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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Wiring Loom Question

I got very cold yesterday tracing the fault that was preventing my headlamps from working.

It turned out to be a separated bullet connector behind the grille.

My question is: How should the loom run behind the front grille, and how is it secured.

My harness was basically wrapped in black insulating tape with a big lump in the middle. It was draped across the space behind the grille and flopping around in the breeze. Late last year I decided to tidy it up and hide it out of sight beneath the slam panel and secured with a cable tie.

On stripping away the insulating tape, I found that the lump was a cluster of bullet connectors, some with 'modern' crimped on bullets and one of these had separated as a result of my tidying up exercise.

A fresh bullet was soldered on (only burnt my fingers once!) and everything is wrapped in insulating tape and working again, secured by a cable tie to the central strut.

Can anyone enlighten me as to how the harness should run and how should it be protected and secured, with a photo if possible?

It may all have to come out again when the weather's warmer as the grommets where the loom goes through panels are all shot and need replacing.

Thanks to a cold-numbed brain, I forgot to photograph my set up, of course!

Thanks in anticipation.

Colin
C Mee

Colin..there are some metal clips which fit onto the rear edge of the slam panel and have lips to take the wiring harness as it passes from one side to the other. Be careful not to cut the insulation as you push the wires in. Don't ask me how I know. Dave
David Cox

Dont know if this helps from later workshop manual


mark heyworth

Thanks Dave and Mark - and thanks for the warning, I'm dreadfully clumsy with things like that!

Would the cluster of connectors normally have some sort of protection? I'll keep them wrapped in insulation tape unless there's a better alternative.

C.
C Mee

I usually do the same to protect the connectors from the shuck and mit thrown up from the road [and fields!]..
David Cox

For a connection such as that which hopefully won't need to be undone too often,I would wrap it using self-annealing tape rather than normal insulation tape. It will keep the damp out far better, And I would also use a little Permatex or similar dielectric grease on the electrical contacts before wrapping.
GuyW

Guys
I know this isn't really needed but i was doing a little job on the E Type the other day and found this chart- Thought it might be of interest--Don't know if I'm supposed to copy it, but for your own private use I see no problem
willy

http://www.jcna.com/library/tech/tech0014.html
William Revit

On the mini wiring loom i have just done i find that heat shrink is re-assuring stuff to use. Clearly a connector so you can isolate things like headlights, indicators etc is a good thing. But if you are going with bullet connectors, you could still use these and then just heat the ends of the H/S to get the benefit of a seal without shrinking the whole thing if you prefer.
P Bentley

This thread was discussed between 18/03/2018 and 20/03/2018

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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