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Lighting Issues...


Best Answer CityEPete , 09 January 2018 - 02:20 PM

Well the new stalk is in, and the rear lights are back! Indicators are working as well - turned out that I'd knocked one of the wires off the flasher relay...
 


You havn't mentioned if your brake lights work, same earth but independant of the stalk switch. I would suspect a bad connection or corrosion on the brown circuit from solinoid to fuseboard.

 
Brake lights had been working anyway, thanks for the advice though.
 
Still no headlight flash (but main beam works), dash illumination or horn - do these share some common connection somewhere that's not shared by other connections?

Yes in the fuse box for the horn, flasher and interior light iirc,dash lights should be fed from the lighting switch via the bottom fuse in the fusebox if it's a standard four way?

Corroded rear of fuse box or hidden inside the terminal shrouds would be my guess here. Go to the full post


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#1 smurfomatic

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 09:30 AM

My car is a Mini Marcos, loosely based on a Mk3 Mini but with lots of later bits added through previous owners.

 

Last week I noticed the main beam "flash" and horn weren't working, so assumed this was due to the indicator stalk having problems. Everything else was fine so ordered a new stalk and it should arrive today (I hope!)

 

Driving home last night, all of a sudden the illumination on the dash clocks went out - all three (Clubman style) went at the same time, but the smaller dial for oil pressure, vacuum, voltage & clock still worked. Got home, took out the dash, no power to that cable on the multiplug. Thought nothing much of it, as I needed to use the car today to get to work anyway, so stuck a torch to the steering cowl to illuminate the dials so I can see how fast I'm going...

 

Heading out this morning and suddenly no indicators either (these were working fine last night). Also get flashed by a lorry as I head out and realise no rear lights either. Got to work by switching rear fog light on as some kind of illumination and tried to avoid overtaking as had no indicators.

 

Are all these symptoms of a failed indicator stalk? Obviously the indicators, horn & main beam flash are - but the rear lights & dash illumination? Are they run through the stalk? Assuming the new stalk arrives today (being delivered to work) I will fit it before I go home, and hope it fixes these issues.

 

If not, then it looks like I'll be calling the rescue service to get me home tonight as I don't feel safe driving like this - not sure what will go wrong next! The wiring is pretty shoddy in places, but would need a complete new loom making from scratch to suit, and that's not going to be a cheap or quick fix...



#2 miniireland

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 09:57 AM

sounds like the old classic bad earth story, check clean and clean again 



#3 CityEPete

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 10:16 AM

Fuse box terminals corroded? Brown wires on the starter solenoid dirty, bad earths here and there and generally dirty dry connections all over?

A good weekend with some vaseline would sort it all out imo.

#4 paulrockliffe

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 10:16 AM

As the owner of a fibreglass car that never had 'factory' wiring, it could be anything.  But chances are it's fairly straightforward if you know where to look and have a reasonable understanding of how it should all work.  

 

That you have a load of errors suggests a common point of failure, either the supply or the earth.  because it's been gradually getting worse I'd suspect the earth.  Which will be completely non-standard on your car, you'll have to go poking around to see how it was done.  If you're lucky there'll be an earth point that everything is wired back to behind the dash, if you're not there'll be random wires of assorted colours that disappear into the sills.

 

I'd start by testing one of your faulty components; add a wire from your battery negative cable to the earth on the component and see if that fixes the problem.  If it does then you could re-earth the important bits to get you home, can you get some wire from a shop at lunch time?



#5 smurfomatic

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 11:08 AM

The new stalk has arrived, so will fit that and see how things go from there. Hoping there's nothing much else to do, but will check earths if it still doesn't work properly.

#6 viz139

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 11:34 AM

You havn't mentioned if your brake lights work, same earth but independant of the stalk switch. I would suspect a bad connection or corrosion on the brown circuit from solinoid to fuseboard.



#7 Northernpower

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 11:35 AM

The new stalk has arrived, so will fit that and see how things go from there. Hoping there's nothing much else to do, but will check earths if it still doesn't work properly.

Even if the stalk does fix it I'd still locate and check the earths. Having had a fibreglass car I found you need to make sure the earths are in good condition and regularly check them.



#8 paulrockliffe

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 12:32 PM

You havn't mentioned if your brake lights work, same earth but independant of the stalk switch. I would suspect a bad connection or corrosion on the brown circuit from solinoid to fuseboard.

It's a fibreglass car, so the earths are whatever the builder cobbled together and some wiring back to the battery.  They could be arranged in almost any way.



#9 CityEPete

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 12:45 PM

As the owner of a fibreglass car that never had 'factory' wiring, it could be anything.  But chances are it's fairly straightforward if you know where to look and have a reasonable understanding of how it should all work.  
 
