On Fri, 12 May 1995, Ramm, Andy wrote:
> I embarrassed myself yesterday in wierd way. I was driving along with my
> girlfriend and it seems that the choke cable is sticking a bit. I
> reached under the dash whilst stopped at a light to fiddle it loose
> again.
> The car died. It then wouldn't turn over. The electrics were dead. No
> lights, no nuthin'. Omigodomigodomigod. My first electrical MG gremlin.
> Any idea what the problem was -- as long as we're doing the guessing game
> thing? The hint is that the fix was free, and nothing shorted out and
> nothing became disconnected under the dash.
I don't know what it *was* but I know what it could have been. There's a
chance the engine to chassis ground was poor, so the engine was grounding
through the choke cable (possibly aided by a deteriorated firewall
grommet). When you fiddled with it, you may have disturbed the engine's
last remaining decent path to ground.
If that was it, you must have an easy starting engine, because running
the starter very long would sure make the wire housing of the choke carry
a devil of a lot of current.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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