Last night I locked the mine and my wife's keys for....

[paul.deitch]

everything in the boot 5 miles away from home!
First time ever with any car. Anyhow I took out the light and fumbled around and could not find the release cable.
Can I run a cable from the battery to to the release switch and open it that way?

[phillpot]

Yes, that should work.

once it's open locate the emergency release cable for future reference

Edited by phillpot on Wednesday 15th July 14:35

[phillpot]

Myself and I believe one or two other owners have fitted a release cable with the end you pull secreted somewhere within the car as a back up should the solenoid fail.

Something like this would do the job . . . . . . . https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201598090823?_skw=MGB+b...

[paul.deitch]

So this afternoon in the blazing sun, 12 volts to the switch under the cowling activated the relay but of course there was no power to the rest of the solenoid duh.
So I fumbled around and found the 12 volt supply and kept touching the cable from 12 volts to the rest of the ignition switch until - hurray the pump started, then it was easy to open it.
Of course I wanted to identify the reason that I couldn't find the release cable. Well it was nicely wrapped in white insulating tape so in the dark yesterday I thought that it was an electric cable....
So photos taken, lesson learnt and I'll keep a print of the photos in the car for the next time and I will try to fashion an alternative method.

So all's well that ends well except my wife thinks that I'm an idiot! But she did say a calm idiot