That you have a load of errors suggests a common point of failure, either the supply or the earth.  because it's been gradually getting worse I'd suspect the earth.  Which will be completely non-standard on your car, you'll have to go poking around to see how it was done.  If you're lucky there'll be an earth point that everything is wired back to behind the dash, if you're not there'll be random wires of assorted colours that disappear into the sills.
 
I'd start by testing one of your faulty components; add a wire from your battery negative cable to the earth on the component and see if that fixes the problem.  If it does then you could re-earth the important bits to get you home, can you get some wire from a shop at lunch time?


If you reintroduce an earth it might back feed to where it's broken creating a fire risk especially on a fibre glass car.

#10 paulrockliffe

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 12:52 PM

Talk me through that, I'm not sure I understand?



#11 smurfomatic

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 01:00 PM

Well the new stalk is in, and the rear lights are back! Indicators are working as well - turned out that I'd knocked one of the wires off the flasher relay...

 

You havn't mentioned if your brake lights work, same earth but independant of the stalk switch. I would suspect a bad connection or corrosion on the brown circuit from solinoid to fuseboard.

 

Brake lights had been working anyway, thanks for the advice though.

 

Still no headlight flash (but main beam works), dash illumination or horn - do these share some common connection somewhere that's not shared by other connections?



#12 CityEPete

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 02:14 PM

Talk me through that, I'm not sure I understand?

Easier with a diagram but imagine a cluster of earths on a shared bolt that has corroded,if you run an earth even a large one to the rear lights for example then they'll work no problem but the small cross section earth will now also back feed up to that corroded bolt where it's likely the remaining circuits will have continuity between each other just not the chassis, the main lights, side lights, dash lights, blower motor,horn and radio etc can earth down the rear light earth not suitable for that much load and unfused, hot hot hot and fibre glass!

Same principal as setting the choke cable on fire if you forget to fit the engine earth strap,starter motor tries to earth through the choke cable to the dashboard locking nut.

Edited by CityEPete, 09 January 2018 - 02:22 PM.


#13 CityEPete

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 02:20 PM   Best Answer

Well the new stalk is in, and the rear lights are back! Indicators are working as well - turned out that I'd knocked one of the wires off the flasher relay...
 


You havn't mentioned if your brake lights work, same earth but independant of the stalk switch. I would suspect a bad connection or corrosion on the brown circuit from solinoid to fuseboard.

 
Brake lights had been working anyway, thanks for the advice though.
 
Still no headlight flash (but main beam works), dash illumination or horn - do these share some common connection somewhere that's not shared by other connections?

Yes in the fuse box for the horn, flasher and interior light iirc,dash lights should be fed from the lighting switch via the bottom fuse in the fusebox if it's a standard four way?

Corroded rear of fuse box or hidden inside the terminal shrouds would be my guess here.

#14 smurfomatic

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 02:26 PM

 

Well the new stalk is in, and the rear lights are back! Indicators are working as well - turned out that I'd knocked one of the wires off the flasher relay...
 

You havn't mentioned if your brake lights work, same earth but independant of the stalk switch. I would suspect a bad connection or corrosion on the brown circuit from solinoid to fuseboard.

 
Brake lights had been working anyway, thanks for the advice though.
 
Still no headlight flash (but main beam works), dash illumination or horn - do these share some common connection somewhere that's not shared by other connections?

Yes in the fuse box for the horn, flasher and interior light iirc,dash lights should be fed from the lighting switch via the bottom fuse in the fusebox if it's a standard four way?

Corroded rear of fuse box or hidden inside the terminal shrouds would be my guess here.

 

 

Thanks I'll take a look at the fuse box - as you may expect, it's not "standard" but I'll get the multimeter on it and do some continuity tests.



#15 paulrockliffe

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 02:28 PM

 

Talk me through that, I'm not sure I understand?

Easier with a diagram but imagine a cluster of earths on a shared bolt that has corroded,if you run an earth even a large one to the rear lights for example then they'll work no problem but the small cross section earth will now also back feed up to that corroded bolt where it's likely the remaining circuits will have continuity between each other just not the chassis, the main lights, side lights, dash lights, blower motor,horn and radio etc can earth down the rear light earth not suitable for that much load and unfused, hot hot hot and fibre glass!

Same principal as setting the choke cable on fire if you forget to fit the engine earth strap,starter motor tries to earth through the choke cable to the dashboard locking nut.

 

Thanks, I understand what you mean.  Everything on the dodgy earth could easily earth itself through the new earth, which probably isn't thick enough.






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