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MG MGB Technical - Lights In Rubber Bumper & Emissions

Ok I have a 77 mgb roadster US spec. I have just shipped it to Sweden which is where I now live. The car failed its goverment inspection today because the lights incorporated into the front rubber bumper have orange lenses. My question is are these lights, indicators or parking / side lights? This may sound a silly question but mine are both. When I flick the light switch to the first position the small orange lights on the wings come on & also the orange lights in the bumper, the main round head lights remain off, when I flick the light switch to the second postion the main round headlights come on as well. If they are indicators how can it be possible that they are not allowed in Sweden? Is my car wired up incorrectly. Are there any other Swedish rubber bumper owners out there?

Second question what is a normal carbon monoxide emission reading for a 77 "B"? mine failed the emmision test with a reading of 9 ( 9 what I don't know but nine something ) The pass level is 4.5 something. My smog pump is disconnected, does this really make much difference?
Cheers to anybody that can help
Steve
Steve Woodley

The lights in the bumper function as both parking lamps (which remain on when the headlights are on) and turn signals.
It's pretty sure that disconnecting any part of the standard emmisions controls will cause your car to fail those tests. I imagine these cars just barely passed when they were new. Now that they're 25 years old, I would imagine that both the engine and all the emissions controls would have to be in tip top shape to pass.
Joe Reed

Steve,
Your car is wired correctly for a "US spec" car.
You asked "are these lights, indicators or parking / side lights?" for the front rubber bumper. The answer is all three for a US spec car. They're lights at both positions of the light switch, act as turn indicators with that switch and serve as parking lights with the light switch in the first position as you said. The side lights come on with the first switch position and stay on with the second (headlights). They are not wired to flash.
Why did it fail with the orange lenses? Are they illegal there?
Emissions vary from state to state, vehicle year to vehicle year, and I assume country to country. If your engine is in a reasonable state of tune I feel you should be able to get under the 4 1/2 CO limit you stated. My '79 went through last year at about 2 CO and that's with no emissions plumbing, twin SU's and on a rolling road test.

Mike
'79B
Mike Janacek

Steve, my '76B has had all of the emissions equipment removed by the PO. Prior to getting historic plates, when I had to have the car inspected every other year, I took it to my local MG garage. The mechanic there put an air pump on it and it would pass. That seemed to be the critical piece of equipment (along with new plugs, fresh oil, in-tune carb., etc) to get the car to pass. My last inspection (May 2000) resulted in -

Hydrocarbons - 45 vs 300 allowed
CO% - .11 vs 3.0 allowed
CO - 15.3

Dan
Dan D

The UK spec '77 cars have side light (parking light) bulbs in holders in the reflector bowl of the H4 headlights. The orange lamps in the bumper function as indicators only. If you get the continental (i.e. like UK but RH dip) spec H4 bowls and harness and wire as UK / continental spec, you should be all OK and everything will look original.
My car chucks out a shade above 3% CO2 when set up correctly (i.e. for running right, not tweaked for MOT purposes). That's with twin SUs and absolutely no concessions to emission control at all.
Tim Cuthill


Steve,
I agree with Tim. The reason your car's lights failed was that your parking lights are supposed to be bright/white, not amber in colour. The easiest way to accomplish this is to disable the parking light function from the original lights and get a pair of H4s with a place for parking light. I have to do the same for my '73 US spec car. A pair of correct looking H4s, with convex glass and a place for parking light bulb cost about 30EUR I think. The ones with flat glass were cheaper but IMO don't look right.

As for the emissions, 9% CO sounds pretty high, and if you just get everything adjusted so that the engine runs good, there should be no problems reaching 4.5 or lower. A lot of pre-1985 domestic-market Saabs and Volvos use a ZS 175 carb so there should be no problem finding spare parts, spare carbs, or experts who know how to fix them.



Kari

Steve
Get in touch with me and i will help you fix it.I have done exactly what you are trying to do. I have a 79 ex US MGB and it is running in north sweden at the time. I had no problems with teh inspection after some rebuild.
Cheers Manfried
Manfried Lampe

Steve,
Easy job,
The bumper indicator lamp has a doubblefunction. One is parking light which is not allowed to be amber in Sweden. The second function is turn indcator. The turn indcator has to give amber light. Follow the wires coming out from the lightassembly (look behind the bumper). There are three wires one is black (ground, leave that on be. The two others has to be traced to the connector peace, somewhere behind the wire mesh grill close to the horns. Pull one at the time an test with lights on and turn indcator to asess which cable to disconnect. Mark the connector peace fom which you pulled the bullit connector from the parkinglight. That connector has to be reused when you buy convex h4 reflectors with pilot lights. The pilots are the new white parking lihgts. The brand I bought was "WIPAC" and you can get it from (MG center in Kungsbacka, 50km south of Gothenburg, 0300-17534)or (BSCC 0415-41101 some 50km east from Malmoe). If you are in the Stockholm area(in the basement of the Royal Tennis Court/Kungliga tennishallen. Cant remember the phonenumber). The emissioms... Nine percent is too much, but itīs an easy fix. Karis advise is fine, find a Volvo or a SAAB garage and they will set it for you. Longterm solution is to change for 2xSU,s with conical K&N air filters and you will gather more HP.

Best of luck
Erik
Erik

Erik, the two places that you mentioned (MG Centre & BSCC ) are they shops or mg specialist garages? I may take a trip to them if it is worth it. At present I am buying stuff in the UK & collecting it when I go home for weekend visits. It would probably be easier to get the things in Sweden. Are there any other places that I could contact that you know of?
Manfried, I will contact you soon when I have a little bit more time.
Again thanks everybody for your help.
Cheers
Steve
Steve Woodley

Steve,
Both are shops, but I think that BSCC also do maintenance and repair. John att BSCC is very knowledgable on most LBC,s. Where do you live? Just remember that Sweden is quite long to be a European country. From Stockholm to the Malmoe-region there is approx. 540 km and at the moment, cold aswell. We had
-14 degrees Centigrade this morning. http://www.bscc.se/

Other places for repair? BMC or British Leyland cars have not been sold in this country for ages, but there are still people around the country that used to repair MG,s that were formally trained by BMC or Leyland. The knowledge where these people or garages are today is often of personal knowledge and canīt be found in the yellow pages. However my tip is to go to http://mgcc.se and find the centre representative for your region and ask around. I would not think it matters at this stage if you are, or are not a member of the MG car club of Sweden. If you donīt happen to speak the native tounge, click the "Union Jack" and you will have it in English. Drop a line Manfried or me if you run into any problems. We will see what we can do.

Best of luck
Erik
Erik

This thread was discussed between 04/11/2002 and 12/11/2002

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