MGB & GT Forum

Some puzzles, when I drove the car home, no hazard flashers, no cigar lighter, no radio--

And, they firmly screwed the radio console in with metric screws, -- taking an hour of my time to get to them-- rant over (arthritis does not help, treating my aches with Islay Liquids)

OK, I know the hot wire for the cigar lighter is sticking up, the large white with blue stripe is the ground for the radio (hey, it was the wire I had), using my meter, I cannot find any "always hot" leads-- I know it worked, I used it to power a trouble light, etc.

The 3" round can only has a wire on the top lug, I noticed it was not clean in the phone snap.

The power line to the radio is hot with the key on, I did try to figure out what I could using "The Book", which does not seem to have much on the console and hazard lights-- the wires for the hazard switch seemed to be all connected, you can see two purple wires in a double connector going no where, along with the other odds and sods, they show no voltage.

Any titbits you can toss my way is fine, it took me days to sort out the wires in the trunk, I have no idea why they were messing with the console, I leave it loose so I can check the tranny and the radio is about 3/8 " too deep-- I did find a wiring diagram for the radio on the bottom, and aside from one set of speaker wiring ripped out, it looks OK, --

The mosquitoes got to me, so I have not checked under the hood for any fusing-- but most other stuff on the car is working--

The map light was hanging down--

I will be seeing the local MG guru this week hopefully if the weather holds -- I have spent years avoiding disturbing this wiring -- I have sorted the headlights, and whatever is coming out of the steering column-- and am stubborn to take this sort of thing on, but -- I'm older, and want to drive a car which the important things work-- and perhaps a radio.

Horn is not working either, shop held on to the car for a year to paint it, -- I gave them three books, diagrams, etc. Only dust is on the outside of the books.

Thanks, John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-03 08:05 PM by JohnTF.

No big deal.
I am looking at the online wiring diagram from Advance Auto Wire.
There is a white/green wire coming from the ignition switch. It goes to a fuse. After the fuse the wire changes to green/pink.
When this circuit is complete most of your problems will clear up.

Get the appropriate wiring diagram from any of several sources, including Advance Auto WIre, and with that and a voltmeter you'll be able to sort this out in no time.

Here's some hints:
- brown is always hot
- purple is fused brown - so it should always be hot unless the fuse has blown or a connection is undone
- purple/white is the alternative ground for the courtesy light, it runs to the door switches
- green/pink is hot when the key is in "accessory" position, and should be used to power the radio
- the white/green lead is power to the cig lighter

---

Documenting my project in my journal at https://www.mgexp.com/home#journal

Thanks very much, I may have a fresher eye at it tomorrow, I had left an Advance print out in the car, -- I was getting a bit frustrated when so much was just needlessly bodged, and I had to find the problems they were hiding.

Good thing they did not rebuild the lump, there would probably be a bucket of spare parts somewhere.

I have not had the car, nor worked on the wiring for more than a year-- wiring was fine when I dropped it off.

Appreciate the suggestions, will check the fuses tomorrow and get on with it.

There are grounds unconnected, and bare bullets plus spade connectors just hanging around.

What is the can fastened with two spade terminals near the top? One terminal has a wire-- there are possible mates for it hanging about.

Several brown wire bullets are not hot. The black in a double connector is a good ground-- the white with green is a short positive wire to the cigar lighter--

All the wires for the flasher switch seem to be connected, there is an inline fuse wired in there which seems to be OK.

Thanks again, several pieces of the puzzle--

John

http://www.mgexp.com/article/lucas-colours.html

This will help: Shows which wire goes where. I think Skye did this or helped.

This and Advanced Wire diagram should get you sorted out.

Small blessing. Poor connections major cause of MG problems. Clean all connections, buy some spare ends from BHive before connecting.

You live in the States, maybe have I gun. I live in Canada and don't have a gun, but if I did live in the States, had a gun, gone through what you just did, then reconnected everything without maintenance, and then began having major electrical problems (remember your ends have been exposed to corrosion for a year without it connections),
if I had to go through that I might put the gun to my head.

Hope I made my point.

Go to a grocery store and get a bunch of twist ties with enough to write on. Label wire ends as you find them to where they go. Label all the components you'll now learn about. Helps now and in future. My pic only shows a few of the many I now have.

Curious: Why did shop have car for a year?
If all was running as you say they truly butchered it!
Did you say; "What the **** did you do to my car?

