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Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:21 pm
by Defendersv
Hi all i am fairly new to MGs so thought i had better introduce myself. I have spent most of my time driving and fixing Land Rovers although i did restore a BGT in the 1980’s. This taught me more about overdrafts and welding than anything else, especially welding ! I have now inherited a restored midget and been given a moss covered MGF. I thought I would restore the MGF. This did run although there was no drive belt on the alternator as it had seized and it had no water in the radiator, probably due to the holes. I have put a 2nd hand alternator on about six months ago and it has stood still since. This Christmas I was going to swap the radiator, now here is the problem, it wont start. There wasn’t much fuel in the tank so i put in a couple of gallons of new fuel. There is a spark at the plugs but the fuel doesn’t seem to be getting through. I have tried both resetting and bypassing the inertia cut out, and checked the fuses under the steering wheel and bonnet. With the ignition on I cannot find a 12volt supply at the fuel pump, although there is one at the inertia switch. I have taken out the fuel relays from behind the ECU and these appear to be fine checking both movement and coil continuity and soldered joints. Does anyone know of another fuel pump fuse or relay I have missed before I start to trace my way back through the rather tightly bound loom at the back of the car ! Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:33 pm
by cath's mg
Hi, The attached link might help
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16842

Gary

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:43 pm
by Defendersv
Thanks for your reply, i had looked at this page before posting. I think i have covered everything listed there. I have found an idea on another forum about a loose wire next to the horn, I'm going to investigate this next. There doesn't seem to be a 12volt signal to the fuel pump yet so i m still trying to work out which wire should be the positive. I just forked out £40 from Amazon for the workshop manual only to find it doesn't have any wiring diagrams. I now need to find the colour codes for the fuel pump wiring.

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:17 pm
by Keith Williams
Defendersv wrote:Thanks for your reply, i had looked at this page before posting. I think i have covered everything listed there. I have found an idea on another forum about a loose wire next to the horn, I'm going to investigate this next. There doesn't seem to be a 12volt signal to the fuel pump yet so i m still trying to work out which wire should be the positive. I just forked out £40 from Amazon for the workshop manual only to find it doesn't have any wiring diagrams. I now need to find the colour codes for the fuel pump wiring.
For the MGF, there is a separate wiring diagram book but it is not that easy to get hold of. We do stock it in the Register online shop occasionally but it is out of stock at present.
The wiring diagrams can be found on Dieters website http://www.mgfcar.de/ at wiring diagrams

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:28 pm
by Defendersv
Thanks for that, after a bit more detective work on Dieter's website and the TBar & MG-Cars.net forums i think the fuel pump feed is the white/pink wire. Also i now believe the wire will only stay live for 3 seconds once the ignition is on unless you crank the engine or it is running. Its cold and dark now so I'm going to have another go in the morning !

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:45 pm
by talkingcars
Hi and welcome to the forum

It sounds like an immobiliser issue. Which model is it? Where on the south coast are you?

James

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 4:45 pm
by Defendersv
Hi, I’m in Hove, its an 1800 R reg in need of a bit of TLC. I have been at it again today and made some progress I hope. The 12volt supply to the fuel pump only being present for a few seconds once the ignition is turned on is key as i had checked it after turning on the ignition walking round to the back etc. Now when i checked it it goes live for a couple of seconds before going back to zero, presumably this is to prime the system. I have now taken out the fuel pump and when i try that on its own on a battery it gives me absolutely no response. I presuming that the fuel pump is at fault. I have taken the plastic bits off to get to the pump as think that is probably cheeper than trying to buy the whole thing. I will have a search on ebay next. Fortunately it is a project so it can sit now till the weekend since I will have to go back to work after Christmas.

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:10 pm
by Defendersv
Hi again, the new fuel pump is in and it runs albeit very rough and doesn’t want to start but I can look at all that later. The radiator leaks like a sieve and so I have another eBay purchase to put in,which came including a fan. I’ve taken the old one out and have noticed that the new one has some studs on the side that doesn’t have the fan presumably to fit an additional fan. When I was searching on eBay some of the radiators had two fans fitted. Is this a usual modification to fit two fans or did some come like this. Any answers gratefully received.

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:05 pm
by Mykel
Air con cars have two fans fitted, along with a quite funny circuit to run them.

Re: Newbie looking for some help

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:30 pm
by Defendersv
The MG has had to take a back seat for a couple of weeks whist I've been having to sort out a Freelander 2. Its all put back together now with an ebay radiator and engine fan as i found the old one was seized and kept blowing the fuse under the steering wheel. My only issue is i have a piece of sound proofing left over. Its about the size of a piece of A4 and is bent about 3/4 of the way up. It has two fixing holes on the smaller side and one in the middle of the bigger part. Any ideas of where it is supposed to go ? Not sure what to do with car now as I know it will need four tyres for an MOT and I'm not sure i really want to keep it. I fancy something bigger.