Almost certainly a brown or a white wire. If switching off the ignition
stopped the burning it will be on a white wire. Unfortunately the further
away from the solenoid the short is the more wiring is likely to be damaged,
because the same, very high, current will have been flowing throughout its
length. If any switches are en route they could have been damaged by heat
as well. The only possibilty of less loom damage than that is if one of the
connectors between the fault and the solenoid is making a bad connection.
This will have tended to limit the current and hence the overall damage,
plus what damage there is, is more likely to be near the bad connector. As
Marc found out one of the common causes of loom damage is when the white
wire to the fuel pump gets damaged. Another is anywhere in the overdrive
circuit which is also fed off the white. Other than that the white feeds
the coil and the fusebox, and is fed in turn from the ignition switch.
Try wiring an old (but working!) headlamp bulb in place of the battery
ground strap, three or four filamants in parallel if you can. That way if
you encounter the fault it will just make the headlamp filaments glow at max
brightness and not damage the loom. Switch on each circuit in turn.
Normally working circuits (except the starter) will cause the filaments to
glow with varying degrees of brightness, the bigger the load the brighter,
which means less power will be reaching the load so wipers will run slow (if
at all) and headlamps will be dim.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John J. Peloquin" <peloquin@cache.ucr.edu>
To: <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 4:48 PM
Subject: Acck, Electrical problem, dead short!!!! MGB-GT 1970
> Near Disaster! My brake lights stopped working recently, then my battery
> would not hold a charge. I then realized, when I smelled burning
> electrical insulation, that I had a dead short some place. Could someone
> suggest a FAQ for electrical trouble shooting? I'm quite dissappointed
> with this new problem because I replaced the whole electrical loom about
> 2 years ago. I had no problems until now.
>
> Also, because I smelled burning insulation, how would you all suggest I
> repair whatever wires are shorting out? I hope to hell they aren't
> within the loom but are some peripheral wire that is shorting out.
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