Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Back on the road with some more issues

Hello everybody, after 1 and a half year of restoring my AERO 8 S2 Demonstrator, which the wood was completly rotten underneath, I'm now back on the road again.
MOT is done and I had a few nice rides outside with this car again.
Yesterday my son came back with the car having no troubles on his trip. He parked in front of the garage. When I tried to take the car in later on, could not start the engine. Flashes are lightning but no reaction pushing the start button. I figured out the fuse "Light Switch" always is blowing when I'm turning the key. Measuring showed me there is a permanent mass connection on the second side of this fuse. I tried a lot of things like resetting the ECU etc.
Has anyone an idea where to get more electrical information (something like wiring diagram) so I can figure out whats behind this fuse and what can be wrong? Asking german dealers did not help. Cause I'm located in the south of Bavaria, there is no dealer around.
Thanks in advance for any idea and help.

I am by no means an expert, but i understand that starter motor failure on the Series 1 and 2 cars is not uncommon, so i am curious as to what you tried to start it?

Also, why was the wood rotten, i would have thought this very rare indeed?

The fuse is somewhat under rated for the starter system and spikes killing the fuse. I tended to out a higher rated fuse in the system or just keep plenty of spare fuses handy....

Yes concerned about rotten wood when these are treated

Thanks for your kind replies.
I tried to manage it with an higher rated fuse, same bad effect. I have to look, whats behind that fuse. It seems the output side of that fuse is now locked to the chassis.
Why was the Wood rotten? Thats a good question. When I dismantled the whole AERO I figured out it was not built up completley, so big wholes e.g. in the back arch area, where the water came in. Also on the A-pillar, water came in on both sills and because of foam plastics on it, the water did a bad job there. It also seemed the factory didn't do a good wood protection, maybe cause it was only a demonstrator car. These issues in sum damaged nearly the whole wood underneath the aluminium body. With the kind help of Brian Gatson, Techniques, I got some wood spares not fitting so bad. Of course it was a lot of work to get them in, not changing the whole body. We sealed everything with some additional aluminium parts. And I built in all the interieur parts missing (like glovebox, kneepolster, doorparts, interieur lights and so on). So tried to complete the car like a series car and make it better. On both door sides there were parts missing for sealing the doors, so we had to build them completly new. Thats now the last thing to do. Unfortunatly now came up this electric issue, keeping me in the garage again.
Hope I'll get some ideas for finding the Problem.

New Status:
car is back on the road. Was a cable when mounting the new kneepolster under the steering wheel which was a bit pressed against chassis. Now I've isolated everything there and managed the cables in other way, so everything is fine now and the car is running again.
She has to go to scotland in August for a huge tour round in 14 days. The next large trip will be the spring Meeting of MCD Germany in Aachen/Vaals end of may. Maybe someone of you is joing that Event so we could take one or two beers there?

Wolfgang,
As has been said on the S1 and S2 a couple of common starting issues have been noted. Firstly the Odyssey battery, a gel type, often shows the right voltage but fails to kick out enough amps to start the beast. I have replaced 2 in my ownership of a S1. You didn't mention it in your symptoms but a clicking would be heard when pressing the starter button. Also the starter motor itself is prone to failure, I have had mine replaced this year and it is a world of difference, like a new car. Immediate start every time, with battery in low or high charge state. Another issue which arose for a S1 owner some years ago was the switch at the clutch pedal. As you know the pedal has to be depressed to start but heat soak from the engine had damaged the switch at the pedal preventing starting. Already mentioned was the uprating, by most owners of the starting fuse, early owners had this done after fuse failure. Would think yours is already sorted. Hope some of this helps.
Dave