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Tips
Tips

electricals ... grrr

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ermmm... just got my grounding strap in from Mossmotors. It seems to be rather... short - about 6 to 7 inches from end of mounting eyelet to end of mounting eyelet. I ordered part # 332-070. Packaging says the part number and so does the invoice. Is this normal? I just feel i have to ask, because I've never seen an engine grounding strap this short before.
 
Yes Nunyas, they use a very short rubber covered unbraided grounding strap.--FWIW---Keoke
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
Well as you probably now know Moss has to make everthing better and Steve has revealed it's secret location. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif--Keoke---OH! it is probably tinned braided copper at least lets hope so!!
 
Well, the cable that Moss sent isn't insulated, and looks like braided stainless steal. But that's besides the point. A preleminary look around the engine bay doesn't reveal any chassis points that look close enough to any engine bolts to use such a short cable. At anyrate, I'm sure I'll figure it out...

Thanks for all of the tips so far everyone.
 
My earth cable is braided stainless steel....or at least I think it's stainless......but it's the original one, and it's about six to seven inches long. Take a look at the back of the engine closest to the firewall. There is a large metal plate bolted to the back of the engine (Don't know the correct terminology for these items). There are two bolts at the very top of this plate, one on each side. The earth strap is attached by the bolt that's towards the passenger side. The other end goes over on to the firewall, but not directly. It travels further over to the passenger side of the car. See the housing for the heater blower? Look just below and to the left of that, on the horizontal part of the firewall. There should be a bolt holding a steel pipe and another part to the firewall. That bolt is what holds the other end of the strap in place. Confused? I hope not.
 
Steve - ya know the saying... "a picture is worth a thousand words"? I think it applies in this situation /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif J/K. I can use your discriptions of the locations to get me in the right ball park for the proper location for the strap. Thanks
 
I would bet that the "new" alternator has been fried or short lived. Dont be reticent about trading in the "new" alternator, I have had many electrical components from the discount stores fail before the warranty is up. I will throw out some random thoughts on your dilemma.
(1) Most solid state ignition systems will stop working if the supply voltage falls below 9 volts. Put a volt meter on the 12 volt supply to the ignition amp and see if it fails when the voltage reaches 9 volts. If it fails over that, your solid state amp is probably causing the fault. (2) Does your MG have the original radiator electric cooling fans? Are these units still on the thermostat switch or has a PO hard wired them to run with ignition on? These units can begin to use a lot of amps and cause the battery voltage to go down significantly as they age. I finally replaced mine with an after market 16 inch fan with good results. I hope this helps you with sorting out the problem(S).
 
John - As far as I know it's using the 'stock' cooling fan. However, mine seems to be running off of the pulley system and on the water pump. I've considered putting an electrically operated cooling fan on my radiator, but want to get my electricals under control before I go adding more electrically driven components to the system.
 
Not sure if this matters, but since I'm still having some difficulties I'll toss this bit-o-info in. The wires going into my alternator are a thin Brown-Yellow wire, thick Brown wire, and thin brown wire. When I installed the Bosch Alternator I tied the thin brown wire and the thick brown wires together. What prompted me to do so was the male spade connector on the alternator was too large for the small brown wire's female spade connector to fit on. The wiring diagrams that I went through all indicated that both solid brown wires connected to the same post on the starter solenoid.

My car is a '76 B, and none of the wiring diagrams in my Haynes manual looks exactly like my car. According to the diagrams in my manual all B's 73/74 and newer had electric radiator fans. Mine does not. Not only that but my Haynes skips the US 75/76 models and jumps from 73/74 to "later N American", but when I look at the "later N American" diagram it indicates two thick brown wires run from the alt to the solenoid. Mine does not have that. Instead my car has 1 thick brown wire and 1 thin brown wire both supposedly going from the alt to the solenoid. Now that brings to mind, ideally a wire is electrically a short, and if these two wires are connecting to the same terminal at the solenoid then why use 1 thick and 1 thin? Why not just use a single larger gauge wire? Is that thinner wire doing something in between the alternator and solenoid that isn't plotted on the charts? Also, was it a terrible mistake to tie the two wires together? And my final question, the external lights on MGBs, do they not go through the fuse box? The diagrams that I've looked at seem to indicate that they aren't fuse "protected", and indeed when I removed all the fuses from my fuse block I was still able to turn on all my external lights... is that normal?
 
Nunyas, if you get a test light and cut your switch off, go to the fuse box and see how many things are still getting power you will understand why they sold so many battery cut off switches to BLC. Have to reset my radio for the old time rock and roll station and I don't care what time it is when I'm driving my cars, except how long before dark. HEE HEE. Wayne
 
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