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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