MG Sports Cars

engine swaps and other performance upgrades, plus "factory" and Costello V8s

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robert1839
Tristan Cook
5579 Timber Ridge Dr, Mt Vernon, Skagit, Washingto
(118 posts)

Registered:
05/06/2013 11:11PM

Main British Car:
MGB GT 1972 Buick 215

head lights
Posted by: robert1839
Date: November 03, 2013 02:06AM

for some reason on my MG and my dad's MG the head lights one is brighter on one side than the other why is this i have spent hours truing to wire them so they both are bright but i never have any luck dose anyone else have this problem


88v8
Ivor Duarte
Gloucestershire UK
(1041 posts)

Registered:
02/11/2010 04:29AM

Main British Car:
1974 Land Rover Lightweight V8

Re: head lights
Posted by: 88v8
Date: November 03, 2013 04:27AM

Have you measured the voltage at each headlamp?
If you have big bulbs (80/100W) perhaps the wiring is too thin.

Are they the same bulbs of the same age?

And the reflectors, are they equally good?

Otherwise, I'd look for bad/corroded connections or a bad earth on one side.

And, an afterthought, are you sure it's the brightness that differs, and not the alignment? If one is angled more upwards it will appear brighter.

Ivor


Moderator
Curtis Jacobson
Portland Oregon
(4576 posts)

Registered:
10/12/2007 02:16AM

Main British Car:
71 MGBGT, Buick 215

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: Moderator
Date: November 03, 2013 09:37AM

I haven't noticed a similar problem.

First thing I'd do is swap your bulbs, side for side to see if the problem is the bulbs. Headlamps normally dim with use. Even if they aren't burned out, you might decide it's time for some new bulbs.

Do you have a portable voltmeter? You could measure voltage at the hot leads, compared to a common ground point. Doing so should tell you whether you still have significantly more resistance in one circuit than the other.


robert1839
Tristan Cook
5579 Timber Ridge Dr, Mt Vernon, Skagit, Washingto
(118 posts)

Registered:
05/06/2013 11:11PM

Main British Car:
MGB GT 1972 Buick 215

Re: head lights
Posted by: robert1839
Date: November 03, 2013 12:23PM

i am pretty sure last time i check that the voltage at etch bulb was the same but i will check agen as its been a while and i will try switching them around thats a good idea i just hope my wallet can afford to get new bulbs


MG four six eight
Bill Jacobson
Wa state
(324 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 02:15AM

Main British Car:
73 MGB Buick 215, Eaton/GM supercharger

Re: head lights
Posted by: MG four six eight
Date: November 03, 2013 09:47PM

Tristan,

If the condition is there on both high and low beams, most likely its poor ground connection. Bad grounds are a common source of dim head lights on other types of cars as well.

Bill


DiDueColpi
Fred Key
West coast - Canada
(1365 posts)

Registered:
05/14/2010 03:06AM

Main British Car:
I really thought that I'd be an action figure by now!

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: DiDueColpi
Date: November 04, 2013 05:08PM

Hey Tristan,
Make sure that you do your voltage check with the headlamps connected and on.
This will "load" the system and give you a much more realistic measurement.
Also measure the ground at the bulb to the ground at the battery. Any voltage here indicates a problem.
Cheers
Fred


Charles
Charles Long
McDonald, TN
(177 posts)

Registered:
09/15/2013 08:54AM

Main British Car:
1966 MGB V6 1994 Camaro 3.4L 60V6

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: Charles
Date: November 23, 2013 10:14PM

Just my 2 cents, I do not trust the Old rusty spot welded metal in our car for the conduction of electricity. I personally run a ground conductor to all areas of need. I run, usually a # 6 multistranded conductor from the battery to the engine. When we upgrade from the stock head light blubs to high wattage blubs, we are asking to much from the orignal wiring, which at best was marginal. If you do upgrade to the high wattage halogen blubs you should upgrade to a relay circuit to control the new blubs. I agree with Bill the electrical grounds are the most overlooked and neglected connections. Clean the metal and use new star washers if you use the car body.
Remember if you let the smoke out of the wires it almost impossible to get all of it back in the wire even if you do catch all of it.



