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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Fuses - sanity check please

Currently my mk2 Sprite is running a 4 fuse box instead of the original 2 fuse one. One of the fuses is used for the lights including the headlights.

Am I right in my reading of the wiring diagrams that originally the headlamps were not a fused circuit i.e. control box to switch to lights.

Thanks
Jeremy Cogman

Jeremy

You are correct.
Dave O'Neill 2

If you think about it, the head lamp is the fuse

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Jeremy. At the time, headlights were defined as "safety related". As such, they were an unfused circuit so that you would not lose lighting, due to a burned out fuse, while driving down the highway at night. To the best of my knowledge, the headlights were never a fused circuit on the MG even at the end of production. The tail lights, parking lights and (later) side marker lights were put on fused circuits when the factory switched over to the four fuse system. But, the wiring was set up so that even if a single fuse burned out, there would still be marker lights on each side and both a tail light and a parking light would be visible at the rear and front, respectively.

There are some people who, over the years, have argued that it would be desirable to make the headlights a fused circuit. Having lost headlight function, due to a switch malfunction, on another brand of vehicle, I found it quite interesting to safely pull off the side of the road, in the middle of a dark night while driving down a mountain. A great adventure, but one does not want to enjoy too many such adventures. I have keep all of my MG headlight systems in their original, unfused, condition.

Les
Les Bengtson

Jeremy,if all the wiring is sorted i.e. in good condition, loom wrapped properly, routed so it can't short out on a sharp bit of bodywork, all connections insulated using heat shrink (don't trust the old rubber or plastic covers) then putting a fuse or circuit breaker in shouldn't be a problem. I'd go for a circuit breaker which resets after the short condition is rectified. HTH
Rod
PS attached is my relay installation on my 2500S which uses circuit breakers for the A/C, engine fan and headlights


R W Bowers

Do what I did, each headlight is fused separately. Like Les, I was in a car that the headlights both went out on a dark night on a mountain road - not going there again. With each headlight on it's own circuit, it is very unlikely that both will go out at the same time. Cheers - Dave
D W DuBois

This thread was discussed between 13/08/2014 and 14/08/2014

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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