A month or so ago I sent the list a question regarding a problem I was
having getting my '77 MGB to run. This past weekend I got it running and
thought I'd let you all know what the problem was (in case you ever run
into this :).
To recap: The engine would catch but would die immediately.
I received some suggestions from list members offline to look into the
ballast resistor. This car has the original Lucas electronic ignition
and there is no external ballast resistor (I think there is one in the
coil). In any case, I discovered that I didn't have power to the coil
when the key was "On" but did when the starter was cranking. One thing
led to another, and I believe the problem was a bad ground where the
starter relay mounts to the fender. There was some minor corrosion on
the mounting bracket. Once I cleaned that up not only did the car start
and stay running, but the horn, turn signals, wipers and fuel gauge also
all started working. Since the car is being restored and the PO had a
number of wires disconnected, I didn't think too much about those things
not working before. So, if your horn, wipers, turn signals and fuel
gauge stop working, check out the ground at the starter relay!!
Mark
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