They owe you for the work you now need to do.

Lastly: As wiring is not damaged but mis-sorted, don't make it worse by causing a short buring harness.

Recently others have spoken of using a dummy battery that will show power to an end of wire, and maybe light a bulb. 9V? Easy to measure; a short won't allow this limited current to damage wire.

When ready to hook up car battery: FIRST DO THIS! Take your DVM set to 10A, and insert to negative circuit at battery, then hook up +. Don't know if you have clock or radio memory, but only a few hundred Ma should show; then check 200 ma scale for accuracy. Anything over 1A, you got a problem.

A lovely day, enough.

Bit of a long story on the repair, I needed some sheet metal and wanted the seats done with all new exterior paint-- they were in a hurry? and I ordered OEM stuff, lots of proper screws, bits, -- even gave them a box with boxes to keep it all sorted-- I hope to get the box back?.

I went south for my health, they got busy, stuck the car in a corner, the shop foreman lost his brother, I had a heart attack, flew home for 16 days in hospital--- will stop here, but the shop is 25 miles away-- I have a long history with the foreman, --

there were few in the shop who could spell MG I suppose, so I had to do a lot of over the shoulder stuff, which was not possible as I could not drive for a month--

The car looked like a barn find 3 weeks ago, I couldn't even stand to shoot a picture.

I expected some problem with the rear lights, got that sorted, and am clueless as to why they messed up the console -- have gotten several stories, and my cardio meds keep me from blowing up with them, not going to do any good, --

I was shocked when I saw the mess when I pulled the console-- going to start with the fuse box and work back-- I have double and triple connectors with wires at one end, -- yada yada

Am going to do what I can, and see one of the local MG guru, -- John Twist is 300 miles away-- ;-)

Appreciate all the help you folks are sending my way.

Regards, John

Sorry to hear of such woes.

Maybe a new post asking for someone in your area to come over and give a hand.

"The car looked like a barn find 3 weeks ago"
So did the work ever get done; hard to believe they'd paint and not protect surface somehow.

Thanks, some of this is coming back, I recalled some of these, there are two browns, one is an unplugged bullet, the other goes to a fuse into the hazard lights, both have no power, fishing upstream I am thinking-- I do not see a white/green female for the cigar lighter--

The radio is wired OK, but it is not powering up, its fuse is OK-- I am thinking I have a B-O-A-T. Well, I wanted one with an input from my digital music.

Something shorted, bottom fuse in box was blown, I replaced it, no real changes, then I checked continuity in the "new' fuse, it was bad-- found one more and replaced it-- why does it seem 1 step forward, 10 back?

I have somethings to discuss when I take it in, and the battery is failing, so another stop-- but I believe it is under warranty--

Thanks again, I think my mind forgot much of this from the last time when I fixed the wiring from the column and wired relays for the headlights with running lights--

John

Shocked is an inadequate word-- they did a good clean up, but, probably while cleaning up they may have messed up the wiring, plus, it caused me other work.

Am a bit laid up, so I just had to let it play out and deal with the consequences-- I got the trunk wiring straight, the rest may be more obvious, have a call in to the MG shop from ENMGR -- I have not been really in the club, not having my car, and other stuff.

Am sure the club guru can straighten it out, one way or another, I may have to home run some wire -- I have wanted to add a second fuse box and a jump terminal under the hood for charging and new wiring. -- just did not want to do it all right now.

J

Most things have been sorted, though, am not sure if properly-- I need some scotch guard to clean up some connectors, some had bits falling out of them, and some of the bullets were corroded-- though the shop yanking out wiring and burning a fuse + remounting the console with the bird's nest hidden.

i had to power the cigar lighter and hazard lights to the purple, will chat up a mechanic friend when I can corner him, -- I thought they should be powered by brown?? Two brown leads are not hot--

I left my stash of new connectors with the dealer, so have scavenged a few, that said, I am going to do some cleaning up before the console is screwed in place. I even got the radio to power up, now all I need is to replace the speaker wire?

The bits and pieces of information from you guys helped me to make a bit of progress today-- I even hooked up the key buzzer, until it drove me nuts, but at least I know what the heck it is ;-)

Bottom line, there is an end in sight, and just in time, the Islay Whisky is almost empty--


Laundry list tomorrow of small items-- Thanks again,

John