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MG Midget and Sprite General - Beautiful day for a cruise.

It was gorgeous out today and I decided to take my nice and tuned up (well, relatively) midget out for a cruise.
After half an hour of slow, kinda boring city driving, i ended up cruising down sheridan road up by Evanston and Wilmette.
The roads up there are so nice for driving, especially after driving down the long straight pothole ridden streets of chicago. They are full of curves and bends and turns (all terms for the same thing but i wanted to emphasize the lack of straight lines).
I had a great time driving in a car with a second hear (thank you David Lieb!) and i really enjoyed making some noise (my muffler isnt exactly stealthy by any definition) in the nice quiet northshore suburbs.

but, on the way home i noticed that the brakes started to slacken up a great deal. I noticed it after I had to really stomp on the brakes seeing as i was going pretty fast and the light i was trying to beat had a much shorter yellow than i had thought. i have been double pumping the brakes because i havent bleed them (ever) i plan on it, but i havent had the ezebleed (ordering tonight) to do it. now, i have to triple pump the brakes (needless to say, i do not plan on driving it until i get it all bleed and ready). Is there any other reason that the brakes would be soo mushy other than having never bleed them?

also, none of my gauges work (other than the oil pressure). the fuel and tach worked in the past but dont anymore. on the fuel i think it is either a worn wire shorting it out or the voltage regulator not working.

but on the tach and speedometer, im kinda lost. when i had the engine out and was replacing the tranny with david, i was hoping that reattaching it would do it but it didnt. what should i check? just check when the car is running to see if it is spinning? could it just be a dead gauge? i want to have the dash out for as little time as possible so id like to know what to look for.

thanks a ton. today was soo nice but i feel that i am speeding really badly without these gauges so id like to fix them.

thanks again,
Seth
Seth Brecklin

wow... Now that sounds like an electrical issue

1st... Just in case, and a percaution, Untill this is sorted, Id pull the Positve cable off the battry every night and keep a small fire extingisher close by

these wiring harness get so brittle over time, and with the rubber gromets loosing there streatch get hard and brittle and you can have wires rubbing agianst metal ... making a 2nd ground... not a good thing

most likely its just a bad ground... but you got a lot of electics not working

Im not saying that the problem... but loosing all your gauges and the illimination is not a good thing

On the brakes... If they where working fine before ... I have to wonder if its not related to your wiring short falls, the brake systm has a electrical switch in the brass 5 way uninon so if it detects a brake pressure drop it some how shuts down part of the brake system and goes into a limp mode to get you home... to reset you (Apperantly) push the little red light between the speedo and the tach

I wish I could tell you more about the lucas breaking system, but I gave up on it a long tme ago,,, others will be much more help then I ... But I really think it has to be related to the wireing issue

also it could be the fluid has simply gone bad and as a result heats up faster then it should..lots of water in the fluid... happens naturally.

Also remember ... there is a specific order in which the brakes must be bled ...But I cant remember the sequnce... its to avoid activating the switch inside the 5 way brake union and sending the brake system into limp mode agian.

You will need to post your cars spec info... year, vin # midget vs sprite ect. as the wiring specs changed alot from car to car and USA vs Uk modals

Prop
Prop

Hiya, Seth.

I've experienced the "fading brakes" issue in the past, and in my case it was merely because I'd just adjusted the rears, and got one slightly tight so it was dragging. It heated up enough that the pedal got soft, but slacking it off a flat cured it.

What year is your Midget? Just curious, since bleeding procedures differed from early to late models.

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

The backlight for the gauges works, the gauges themselves dont.

It is a 1974 Midget (US spec) with wire wheels (if the wire wheels matter, i dont know but more info is good info), i haven't done any vin searches or anything so i dont know what month.

The brakes have always been mushy, but that is because i have never bled them.
What is a good brand of ezbleed kit? Id like to order one that wont konk out on me in a month.

