MGB: Battery & charging problem

I had my 59 out the other night. I noticed the ignition light was on the whole time, but it ran fine, bright headlights, etc. Ran about 20 miles. When I came back to it a few hours later it would not start, not even a rrrrr-rrrr. A push start got it going for a few seconds, but more pushes did not result in more starts. AAA's jumper pack got it going right away but it died as soon as he disconnected one of the cables.
Can a battery die that completely and quickly or do I have other problems to loook at. The battery is less than two years old.

Yes...You can lose your battery very quickly.

From reading your post---I've concluded that your generator/alternator is toast because the battery is used to start the car and the gen/alt keeps you running.

You have a dead battery because your "dead" gen/alt is not feeding the battery while running. You should be able to charge the battery (3-4 hours) if it is not damaged due to severe discharge but you will need to check and confirm if the gen/alt is kaput.

I'm going through this right now. Tested while car was running with voltmeter and had a shop that rebuilds old starters, gen or anything electrical bench tested my "Moss" converted alternator and it is bad.

Hope this helps...

Tom

Ahh-ha! It can also be a bad wire connection on the back of the generator. Everything is good now.