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Main wiring harnass

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edross

Freshman Member
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Hi All,
My first time to post.
I need help.
I am restoring the interior of 1980 MGB USA, GVVDJ2AG509439. Depressed now. Evyting out of interior except the dashboard ( & all gauges, switches, etc that are in the dash ). Dash & gauges in fine shape. THEN, as I was test fitting console w new stereo in it, the green/white wire ( With power all the time ) came aprt,Without inline fuse attached yet ( SO STUPID OF ME !! ) It shorted on body frame, & FRIED. Smoke & all. I feel so bad !! Can I get main harness out without removing the dash?? Should I remove harness & replace whole thing?? Can I just replace green/white wire, and anyother damaged wires in harness individually? Harnesses that go up steering column look OK, I will remove column cover & inspect better. Under-dash harness appears untouched. Dont know yet what other wires in main harness melted when green/white melted.
I have new interior kit, it just arrived. Now I feel so bad that I was planning to re-assemble, & now I may have to remove dash. I never did this before, hate tight work, ( cry, cry cry ).
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. This is my first MGB restore, but I have done other brith cars..TR-6, Jag XJ6.Will try to attach pic so you can see where I'm at.
Thanks for help

Ed Ross

BTW, How can I post pics of my progress ????
 
Hi Ed, welcome to the chaos.

Before you condemn the whole harness I'd say cut the wrapping with a box knife or razor blade (CAREFUL not to do more damage to other wires) and visually inspect it. You may just get lucky and need to only replace the one wire.

I won't say anything about th' battery or lettin' th' smoke out, you apparently have enuff English car experience already. :jester:

Pix: go to the "Switch to full Reply Screen" button below, then "File Manager". that allows you to choose which/where pic from your hard drive.

It does have a size limit so you may want to resize larger files and rename.
 
Welcome, Ed. This is the go-to place for info, as well as commiseration, as we've all been-there-done-that.

Someone a bit more savvy than me will more than likely chime in here, but sounds like you may have dodged a bullet, and will only have the one wire to replace.

Mickey
 
As doc recommended, you may be able to trace the wire back and spline in a portion of it. I just went through this on the '63 and what a mess of spagetti it was and most of this wiring was visible. By looking at it now (under the bonnet) you can hardly tell.

Whereabouts in NY is ya. I may have a portion of that wire that I could sent to you and tell you how to splice it in. Shoot me an email or just respond here.

Cheers
Vince
vping@optonline.net
 
Just remember one thing: all the wires are 30+ years old & becominh fragile and could break easily as you're taking the harness apart...the tape covering, if original, is not glued anywherem just wrapped & tied off tight....depending on the damage, remove your seats & dash & then you'll be able to comfortably get to the wiring.
 
Here's a set of diagrams that may help you in tracing the bad wire. Just scroll each page up until you find your year as illustrated in the lower right corner. There is a zoom feature that works very well.PJ

https://www.thebriton.com/mgbwiremaster.pdf
mgbwiremaster.pdf (application/pdf Object)
 
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