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MG MGA - floorboard fire

From another thread William mentioned a floorboard fire which reminded me of my own. In high school I had a 62 MKII that I bought for $80.00. It was a great car and worth every bit of the $80. The exhaust was pretty rattly and bailing wire was used primarily to keep the muffler from dragging. My friend Butch worked at the 76 station and let me put the car on the rack at night. Since the floorboards were wood, we found a spare u-bolt and drilled through the floor and sucked the exhaust pipe right up against wood. Boy, did that ever improve the sound of the car. It was fantastic. Never knew how quiet the MGA could be. One morning as I was heading into school I smelled smoke and looked down. There between my legs were flames licking up and getting bigger. Well, I pulled over to house and grabbed this stranger's water hose and liberally dowsed the flames. Wait, I'm not done... rather than fix the problem, I went to the store and bought a box of baking powder and everytime the flames erupted I just dumped the baking powder out on the flames which smothered it out. I don't remember how long I drove the car this way before I fixed the problem with asbestos muffler gasket material. I wonder if whoever bought this MG after me had a good laugh at my 16 year old problem solving skills.
David Holmes

I bought my first MGA for $100 when I was in college in the early 70's, and had a similar experience. I was driving down the freeway and started to see smoke rising from the floorboards under my legs. I looked down, and the flames were in a perfect spot to be doused by every mans built in fire extinguisher, but I didn't think of that. I managed to pull over and beat out the flames with the now burning carpet. From years of sitting outside in the rain, the floorboards had sagged, and were touching the exhaust. Most MGA's lead a much more sheltered life now, but it is something to watch for.

Jeff Schultz

Had a similar experience in my TC recently. THe previous owner had nailed a bump pretty hard and bent the exhaust up a couple inches. It wasn't touching the wood so I thought all was OK.

Driving down the freeway I started to smell wood burning so I pulled over. I couldn't find the cause for the life of me and all wiring was as it should be. SO I figured it was just a new piece of wood near the engine burning it's finish off. A few miles later and suddenly the smell was strong and smoke was coming up from between my legs!!!

I put it in neutral, shut the engine down and coasted down an exit ramp and into a service station. Apparently the center silencer was pushing on the screws which secure the seat base to the floorboards, and they were transmitting the heat into the carpet which was now smoldering and somewhat melted.

I soaked the carpet with water, sprayed down the exhaust and drove it home off the freeway.
Steve Simmons

I didn't have one on an MG, but my first car was a 1959 Ford, and the exhaust system (among other things) was bad. Since I didn't even attempt to bring the priice down on this "gem", the dealer selling it must have felt bad for me because he gave me a coupon to remplace the exhaust for free, at a place about 10 miles down the freeway. I should mention that the oil light flashed constantly and my "mechanic buddy" told me that it was normal for a car 27 years old. He never mentioned the 2 'X' marks in each valve cover which were tapped down and brazed up, and I could add some here.
On the way from the dealer to the muffler shop, the carpet caught fire, and I had to put it out. I replaced the muffler and had no more fire problems. I won't mention here how I replaced every piece of that car except the body and about 2 years later the body rusted out on me despite an acrylic lacquer paint job I got for it. I think that my buddy wanted to get his hands dirty on somebody else's car and money, because that's what he did.
But, I will say that I got a mechanical education that I never would have otherwise. :)
mike parker

Even more strange is that I had the bonnet (hood) stiffener burn while travelling down the motorway. The first sign was a wooden burning smell closely followed by sparks coming through the vents. My freind jumped out while I popped the hood and his hands where greeted by flames. A bit of water soon had the fire out but we where left scratching our heads as to how a fire could have started in such an unlikely position.
After driving a further 40kms the reason became clear as the dynamo failed in a big way. The bearing had failed and sparks must have been generated by the rubbing of the shaft on the body!!
The dyno worked up to the end and so there was no warning. Typical?

Neil
Neil Purves

This thread was discussed between 06/08/2005 and 07/08/2005

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