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MG MGB Technical - The ghost of Mr. Lucas visited me last night.

Got to say that one of the most dependable parts of my 67 has always been the electrical system. Pretty much all stock, with original wiring. Never given me any problems.

After a nice drive with everything working, I got up this morning to find my fuel gauge not working and the turn signals only working intermittently. A bit of troubleshooting came up with a broken connector on the turn signal wire. The little metal loop in the connector was broke in half. Guess they do get brittle.

A fairly easy fix. Also found the ground wire on the fuel sending unit was off. Guess it got bumped when I put the new emergency brake cable in and wiggled off on the last drive.
Bruce TD4139 Cunha

I learned that I should not blame Mr. Lucas as his company may not have built the wiring and the bullet connectors.

A topic that I don't think I have read about. Who build the wiring harnesses for MG?
Bruce TD4139 Cunha

The wiring harnesses were made by a company called Rists. My MGB wiring harness has a Rists tag on it somewhere. They are (or were) in Stoke-on-Trent, and are (or were) owned by Lucas - so you can still blame them. Lucas were in trouble with the Monopolies Commission for having too much of a share of the wiring market and at the time (1960's) they were supplying wiring looms to the likes of BMC/BLMC at below cost, funding this from the profits from their other products.
Brian Shaw

Nothing wrong with Rists either as far as original harness and connectors go, not like the stuff available these days. The bullet connectors in particular are very poor with flimsy tubes that barely grip the bullets, and plastic sleeves that slide up and down the tubes exposing the ends.
Paul Hunt

Almost every electrical component on my '67 B, including the wiring harness, is original. I've never given it a second thought over the forty three years that the car has been in my possession. It seems that that the rocker switches were always problematic from new. RAY
rjm RAY

"Almost every electrical component on my '67 B, including the wiring harness, is original.

"It seems that that the rocker switches were always problematic from new"

Doesn't compute.

I've had to refit an original rocker when the replacement, bought for it's better logo, packed up. By that time the logos on all the new switches had faded, so the original looks completely at home.
Paul Hunt

Paul, all of the switches in my '67 are of the bat handle design and have held up very well over the years in function and appearance. My experience with the rocker switches, introduced in the US in '68 for safety reasons, has not been nearly as good. Quite a few of them have failed to work from new. RAY
rjm RAY

OK, I was assuming your 67 was a MK2 with the later switches. The UK, when they did get rockers, were a different design, and these can be opened up and worked on. I had to dig the hardened grease out of the hazard switch on the V8. The 77 and later rockers are a different kettle of fish, smaller, fiddlier, and no success in repairing.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 12/05/2015 and 16/05/2015

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