Im thinking dead gauge on the spedo and tach but on the fuel i think it is either a short or the voltage regulator that i read about in another thread.

thanks again,
seth


Seth Brecklin

Oh, another lovely little thing that i noticed and have a question about,
ever time i switch gears there is a "tweak" sound from the rear axle/wheels.
is this normal?
im a youngin so im used to modern cars with automatic trannies and sound proofing (and tops for that matter) so i am not sure at all.

it is similar to the sound that the axle made when we were dropping the clutch to start it when the ground cable was kaput and i didnt know it.

thanks again,
seth.

oh, and im thinking its a fuse that is screwing with the gauges, or would the backlights go out too? ill have to get my thinking cap and look at those wiring diagrams for a couple a hours and get that figured out.
Seth Brecklin

Glad you managed to get the car out and drive it, Seth; this is what it is all about. i.e. Enjoying the car.

when it comes to sorting problems (and that really is what you must do, look at it as an ongoing process of identifying and solving problems until it is all sorted) you should look at one issue at a time.

Brakes: this is your A, number one problem... because it is a safety issue you should solve it first. 1. check that you have good pads and shoes on all four wheels. 2. check that the rear drums are properly adjusted (if one is too tight it can heat up and fade as gryf says). 3. check that you have hydraulic fluid in the master cylinder (and it is not leaking). then 4. bleed the system. The 4 way valve that prop is refering too manages the balance between front and rear brakes, if there is uneven pressure the shuttle is supposed to shift to cut off the circuit that is not working and the light on the dash above the steering wheel should light up (although mine doesn't because it is burned out.) pushing the button does not reset the shuttle, it just tests that the bulb in the warning light is working or not. the way to bleed to keep it balanced is to do both right wheels (front and back) and then both left wheels. follow what is in the haynes manual (*which you should get if you do not have it*).

gauges: you are probably best to sort these one at a time, because they all work differently. The backlights are all on the same circuit, so if one works, they all should work, etc. But the actual functions of the guages are separate.

1. tachometer: this is on the white circuit with the ignition switch and ignition coil (i am not so good at explaining how that system works, but look at your wiring diagram from Haynes), There should be a black/white wire that connects to the ignition coil and the back of the tachometer. There should also be a wire (if i recall correctly)from the green circuit I think it is green/black. The tach is grounded by the contact of the mounting brackets to the metal of the backside of the dash. if they are lose, you may have no tach or a swinging needle. this is a common problem, especially if you have just installed the tach. (actually bad ground connections are probably to blame for 60% of electrical problems on MGs).

2. oil pressure/temp guage. Other than the light in the guage, this is not an electric devise. The oil pressure works because of a small oil line from the back of the guage to the engine block. The temp guage is essentially a big thermometer operated via a capilary tube of fluid (alcohol?) that runs from the back of the guage to the temp sensor bulb which screws into the engine just above the alternator. IF the cap. tube is broken, the gauge is junk. They cannot be repaired unfortunately. used ones come up on e-bay all the time.

3. fuel guage... check all the connections from the back of the guage (two wires, green/black and green/light green if memory serves) check connections to the voltage stabilizer (on the passenger side of the firewall, above the glove box). and check the connections to the sending unit in the tank. ANY one of these components can cause the guage to not work. Test the guage by removing it from the dash, hook a test wire (i have wires with alligator clips that I use) to each terminal and then connecting one to a positive and one to a negative wire (i just touch the wires to the battery to give a quick test) if the guage is good, the needle should move smoothly from E to F.

4. Speedometer. Again, this is not an electrically operated guage, if the gears in the gauge are good, then check the connections to the cable from the back of the guage and to the transmission (if i recall, this is accessible from the drivers side of the trans tunnel via the rubber plug that is under the carpet.)

wow, that was a long post for me.... hope it helps though. I have recently gone through trouble shooting on my own guages so i know how that goes. Tackle them one at a time.

Chris
Chris Edwards

p.s. of course, also check the fuses too. :)
Chris Edwards

Thank you for all of the help, once i can get my hands on some precious time ill give all of that a try. The brakes are definitely the most important and i am going to (attempt) at getting the calipers off, but they are incredibly rusty so im not sure how well they are going to want to come off. Ive tried to get the drums off but no luck, im gonna have to find someone with a impact wrench that can get it off.
Seth Brecklin

This thread was discussed between 10/05/2010 and 11/05/2010

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