MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - I'm no electrician !!!

My 1960 1600 is still positive ground. While this does present some obstacle when wanting to use modern accessories I would prefer to leave it this way. What I am considering (with limited electrical knowledge) is installing an accessory socket (cigarette lighter type) isolated from the rest of the wiring. The plan would be to connect it directly to the battery (as a negative ground) and mount it behind the seat thru the rear ramp "wood" panel. The intent is to have a location to recharge my cell phone or operate other socket type accessories. Am I flirting with disaster ????
Michael Hosier

Michael - I did the same thing with our positive ground TD, but I used a rectangular connector sold by Radio Shack rather than a cigarette lighter. This works quite well, but requires changing the mating plug on any accessory that I want to use and the connectors are rather fussy to make up, a cigarette lighter would definitely be easier to work with. As long as the lighter socket is well isolated from ground (by mounting in a wood panel as you are suggesting and not by just wrapping it in electrical tape), or if you can shop around and find a well made socket that is in itself isolated from ground, there should be no problem. You might want to try Car Toys and see if they have a quality accessory socket to use. If they don't, try car dealerships as most new cars come with accessory sockets mounted in various places (I think that the term "cigarette lighter" has become a politically incorrect term anymore). These accessory sockets seem to be a higher quality than the cigarettes lighter sockets that are available at most auto parts houses. What ever route you take, get a inline fuse holder (I prefer the ones that take the blade style fuses) and fuse the socket for 20 amps. Fusing for 20 amps will enable you to plug in a 12 volt DC to 120 volt AC inverter and power up most anything you would ever want to use (we use it to charge our laptop computer). Good luck - Dave
David DuBois

Try a boating supply store for a good lighter socket. You should be able to find one with a heavy duty plastic housing and two insulated connections. I know MGA's never leak, :) but a plus is that the marine types are waterproof, and usually have a cover for when they are not in use.

Most cell phones don't have exposed ground connections, so you should be ok there, but if your charger has the coaxial barrel type charging connector, the exposed barrel of the connector will probably be hot, so be carefull when it is not plugged into the phone.

And like Dave said, make sure you install an inline fuse.

Jeff
Jeff Schultz

Jeff's idea about a marine socket is right on target. Your socket is going to be exposed to all sorts of water and crap mounted in the wood panel behind the seats. Get the best socket you can afford and you'll be rewarded with good--long term results.
R. L Carleen

If you use a socket that has only one wire, then you will have to run a seperate hot wire to the body of the socket to complete the circut. The problem with this is that the body of the socket is then a "HOT" item. In other words, if you touched a metal object to the body of the socket, and to the metal on the body of the car, you would have a direct short to ground!! Not a good thing in my opinion. Perhaps a Marine type would be the best option, but check to see if the exposed part of the socket is insulated from the contacts inside the socket.
Ed Bell

I put one like this on my boat years ago.

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/overtons/detail/pdetail2.cgi?r=detail_view&item_num=71712

It has no exposed contacts.
Jeff Schultz

Jeff - Where were you a couple of years ago, when I was fussing around with the sockets I wound up with. The socket at Overton's is exactly the sort of thing that should be used in our cars. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Another benefit of this modification is that you can use it, with a suitably modified battery charger, to trickle charge/condition the car batteries.
Gordon Derham

Like Gordon, I have a neg. car and have a "power socket" mounted up under the dash on the support for the dash. Works great to keep the battery charged and no more dead battery from not using the car enough.
JEFF BECKER

This thread was discussed between 25/06/2005 and 27/06/2005

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.