BlownMGB-V8
Jim Blackwood
9406 Gunpowder Rd., Florence, KY 41042
(6468 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 12:59PM

Main British Car:
1971 MGB Blown,Injected,Intercooled Buick 340/AA80E/JagIRS

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: November 24, 2013 11:30AM

Charles, if you search around you might be able to come up with a Smoke Condenser that'll help you to get the smoke back into your wiring, then you won't have to mess around any more with buying that inferior bottled smoke that they sell online. If you can find one these units are capable of condensing smoke out of normal looking clear air. Of course they have to process prodigious quantities of air to do so. Don't just jump on the first one you happen to find though as it is a very common article for counterfeiters to copy and the fake ones never work quite as good. I can't tell you how to identify the real ones as it's a closely guarded secret and can't be disclosed on a public forum such as this, since the rip off artists would see it and it would become almost impossible to distinguish the real item. The real test is in the actual performance of course, but you can begin to see why you can't rely on the bottled stuff.

Then you really need to get a Smoke Separator to go along with the Smoke Condenser, and it has to be of the very finest quality. Any brand of separator should be acceptable if it has both high and low adjustable limits as all you really want to do is to exclude the non-Lucas smoke. Although the true first line Lucas separator that was used by the OEMs is a multiband unit, these were horrendously expensive and you could only hope to find one these days in an estate sale. Even then it would take up your entire garage and is impractical unless you have a vacant warehouse standing by. They were usually combined with the OEM spec smoke condenser though and because of the extreme quantity of atmosphere these units had to process to keep up with production, not only is a great deal of power required to operate them but they tend to be quite loud during operation and generate gale force winds in the vicinity of the inlet and outlet. On the upside of course you might eventually develop a reputation for true manufacturer's grade Lucas Smoke and gradually be able to pay it off. That would be a boon to all LBC enthusiasts of course and we would all be most grateful to you for setting production back up. So far nobody has been able to take on this particular task even though the personal satisfaction from doing so would be enormous.

Jim


Charles
Charles Long
McDonald, TN
(177 posts)

Registered:
09/15/2013 08:54AM

Main British Car:
1966 MGB V6 1994 Camaro 3.4L 60V6

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: Charles
Date: November 24, 2013 10:26PM

Jim, I am so glad you brought the subject of the Smoke Condensor in conjuction with the Smoke Seperator up. I do think you may be on to something slightly less than great. I have in my past life experanced the operation of a Smoke Condensor in conjuction with the Smoke Seperator at a plant not far from my home. This plant is as you said very large and loud durning operation. They were bringing large amounts of a black substance into the plant, this stuff looked the same as the area around the point where the smoke escaped from the wire. The containers were leaving the plant with what appeared to clean air, possibly to be processed later into smoke.

I did at one of top rated Gather of the Faitfull not long ago here in the Southeast come upon a genuine British smoke infuser. The container had a certified organic label saying it cotained pure Lucas refurbished British smoke. The method of infusion was to remove the fuse for the Brown wire on almost any British car and insert the special tube in place of the removed fuse. Then without turning on any switch, since this most likely the reason for the smoke escaping, open the valve on the certified container and if you see smoke escaping close the valve and call the help line phone number listed on the inside of the certified can of smoke. I do hope this has cleared the smoke from anyones eyes.
Regards
charles


hirot
Ian Hart
Ashbourne UK
(88 posts)

Registered:
06/01/2011 05:15AM

Main British Car:
1971 MGB GT (conversion) Rover 3947 R380 gearbox

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: hirot
Date: December 10, 2013 04:01AM

Chaps, over here in the UK we resolved the smoke issue a while back by decanting the smoke from the BL smoke canister directly into the top of the battery. The smoke can then easily be drawn back into the wires by systematically turning on lights, indicators, opening doors and finally blowing the horn. Depending on the age of the wires it is often best to raise the rear of the car when working the brake and rear lights.

A tip is to replace all fat wires with thinner ones so that you use less smoke and the additional benefit here is that they help heat the car in winter.

More recently with the introduction of e-ciggrettes and trying to be greener, I have found that I can connect my laptop directly to the battery and feed in e-smoke....takes seconds and much cleaner.

I hope this helps.

Finally I wonder if any of you have solved the problem of how to inflate the bottom of the tyre. It doesn't matter how hard I try and pump and rotate the wheel....its always there. Strange thing is though that you don't get a bumpy ride.


RMO 699F
Mike Maloney
SW Ohio
(531 posts)

Registered:
12/09/2007 12:28PM

Main British Car:
1974 MGB Sebring GT, 3.9 Rover V8

authors avatar
Re: head lights
Posted by: RMO 699F
Date: December 10, 2013 10:41AM

My MG was riding kind of bumpy a while back, so I took it to the local tire center for analysis....the guy came out and declared..'' got a flat tire huh?'' I so no, ''those other three tires just swelled right up!!''


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