Dear Mike,
A lesson we have learned from this:
Have your circuits fused.
This to prevent damage and expensive repairs.
I had a melted wire in the dash loom, because the MG factory found it not
needed to have the dahs lamps to be fused.
I hope your damage will be limited to the wires only.
cheers,
Hans
'71 BGT once smoking in the dash wiring loom
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Lishego [SMTP:mikesl@tartan.sapc.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 1999 04:41
> To: MG List
> Subject: Smoooke from the column...Fire in the 'B!
>
> Hello all,
> Had a rather unfortunate adventure in the 'B today...Started up
> the car to go to school and got out of my parking place when the car
> quit DEAD. I sat there, thinking the alternator was shot and
> wondering how I could get to school. Suddenly, a big gust of smoke
> rose from my steering column! I jumped out of the car and quickly
> disconnected the battery to minimize damage.
> I wasn't far from my parking spot, so I pushed the car back into
> place and sat down to think...At this time, smoke started coming
> from my passenger's side seat! I ran to the battery and found that
> my 'constant ground' wire that I run to keep my radio settings was
> smoking! It was pulled from the battery, and all was well (at least
> as well as it could be.)
> I borrowed a friend's car to use for transportation, and went at
> the problem this afternoon. I figured that if there was smoke, I
> must have a problem with an unfused wire...Right I was...
> The DPO used some silly thin-gauged wire to run the fuel pump.
> This wire ran right under the passenger's side seat. It cracked,
> and you guessed it, burned. I pulled the steering cowl off to find
> the white wire melted, along with my ignition switch. Any hopes of
> a cheap repair went down the tubes with that discovery...
> Along with this, the remote ground wire that I had run for my
> stereo melted too. I *ass*umed that a ground (especially to a
> battery post) didn't need wire that was too thick. I guessed wrong.
> So, what's next? All the carpet and interior pieces are OK,
> with no real burn marks. Obviously, I get to spend some time buying
> thicker gauge wire for my stereo and fuel pump, along with some $$$
> for a new ignition switch. My question is simple - why did the
> white wire melt? It wasn't even connected to the fuel pump, though
> the pump wire came from the fuse block at the same spot where the
> white wire went in. I checked the end of the white wire, and it was
> melted too. I cut it and re-shrink wrapped it to ensure that no
> accidental contact would be made.
> What did I learn? Don't trust anything the DPO did unless his
> last name is 'Goodwrench" and you call him 'Mr.' Don't use thin
> wire. By all means, add a battery cut off switch where you can
> reach it too. I don't know how bad things would have been if I had
> to remove the battery cover and then pry the battery clamp off the
> post...
> And I was just gonna boast that I had 5,000 relatively
> trouble-free miles in my 'B...
>
> Michael S. Lishego
> http://www.mgb.bc.ca/virtualgarage/
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