Fellow MG'ers,
The etc. etc. are for the fact that I don't know exactly what to say.
The scenario so far:
As I was driving my 79B up a hill, the ignition light came on and the
engine started to want to die. As I have had alternator problems in the
past, I figured there might have been some problems with the electrical
system. After trying to start the engine with no success, I tested out
all of the spark plugs, distributor/coil plugs for sparks; voila,
sparks. Alright so now I know that the ignition system seems to be
working. I started to smell smoke so I just said, "hey lets wait a
minute." A small bit of smoke came from the little aperture for the
bonnet release. When I tried to pop the bonnet, I experienced a painful
burn on my fingers. More on that later....Had the car towed to my
girlfriend's where I started to check everything. Came across
disconnecting the fuel line into the carb to see if fuel was getting to
it. Guess what...none! Am I that stupid to not have gas in the tank.
Well, I did, so I figured that there might be some problems with the
pump. When I checked the pump, the positive wire to the pump was pretty
much undone, the plastic had burned off and exposed some of the wire.
Decided to wrap it up for the time sakes. Still no fuel up front in the
hood. Did a voltmeter test on the pump wires. 1) Maybe I did not find
a proper ground but I did not read any voltage on that line. 2) Not
sure what it was, but I think that it was the inertia switch I saw under
the dash. The two wires going into it had melted together and on the
bonnet release(hence the burn on my fingers)! Separated the two wires,
electrical tape each respective one. Still no voltage at the pump.
Now, does anybody have some valuable advice to give me? I just cannot
live without the B. Sure the Nissan is reliable but with my recent
string of bad luck(B stolen, recovered, Nissan window break-in, now
this...) I just wanted to have a fresh start.
The questions are:
1) Where is a good ground to use when measuring the voltage at the fuel
pump? (battery post for ground?)
2) If that is indeed a inertia switch, is there a way to reset it?
3) The melted wires connecting into the supposed inertia switch, what
would that indicate?
4) Melted voltage+ wire into the pump stripped, just poor location and
physical damage, or over-current and etc.?
5) Is there a fuse connected to the fuel pump + wire? Through all the
electrical wiring maze, where is a good place to start?
Thank you in advance. All your wise advice will be greatly
appreciated. Once this is done, I think this situation has just
prompted me to put in that Rover V8, have the electricals redone, and
have fuel injection. Suggestions and advice on the topic also welcome
as the V8 mailing list does not seem to produce any response or answers.
Sincerely,
Ben Li
bkl@pacbell.net
'79 MGB
|