    
It is not original true, but then it is bulletproof.   Probably no more 
expensive than buying a harness from British Wiring or others if you do 
it yourself.

I have his article, complete with diagrams, from the British V8 outfit 
which was pure MGs but now any Brit V8 !!

Barrie.

On 1/16/2020 2:41 PM, Hans Duinhoven via Mgs wrote:
>
> Looking to your picture, I think it is better to do a thorough wiring 
> job.
>
> It looks, like the car has been exposed to “nature” for many times.
>
> This means, a lot of contacts are suspect of being poor or bad.
>
> So besides true fault finding, I’d dismantle all wiring and get all 
> contacts cleaned.
>
> Clean all bullet connectors and replace all their interconnects.
>
> Clean all other connectors and replace these when they are bad.
>
> I did this with my BGT in 1996 and after that job I never had any 
> electrical failures, besides a faulty alternator (diode pack) and 
> starter solenoid, where the nut did not keep the 12 V wires fixed 
> anymore.
>
> So get a matching electrical diagram of the car’s built year.
>
> The Haynes MGB manual always helped me out.
>
> Hope this helps for the long term.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Hans
>
> ’71 BGT
>
> *Van:*Mgs [mailto:mgs-bounces at autox.team.net] *Namens *Max Heim via Mgs
> *Verzonden:* donderdag 16 januari 2020 20:20
> *Aan:* Michael MacLean
> *CC:* MGs
> *Onderwerp:* Re: [Mgs] Electrical Nightmare
>
> I think you still have a ground problem. Should the steering column 
> have a separate ground wire on a 69? I know there is one in the turn 
> signal harness.
>
> It does help to consult the wiring diagram, to figure out where the 
> common grounds are.
>
> --
>
> Max Heim
>
> '66 MGB
>
>     On Jan 16, 2020, at 11:06 AM, Michael MacLean via Mgs
>     <mgs at autox.team.net <mailto:mgs at autox.team.net>> wrote:
>
>     In an earlier post I told how my tach in my 69 GT would die when
>     the headlights were turned on.  Someone mentioned that the tach
>     was looking for a ground through the light wiring for the
>     instrument.  That turned out to be true, somewhat.  To test this I
>     pulled the instrument to inspect the wiring and found what you see
>     in the picture.  One arrow points to the ground connection on the
>     back of the case and the other arrow points to a common ground
>     just floating around behind the instrument.  For an experiment I
>     slipped the ground wire connector over the threaded mouting stud
>     of the case back and shoved the tach back into place temporarily
>     to find out about the missing ground theory.  It worked!  You
>     didn't think it was going to be that easy did you?  The light had
>     not illuminated the instrument before either, so after scraping
>     and sanding the bulb hlder and the tube fitting on the back of the
>     tach that the bulb shoves into, the light worked too, but wait
>     there's more!  After this hollow victory I had to use the horn on
>     the test drive. Now the horn does not work, but when I push on the
>     steering wheel stalk to activate the horn, the brake warning light
>     comes on.  I just love electrical problems.  Not in my element
>     here.  Any ideas?
>
>     Mike MacLean
>
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