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MG TD TF 1500 - Stalling when wet

Had a misadventure yesterday from which I escaped, but wonder what the listmembers think about what went on.

It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area, so I pulled the TD out of the garage and washed it, then set out for San Franciso. Started and ran like a charm, as it always does, but after about 5 miles on the freeway it started to act up. First there was a momentary loss of power, as if someone had turned the ignition switch on and off, then a mile or so later the engine stalled. I was on a downhill approaching the toll booth for the bridge, and it restarted with some clutch popping, though it took a few sessions of four or five seconds each at about 40 mph before it started. Then, while inching through the toll line, it stalled again. It didn't respond after a couple of pulls on the starter (turned over, but didn't catch) so I pushed it off to the side, where it started on the first try. Arrogance led me to carry on the journey, despite heavy fines for stalling on the bridge. Had one stall while slowing for traffic, but started right up with the starter. We parked for couple of hours in SF and it ran fine all the way home.
I have pertronix ignition, so no condenser, and the coil is relatively new Lucas Sport. When I got home I couldn't find anything amiss, except that the positive battery cable (to chasis) was a little loose, the result of some recent voltgage regulator adjusting and I hadn't retightened it. Fuel system looks to be in order.
My best theory now is water in the electrical system, somewhere. If the positive battery cable lost connection would that stop the car?

Andy Moyce
52 TD
Andy Moyce

No shorts? With the regular dist the tach box easily shorts out against the wire from the dist to the coil. Not sure if that is similar in your setup.

I don't think your positive lead being loose is a problem but it would be easy to check out by pulling it off of the battery while running.
Chris Couper

Andy- did you get the distributor really wet? As the wire nuts and cap have no seal, perhaps the inside got wet. I have had similar thing happen after using Gunk and gently washing the engine- starts, runs fine, then the water heats and condenses on the top inside of the cap and the car does exactly what yours did. Just a posibility.
George Butz

Follow up:
As I mentioned in the previous post, the only thing I found is that I hadn't retightened the earth strap to the battery, though it made a pretty good friction fitting. I tightented it, the car dried out and it has been running fine.
Just finished about 500 mile weekend with Sorry Safari's trip from the SF Bay Area to Yosemite without a single miss. My guess is that some water got into the loose connection.

My engine is getting noisier, which I'll detail and ask about in a later posting.

Andy Moyce
52 TD
Andy Moyce

This thread was discussed between 01/10/2001 and 08/10/2001

MG TD TF 1500 index

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