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Originally Posted by
rrich
Richard,
A couple of things....
You've said that the horn doesn't work. Why? Did it stick in the on position and you just pulled the connectors of the horns to stop the noise? Well, it could be the horn relay draining the battery. See if you can fix that first.
The horn doesn't work because it's a miserable sod that likes picking on me :D It used to, now it doesn't, and doing the usual look for loose connectors hasn't achieved anything. She's got a Momo wheel on her and that caused some drama with the horn in the early days (button in the centre of the wheel, not on the stalk) but I had it working for at least a couple of years. Yes, I've checked that as much as I can. The answer could be simple, or it could be a prize **insert word that the naughty word filter doesn't like**.
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The battery could have a high resistance short between the plates which is draining the battery. A new battery usually solves that problem.
Nope. It's got the current battery because the previous one used to go flat all the time and died from all the recharging. Guess what's happened to this one :roll: Mind you, this battery has lasted six years so I'm not about to complain about it. But yeah, there's evidence that the leak predated this battery ... and was there when the horn still worked too for that matter. The battery is rooted though (see later) and a new one will alleviate some of the problems.
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What about the under bonnet, in the boot and glove box (?) lights? Are they on all the time? Any of those would drain the battery in about a week.
Nope, no lights. Doesn't mean there isn't a fitting somewhere doing the dirty on me, but no lights.
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Is your MGB the one with the battery in the back of the passenger compartment? There was a problem where if the terminals were corroded, there could be a slow drain on the battery through the corrosion. (I can't remember if that was the MGB or the Datsun/Nissan copy or Fair Lady.) Clean up the corrosion with baking soda and water.
All the B types had the battery behind the seats. In the early ones, it was two 6V batteries and those really lasted well. Then they went to a single 12V and the system immediately became marginal. There is a little corrosion on the terminals as you'd expect but they've actually lasted very well (it's better than the Falcon). I'll clean all that up when I fit the new battery
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Finally, if you have a stock radio, .
After market radio, but that doesn't mean it isn't the problem. It's one of those where you can take the facia off so that thieves are less inclined to steal it, and being relatively elderly now, you sometimes find yourself wriggling the damned facia trying to get it to work. It's wired through the ignition. Goodness knows how well it's been wired, but this is the first MG I've owned where the wiring bears some resemblance to what the factory put in. There was a fetish for a long time of rewiring the poor cars whenever something appeared odd. The fix for all this was usually to get rid of the extra wires and return it to the original set up.
Thanks for the thoughts. It's interesting that no electrician has offered to take a look at her. Come on boys, MGs aren't that scary ... well, not to a brave man :o
She wouldn't start at all yesterday. I finally gave up and called the RAA. The bod hooked her up to his super backup battery and away she went - it would appear that the starter was drawing all the ten or so volts on offer and leaving nothing for the fuel pump. Not a problem. Looks like my battery is genuinely rooted so I'll go looking for one in the next few days and try to drive her a bit more often. The horn does need to be fixed, even if I never sort out the slight drain on the battery.
Richard
