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MG TD TF 1500 - I told you so, I told you so.....

Ok...last year you will remember I installed a negative ground radio in the positive ground TD... and I insulated the entire thing really well...all wires wrapped, radio separated in the wooden arm rest.... cork sheet glued to be bottom of the radio in case it made contact with the emergency brake (my main concern when intalled)...well, this morning on the way to a run....'poof'...all the wires to the radio just 'went away'!!! There I was at the side of the road with smoke filling the car and me busy tearing out radio, plugs and arm rest.... Fortunately I had kept the wires separate from any others in the car...two wires from the battery running straight back to the center console...
Have to mention that a few people warned me... damn, this 'crow' tastes bad... Will know better next time... Ipod and headphones...(if needed on long drives) and the arm rest will become a storage compartment.

Ok...tell me...'I told you so'!!!

(Rest of the wiring is fine and the run was a good, if quiet one....)
http://www.niagarabritishcarclub.org/blossom06/blossom06.html
gordon lawson - TD 27667

I did that trick years ago with my 63 Sprite. Had a positive ground radio I took out of a Hudson Jet but was only 6 volt. I had a step down transformer but shorted it out anyway. No I pods 35 years ago so took a flannel hard hat liner and slipped a speaker in each side and pluged it into a transistor radio (AM). Remember those? My mom took a picture of me and the family sheep dog with his hat liner (no speakers for him) with both of our blond locks ( he's long gone and so is my hair) hanging out of the liners going for a ride. He would always just jump in the seat for a ride no need to open the door. My brother has all the family photos now but says he can't find it. I'd sure like to have it now. Nice photos. Quite an eclectic group of both people and cars.

LaVerne
LED DOWNEY

Gordon - "Ok...tell me...'I told you so'!!!" No need to, you said it all very well. I'm glad that you had the sense to keep the radio wiring isolated from the rest of the wiring in the car, so that you didn't turn a harness into a molten mass. Have you found out where the errant ground came from? Was it perhaps the antenna?
Cheers (all's well that ends well)
Dave
David DuBois

At the risk of sounding stupid/too critical; why go through all that trouble when changing polarity is (a lot) less work? You're not that purist are you?
Willem van der Veer

Gordon --- I may be able to find the voltage inverter I had from a '67 MGB if that would be any help. Or I think I could design you a more modern one if I can't find the old one if you insist on staying positive ground.
Cheers,
Bob
R. K. (Bob) Jeffers

Just worked out that way because of the armrest being all ply, I thought the way I did it made sense... this was back before I had done the number of "I have never done that before" things that I have ended up doing..."flashing" a generator just seemed too full of 'sparks' and terror!!!!
(besides, I didn't want to have to turn all those little bulbs around the other way!!!!!)
gordon lawson - TD 27667

Gordon,
Been there done that...my monies on the antenna ground being the problem & contributing factor being the "rain" you can see in some of your pictures! Glad to hear no serious damage.
Cheers,
David 55 TF1500 #7427
David Sheward

Hmm... Headphones? Down here, it's illegal to drive with headphones on in at least some states... I don't know if they have updated the rules to include the small earbuds or not.

I know that won't stop people anyway. It's also illegal in Oregon to drive with fog lights on & other traffic around (they are supposed to be treated like bright headlights). But that doesn't stop people from driving with their fog lights on ALL the time, regardless of weather conditions.

Scott
Scott

gordon, thanks for sharing your experience. i am glad the car is ok. as i read scotts note about the headsets..i have never driven with a headset on, but i do not understand the rule. deaf people drive. tom
tm peterson

Hi Gordon
Nice to see that no real damage was done. I think you may have a hard time listening to your radio in the TD at speed with the top down. Well I have to ask you this, you couldn't hear your radio, but you could smell it. They say as we get older our sense for hearing diminishes and our smelling increases. (Our hair also diminishes) Dose that mean you are old? Where you listening to “smoke gets in your eyes” on the radio at the time? John
John Hambleton

Gordon.....why bother, you can't hear the bloody radio in T-Car anyway, too much other racket going on while your driving.
Sorry about your "smoke session"
Colin Stafford

Am I old? Well...I remember the ad showing the 1957 Ford being 'lower then a man's raised arm'... (and I could read and understand it)...
At first I thought it might have been like 'smell-o-vision' type radio, but no.... such a unique smell that wiring insulation....amazing how fast it went.... Not sure if it is still illegal to use heaphones up here or not...will rig up old WWII bakolite headphones to the sides of my leather flying helmet...maybe no one will know!!!!!
I really miss my armrest...."fell" into the car twice today...seems i use it more then for just driving....
It wasn't raining at the time and the antena is a little powered plastic box stuck on the sidepanel behind the passenger seat...don't think it was the problem...my bet is the emergency brake....
gordon lawson - TD 27667

I don't see anything in the thread about a fuse blowing. Did you have a fuse in the circuit? Whe the smoke started leaking out, the fuse should have blown and saved the wiring. This should be standard procedure for any add-on accessory. Fuses are much cheaper than rewiring the car or burning it up.
John Masters

Yes, had an inline fuse...should have had one on each of the two wires...
gordon lawson

This thread was discussed between 15/05/2006 and 16/05/2006

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