MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - Stubborn Directionals

Since I've been playing bumper cars lately I've had both right side fenders off. I now have reinstalled everything. All is good except for the right side turn signals.
The headlights, high beams and stop lights work fine.
The left directionals work fine.
When I flip the switch for right the indicator on the dash blinks once and stops but the front and rear right turn signal is a very rapid blink with a very short off cycle.
When I do this with the stop lights on, the front doesn't blink at all. The rear continues the rapid blink.
I just ground down the area around the washers to be sure of a good ground.
I have not done anything electrical that might have caused this.
Any ideas????

TIA,
Mort
Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

Mort,
TSOs sounds like a bad ground. There should be a ground wire for the lamp on the fender. Try grounding the lamp base and see if that cures it.
-David
D. Sander

Ha! My auto correct changed "sounds" to TSO. Guess what I type a lot????
D. Sander

Mort have you tried to use a jumper wire from the turnsignal housing to the engine block ?. It seems that a ground could be at fault.
Gerard Hengeveld

Gerard,
The left side is working so the turn signal housing is grounded. Also nothing has changed with respect to the housing.

David,
The lights work fine now that I cleaned all the paint away from the washer contact areas. It's just the right side blinkers that are not proper.

Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

Mort , never take for granted that if you have a good ground on the left, the right is right also. Please don'me ask me how I know.
Gerard Hengeveld

mort, it seems like a ground issue to me as well...but it is also possible that you have a freaky coincidence that the turn signal relay is involved. regards, tom
tom peterson

I once had a similar problem (not on a MG) that was tracked down to a pinched wire. I had changed a rusted out bumper bracket and got a turn signal wire caught between 2 pieces of bodywork. It did not cut the wire, just mashed it. Apparently when mashed, there was a small break in the insulation that allowed a small short to ground. The pulse of the flasher did not let it ground out long enough to blow a fuse - just made a rapid flash of the lamp. Loosened the bodwork, repositioned the wire, retightened and all worked fine.
John Masters

different wattage bulbs??
Jud
J K Chapin

Jud,
It is the same bulb and fixture that worked fine before.

John, Tom, et al

I will review the ground flows tomorrow.
Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

Make sure the correct filament is connected to the correct wire.
Mike
Mike Hart

Most likely bad ground, do what Gerard suggested or from housing/bolt to the ground battery cable. Have to do with front and rear. With no separate ground wire, the path has to go through all of the wing mounting bolts/wing flanges to the chassis, etc., which is not a sure thing. George
George Butz

Mike,
It turns out you were right.
You would think that the red wire, from the front stop light, goes to the red wire in the harness. Nope. The red goes to the white and the green to the red.
I swapped the wires and all is working properly.

Thanks for all the ideas.

Mort
Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

Mort, did you happen to check the polarity of your new fender? Electrons are well trained, and will not reverse flow, just ask a diode. Try polarizing the fender... :-)
-David
D. Sander

Dave,
I didn't need to polarize the fender. It's an AC fender.
Mort
Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

Mort,
That's your problem, you can't use AC fenders on a car with direct current! Problem solved. :-)
-David
D. Sander

This thread was discussed between 29/05/2013 and 31/05/2013

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.