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No brake lights and car won't turn off??

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longbridgehealey

longbridgehealey

Obi Wan
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So could it possibly be connected? Five days ago everything was fine. Tonight when we went to take her out, neither brake light was working, and when we turned the key off she kept on running. I'm still learning all this stuff, so this one really has me confused. Any obvious places to start?? I'll check the bulbs tomorrow, of course. Thanks! :wall:

Larry
 
"when we turned the key off she kept on running".

HI is this related to the earlier topic Dieseling??
1] What was the engine temperature
2] What was your idle speed
3] what was the ambient air temperature
4] what did you do to stop it from running

------------------------Keoke--- :confuse:
 
Nope, no dieseling

Engine hadn't even warmed up yet, just started her and checked brake lights, saw there weren't any and pulled her back into garage, then she wouldn't shut off.

Idle normal, about 10000


Air temp about 85F

Stalled car - popped clutch, disconnected battery and came inside, wrote this post
 
You have crossed up direct power (like, say, brake lites) that does NOT go through the ignition switch with coil feed.

IF you re-connect the battery, you will most likely find battery power at the coil (power in side).

Possibly melted wires, but most likely you've mis-plugged something.


That said, it could be two different things entirely.
You could have wires crossed up on ignition switch, ignition switch may have fallen apart internally and not moving with key, and the brake lites issue could be totally unrelated.

But, to give you an idea:

On my MK2 Jag, the brake lite switch is on the inner right wing, right next to the distributor.
I can see crossing wires up on this.

Now, stop and think.

Since your last dealing with the dieseling issue, what have you done?
What did you take apart?
What did you move or replace?
If you can remember, the last thing you did is probably what has caused this issue, or at least part of it.

Dave
 
I once worked on a MKIII that came into our shop and couldn't be shut off until the owner (Ms Pat Dewitt) got out, opened the trunk and used the battery disconnect switch.

It only took about five (5) minutes to determine that the sidelight/turn-signal wiring @ LF was rubbed through from the tire, had shorted and melted (back through to the trafficator switch). The immediate fix was to unplug the bullet connectors exiting the steering column stator tube, and the car would start and stop on the ignition switch, as Donald & Geoff intended.

The green wire (indicator power) had melted to the horn's ground wire and was getting enough 12DCN through the horn coils to keep the ignition and fuel pump going.

Ultimately, Ray Caivano, my boss at that time, sold her on having me replace the entire wiring harness.

Try unplugging the wiring coming out of the stator tube (usually above the grill opening, forward of the radiator; even if you only unplug the (solid) green wire, it will serve the purpose of ruling out that possibility.

Then we'll worry about the brake lights...
 
I'd add the questions: What was going on when you started the car? Did you turn on the key and press the start button as normal? And did nothing unusual happen during the time the car was running? I'd agree that the key switch is a strong suspect.
 
Randy, going to unplug the bullet connectors and see if that does it.
Michael, the car started up as usual. It had sat for four days, took a little choke and fired right up. The only abnormal thing was the brake lights not working when we did our "walk around" test of the lights and signals.

The car was in a local shop last week having a Petronix ignition put in. Maybe he reversed the wiring on the brake switch as suggested earlier. Could be I've got two unrelated issues that both just happened simultaniously???

I'll report back after disconnecting the bullet connectors.
Thanks to everybody!!
 
What is strange is that the key switch or wiring to/from it apparently took a dump between the time you started the car and the time you attempted to turn it off. Then again we are dealing with Healeys and the improbable is always within the realm of possibilities!
 
I'm afraid you've melted the rear harness leading down to the brake lights. Checking the ignition switch is easy to do by just removing the two wires behind it (disconnect the battery first), then check for battery (reconnect the battery)on one wire only, if you battery on both wires trace back to where they've melted together. Usually you will have to replace the whole harness, if you're lucky maybe only the rear chassis harness needs replacing. When installing the new harness put a inline fuse in to prevent this from happening again.

Good Luck.
 
:iagree:
What is strange is that the key switch or wiring to/from it apparently took a dump between the time you started the car and the time you attempted to turn it off.

This scenario suggests the ignition switch failed.

A hard short that burned up a harness should have created a bit of smoke and leave a tell tale odor too.--Fwiw--Keoke-- :confuse:
 
oops - :cheers: typing a little too fast......
 
OK everybody, sorry for the long delay in the update. Minor surgical procedure on me interrupted more important things! So I finally got back into the garage, and here's the outcome. Was it Michael that said "what's the last thing I did before the problem started"? Well, when I pulled the fuses to check them for the brake lights, I didn't get one of them set back in correctly - that was the ignition problem. Score that one up to the how dumb can I be catagory. The brake light problem was, however, real. Bad switch - replaced, and all is well. Thanks to all of you for your fast help, sorry that it took me so long to get back to you.

Larry :thankyousign:
 
Crap! I was going to suggest that you check the fuses. My 100M did the same thing and it turned out that the fuses had touched either, probably because of road vibrations or carelessness on my part. I stopped for gas and the car would shut off and the windshield wipers came on and some other weird things that I don't remember. I was terribly embarrased and a couple of guys decided it was electrical and asked me where the fuse box was. They didn't believe that there were only two fuses but one of the gents took one out, replaced it and all was well. The only thing I did right was to keep extra fuses with me.

P.S. I didn't suggest that as I thought you guys would just laugh at the female in the Healey forum. But then I think maybe you wouldn't have. I really need to start trusting you gents.
 
Always suggest away - how can there be dumb suggestions when there will always be folks doing mindless things like I did! :savewave:

Larry
 
Yep, that's how we'd start Healeys in the shop when the owner would leave with the key; slip the fuse "between" the clips (so it touched both circuits) and then push the START button (on the early cars, the BJ8s requiring you to use the bump-button on the solenoid).
 
BTW, glad you're on the mend. I'm going to have some oral surgery tomorrow, and I'm not looking forward to it (in comparison, a root-canal would be a pleasure).
 
Thanks, Randy, hope all goes well. The last time I had oral surgery they stopped halfway through and took everything out of my mouth to see why I was laughing - I told them that no matter what they did, I wouldn't tell them where the treasure was!
 
longbridgehealey said:
Thanks, Randy, hope all goes well. The last time I had oral surgery they stopped halfway through and took everything out of my mouth to see why I was laughing - <span style="font-weight: bold">I told them that no matter what they did, I wouldn't tell them where the treasure was!</span>
Click to expand...
Thank you, that really made me smile (I hope I can say that in a few more hours...).
 
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