[Mgs] Mgs Digest, Vol 176, Issue 4

Sun Jan 23 15:22:49 MST 2022

 I have been through 4 headlight switches in the last 2.25 years.  The quality is just so poor.  12 uses out of first one, 8 uses out of 2nd one and the last one lasted 3 uses and gave out in the dark at the start of a 1,283 mile trip over 6 days.  I had to sit on the side of the road and wait for the sun to come up.  A buddy had a two position 50 year old Sunbeam light switch we installed hanging under the dash on the first day of the trip, whew.
1973 MGB, original owner with 234K miles and the original switch lasted 230k miles.  Take your original switch apart and do everything you can to retain it.
Never any smoke, the switch just gives up the ghost.  Supper poor quality, mechanically.
Installed Halogen lamps from a buddy with Moss relays and 4th Moss switch.  I have only used 3 times, so we will see if this works.
Good luck.

    On Sunday, January 23, 2022, 02:00:17 PM EST, mgs-request at autox.team.net <mgs-request at autox.team.net> wrote:  

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: 1972 MGB convertible (dave northrup)
  2. Re: 1972 MGB convertible (PaulHunt73)
  3. Re: 1972 MGB convertible (Robert's New iPad)

Worked on the car a little today.  discovered that the blinkers do indeed work so that’s good, and makes sense. 

We have a battery cutoff switch on this car so I decided to try a few things.  I noticed that the light switch no longer moves at all.  I cannot get the light switch to toggle at all so likely it is fried.  Next step is to bypass the switch and see if we get lights/action if I manually connect the wires. 

On 19/01/2022 02:32, dave northrup wrote:

Swapped transmissions, car runs and drives fine, blinkers worked ok this afternoon until on the way home I switched on the lights.

Smoke from under the dash, I think on the passenger side but not positive. Turned the lights off, turned the car off and popped the hood. No smoke in engine compartment.  Back of light switch was hot but did not burn my finger.

In that case it sounds like it was an output from the light switch that shorted.  Either the blue (headlights) or red/green (parking and instrument lights) is probably also damaged, which will indicate (pun not intended) where to look next.

Note that if the short caused enough damage inside the switch to open the circuit, and disconnect the short, manually reconnecting the wires will likely bring it back on again.  With your cut-off switch on tap first one then the other of the wires mentioned above onto the brown and you should soon see which has the short - if it's still present.

PaulH.

 On 23/01/2022 00:34, dave northrup wrote:

   I noticed that the light switch no longer moves at all.  I cannot get the light switch to toggle at all so likely it is fried.  Next step is to bypass the switch and see if we get lights/action if I manually connect the wires. 

  Condition of the light switch does not sound encouraging, but you might remove it from the dash, open it, and see if it can be cleaned and saved. Original switches were good quality. At age 35 or so, my switch was warm to touch. I bought a new one. It was hot to touch. I opened and cleaned original, installed;  it has been happy, and cool, ever since.  Relays were installed later, but well after the old switch was back in service.   Good on you to have a battery cut-off switch.  I am a believer. We know the condition of wires where we can see them, but those we can not see ......Bob

On Jan 22, 2022, at 7:34 PM, dave northrup <dave at ranteer.com> wrote:

Worked on the car a little today.  discovered that the blinkers do indeed work so that’s good, and makes sense. 

We have a battery cutoff switch on this car so I decided to try a few things.  I noticed that the light switch no longer moves at all.  I cannot get the light switch to toggle at all so likely it is fried.  Next step is to bypass the switch and see if we get lights/action if I manually connect the wires. 

On 19/01/2022 02:32, dave northrup wrote:

Swapped transmissions, car runs and drives fine, blinkers worked ok this afternoon until on the way home I switched on the lights.

Smoke from under the dash, I think on the passenger side but not positive. Turned the lights off, turned the car off and popped the hood. No smoke in engine compartment.  Back of light switch was hot but did not burn my finger.

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