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MG MGB Technical - Light switch

This question has probably been asked a thousand times but here goes, when I push the headlight rocker switch on my 74 to the parking light position they come on however when I push it to the headlight position they go off but the headlights work. Is the switch faulty or is the wiring somehow messed up? The car had been in storage for quite a few years before I purchased it from the last owner and I am now trying to work all the bugs out of it as it is now legally registered.
robert morris

I am no expert on this, but I have been restoring my 73 MGB which was in storage for ten years - or rather was parked in a barn for ten years and was home to squirrels and rats, who loved the wiring insulation. On your car, it sounds like the switch could be bad. Generally, if the wiring connects the circuit when you first turn on the switch, then it should connect it when the headlights are switched on. You have to look at these problems logically. If it works, but then stops working, generally the wiring will be ok, unless it shorts out, which would be blowing fuses and you did not say anything about this. Start with the switch. Then, as I just told someone else, I found that cleaning ALL wiring connections, switches, etc, with a wire brush on a Dremel really helps to ensure positive connections. It is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. Also, after a huge headache and hours of work, someone suggested that I take every bulb out, inside and out, and clean every socket and connection and replace them with new bulbs. It has really made a unbelievable difference. Now my blinkers blink at the same speed, where the right side use to blink slow.
Robert Browning

I would think that possible the wireing is goofy behind the switch. Over the weekend i dis-assembled my switch on my 73 B and re-applied the chrome trim, and without thinking I just unpluged the switch, then when I went to put it back in, it took a fiew combination tries to get it right.

A good light schematic will tell you where things go.

Good luck
Joel H
Joel H

This thread was discussed on 02/06/2003

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