Steering colum U/J earth strap

Hi all. My 1968 MGC has no earth strap attached to the steering U/J. Turn signal indicator and horn works fine, but not the headlamp flasher. Would the missing earth strap be the reason for this, R

Nope. I'd look into the switch inside the steering column cover. 4 screws will take off the cover. Look at the action of the switch to see if the headlamp hi lo switch is making good contacts.
Good Luck.
Ryan

A second on the switch on the column. My '74 MGB had a similar problem, where the headlights only worked when you pulled the "flash to pass", and maybe the high beams. Turned out that the inside of the switch had melted ever so slightly, pulling one of the contacts out of alignment. After bending a metal contact slightly, all works as it should. I added a set of relays to the lights to avoid similar overheating and melting in the future.

Tom

Hi Tom Thanks for reply. There is a brown wire from the switch to a brown wire coming from the loom. I tested the brown at the flasher unit with a meter, and found no reading. I found 2 other brown wires undewr the dash behind the radio slot, one was live the other was dead. I made a loop with bullets and joined these two browns together, and low and behold the head lamp flashers are now working. Robin

You should download the wiring schematics for the MGB from www.advanceautowire.com . The MGB download includes the MGC schematics, though I do not know if they have a UK version or only the Us version. I imagine that they are sufficiently similar for these purposes anyway.

IIRC, the switch will have two wires supplying power to it. One will be switched or always hot and the other will only be hot when the headlight switch is on. If you pull the switch back, it forces a contact inside to connect the always on to the high-beam circuit and voila! you have "flash to pass". When the switch is in the rearward position, it connects the power from the headlight switch to the low beams, and it connects to the high beams when pushed away from you. If you look closely at the switch, you can see the workings and see any of the contacts that might not be making complete contact. An insulated screwdriver might help to push a contact into full connection so you can see what if failing to work.

I really don't know if the home market cars had different switches for the MGC, as they had the earlier style dash and column, while US cars had the collapsible column and the pillow dash.

Good luck! Definitely look up those diagrams from Advance, though!

Tom