On 2017-05-03, wrote:

BMC owners always have fun tales to tell. I'll bet Don has some from
his MGA experience.

Some -- but the worst was when I installed a current shunt in
series with the battery to the fuse block. There was an easy place to
mount it -- a shelf on the right side just in front of the firewall. (I
was using some aircraft instruments as displays, plus a 24-hour wind-up
aircraft clock on a secondary panel -- removable so a passenger could
fit in the seat.

It was fine until I hit a vigorous bump, and the bonnet (US
hood) prop rod fell down and shorted the load side of the shunt to
ground. That stopped the car rather rapidly. :-) (No, I can't blame
Lucas for this, it was my own modification which did it.) When I
rebuilt it, using a short coil of 16 Ga wire as a shunt (it wasn't
calibrated, anyway -- just a rough reading of load with and without
headlights and heater fan.) I added a Plexiglass shield to prevent a
repeat of the short.

And the one electrical part which did give regular problems was
*not* branded "Lucas" -- but rather "SU". This was the electric fuel
pump, which slowly burned the points of the toggle linkage to the
solenoid, and every so often required adjustment. When the fuel pump
stopped, the first thing to do was to reach up to the ignition switch
and switch it off and on several times to pump the float bowls full
again. Then pull over to the side of the road, remove the battery cover
behind the two seats, get one half of the jack crank rod for the "King
Dick" screw jack, and get back in. Start up, and whenever the fuel flow
stopped, pick up the rod and bang it down on the side of the fuel pump
(not sure what a driver in the RHD UK versions would do, as he was
sitting almost on top of it), and it would go "tic, tic, tic, tic, ..."
and work again for a while. Once I got to my destination (usually work)
I would climb under the right side near the rear tire, reach in and
unscrew the nut connecting the wire, remove the nut under that, and pull
off the insulating cap. Then I would remove two screws, and turn the
toggle points assembly a few turns clockwise, and re-assemble it, and it
would be fine for a few months. (Yes, I always had the needed tools for
the task at hand. :-)

Now -- a friend also had a MGA-1600, and shortly after the two
of us had done a full rebuild on our fuel pumps (new diaphragm and
toggle points), he (while working night shift, so he had free time in
the day) pulled into the dealer to pick up some parts for his MGA. As
he pulled in, he saw someone with his head under the right rear side and
thought "It looks like he is working on his fuel pump -- no just because
the two of us just did it does not mean that he is."

Anyway, he went in, got the parts he needed, and spent some time
chatting with the parts guy. While doing that, the pair of legs he had
seen came in, said "I need a fuel pump for a MGA -- Here's my core
charge!" and thunked it down on the counter. As the parts guy turned to
go get one, my friend said "What is wrong with it? A friend and I both
just rebuilt ours."

The parts guy paused to hear the answer, and the pair of legs
said:

"Well ... I don't know much about these cars, but a friend does,
and he said it was the fuel pump."

"But what was it doing?"

"Well, when I turn on the ignition, it goes "Tic, Tic, Tic, Tic
..."

It took my friend, and the parts guy about five minutes to stop
laughing, and explain to him that yes, it was the fuel pump he heard,
but that was the sound of a perfectly healthy one. :-)

Mine, with my MG Midget Mk III (1275 cc), came one night in December
when I was driving from Michigan to NJ in freezing rain, and the
left-side parking light cover filled with salt water because the gasket
leaked; the wiring shorted out with no fuses at all in the system,
burning the insulation off of the wiring harness under the dash and
filling the cockpit with smoke; and then I had to drive 20 miles down
the Ohio Turnkike with a flashlight instead of headlights. d8-)

Now that was spectacular. For whatever reason, the parking light
covers never leaked on either my MGA 1500 or the MGA 1600 Mk-II. The
rear light coves for the 1600 Mk-II were the same as on a Midget, I
think. Long rectangle ended by a half-circle at each end, mounted
horizontally on the MGA and vertically oh the Midget. That also
remained watertight, as did the older light covers on the MGA 1500.

However, I did have a problem during a driving rain. (Summer
thunderstorm.) I started out from work in a nice dry summer day, so the
top (UK hood) was down, and a heavy rainstorm came up As long as I kept
going at speed, only my hair was getting wet, and I had a spare wiper
blade to clean sprinkles off the inside surface of the windscreen
(windshield). Suddenly, the light came on to indicate no charging
current. I pulled over under an overpass, got out, and checked. I had
expected a broken fan belt, but what had happened was the belt pulley on
the crankshaft had split into its two disc components and was no longer
driving the belt.

The temperature went up a bit, but with all the water splashing
on the radiator, it was not overheating -- the thermo-siphon was doing
its job, so I continued to home. (It was a MBG 1800cc engine by then,
but with a MGA pulley to keep it just a little shorter, and was running
with the MGA's SU carbs and intake manifold, as well as the water pump,
starter motor, and flywheel to make things fit.

A friend helped me pick up a replacement pulley, and it was
working again.

So -- really no problems with Lucas electrics for me, just the
SU electric fuel pump.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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