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Re: It's the tail lights... Doh!

To: bmc@aa.net
Subject: Re: It's the tail lights... Doh!
From: gofastmg@juno.com (Rick Morrison)
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 21:14:39 EDT
Scott,
 I had a similar situation with a car with the lisence bracket removed.
The pump wouldn't work until the bracket was attached. 
 I finally traced it back to an after market fuel pump, which was not
internally grounded, and the DPO had run the ground wire up to the ground
for the liscence plate lamps. 
 Why he used 4 feet of wire and went toall that trouble, I'll never
understand.
 Oh, I grounded the little sucker to the pump mounting bracket. end of
problem

Rick Morrison
72 MGBGT
74 Midget

On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 16:10:28 -0700 "Scott McKorkle" <bmc@aa.net> writes:
>Amazing how we continually embarrass ourselves in public.  I took my 
>78B in
>for new paint a couple weeks ago.  Stripped off everything that would 
>move
>(and a few things that wouldn't).  The only items I left on were the 
>tail
>lights.  I removed those at the paint shop (I'll bet some of you see 
>where
>this is going...)  They drove it into the garage and drove it back out 
>to
>the parking lot after about a week indoors.  When I picked it up 
>today, it
>was resplendent in its new Brooklands Green paint.  However, we 
>noticed
>that a tire was going flat.  No problem, they say, just drive it up to 
>our
>compressor and we'll fill it with air.
>
>I jumped in, turned the key... nothing happened!  I went through all 
>the
>checklist items, finally figured out it wasn't getting any gas.  
>Brilliant
>me, I figured the gas gauge went south and drove to the station for a
>couple gallons.  Still nothing.  Just about ready to go buy a fuel 
>pump
>when it hit me.  Tail lights!  I replaced them and it started 
>immediately.
>
>Can someone tell me why??  It isn't a ground situation--I made sure to
>reconnect the ground wires after removing the the rear license plate
>bracket (where they are fastened).  Obviously, the fuel pump needs the
>electrical connections in the tail lights to complete the circuit.  
>But
>only the tail lights--every other exterior light on the car has been
>removed.  Could it somehow be tied to the fact that there isn't a 
>ground
>wire on the tail light assembly??  
>
>Please note that all is running well now.  I'm just curious.
>
>Thanks!
>Scott McKorkle
>1978 MGB
>


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