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Re: Cool Headlights!

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Cool Headlights!
From: russ@scubed.com (Russ Wilson)
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:19:41 -0800
Don Mathis wrote:
>That's nothing.....when I turn on my turn signals in the MGA at night when I
>have my headlights on, BOTH headlights also blink !  So there...!

Don,
No, that's nothing.  I have the headlights on my '63 B powered from a relay
so they turn off with the ignition, but I also have a switch to bypass this
feature if the lights should be needed while the key is elsewhere.  I also
have installed a door switch that turns on the interior light (map-reading
light) when the passenger door is opened (a concession to the spouse before
we were spoused).

Soooo...if the headlights are on, the bypass switch is bypassing, the
standard dash-mounted map-reading-light switch is on AND the passenger door
is opened,  the ignition turns on!  With the manual button on the solenoid
in the early B's, the car can be readily started and run without the
ignition key.  Only once in the several decades since I made these
modifications did I need to use this unintentional feature (feature??).

Once, when turning the engine off, my key chain broke; I found all my other
keys on the floor, but the ignition key had vanished.  So, I flipped some
switches, opened the door, pushed the button and took off, feeling very
smug....

The only problem was that every time I let go of the passenger door to
shift the darned wind blew it closed and the engine died.  So, I tried to
steer with my knees, shift with my left hand and hold the door open with my
right....

Straight was good; the only problem was the darned corners - my knees
weren't fast enough.  So I jammed a book into the door crack to hold it
open and keep the light switch on....

The only problem was that every time I applied the brakes or made a left
turn the darned door flew open and the book fell out.  So, I didn't use the
brakes (much) or make any left turns.  End of problems.  It was surprising
how far out of my way I had to go to avoid stopping or turning left, but at
least I did not have to walk home - or tear some wire out to hot-wire the
car.

BTW, Many years later, when restoring the car, I found the key *inside* the
drivers door.  Apparently, when the chain broke, the key was launched,
right past my nose, into the window slot!

Moral: grab the key, not the chain (or bring a passenger to hold the door).

Russ Wilson


PS: Anyone care to learn what I found rolling around in the gas tank - the
cause of that mysterious noise I had heard for some 15 years?



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