42 replies to this topic

[minimarco]

When it's bright red, it means your alternator is not working. when it dims it means its producing some sort of power and enough when the light is off completely.

I had a problem with the ignition lamp connection before, when it was loose, the alternator would just not send power to the battery at all, not because of a faulty alternator but a faulty ign lamp connection. But it sounds like your lamp is giving you the correct information now.

While you're at it, check your grounds too, they gave me some headaches once.

[Dan]

Who built your car? It wasn't born with that speedo and sounds poorly done frankly. You should never have a purple (constant live supply) connected to a dark green (accessory live supply) anywhere, it will completely mess up the circuit distribution. Although these could simply be accessory wires in random colours it needs to be investigated. Green / yellow is the heated rear screen, which I suppose someone may have wired to the empty lamp position if they fitted an unlit switch for the screen. Although given that it has 2 terminals it is presumably a plastic holder and so is meant to be a common turn signal repeater but that's not an issue.

It still shocks me that people don't know what the warning lamps are for. The main few lamps are common to just about every car built everywhere and usually work in the same way. I don't know about other places but certainly here you are supposed to know how they work in order to pass your test. How can you even consider using a complex and potentially dangerous machine without knowing these things?

[tiger99]

Dan, I totally agree, there is a complete lack of basic knowledge. The Mini community is no worse than any other, maybe slightly better, but we see this sort of thing on the forum again and again. Someone the other day did not know where the dip switch was until I explained, yet he was not stupid. I know that people drive their modern cars with warning lights on, including oil pressure and even brake failure, with no clue whatsoever that the light is telling them something very important. They also keep driving with strange mechanical noises, and doors half open. The sound of a car being driven with the door lock on the first notch only is very distinctive, yet they do not even notice, and perform a simple action to close it fully, even in winter when their heat is escaping. They fit "body kits", not so much to improve the styling but to cover seriously rusty sills, knowing that what the MOT man can't see, he can't fail them on. They bodge safety-critical parts, use mild steel or stainless bolts where high tensile is very necessary, glue body panels together with filler, set up ball joints and steering columns wrongly, such that they must fail, weld cracked alloy wheels (yes, an expert with the correct equipment and procedures can, but not a quick burst of MIG), and mindlessly use copper "brake" pipe, which is not specified for that use (the BS and ISO specs cover only bundy and cunifer, and no manufacturer would dare to sell it as brake pipe, the fraud is perpetrated in the distribution chain), illegal in most of the world, and will fail after an inadequate number of pressure cycles. What is worse, they then encourage other people to do these same things.....

Temporarily bodging unimportant parts is of course perfectly ok, and I have been lnown to encourage people to do that to get their cars going again, but never on anything important, or something that might wreck the engine etc.

Yet they continue to jack up Minis by the slinging shoes, which at a glance have very little strength, or by the floor, which is even worse. They cut structural bits out of their bodyshells, just because they think it will look better. They wire in huge spotlights wrongly, so all ther lights fail when they are on the move at night. They chop front ends off without adding correctly designed bracing. They lose 90% of their side impact protection by fitting alloy or glass fibre doors. They cut rear bulkheads out to save a few pounds, then have to add a roll cage weighing 10 times as much, to hold the shell together, without actually restoring the torsional stiffness. And, they ask remarkably stupid and incomprehensible questions on the forum, giving about 1% of the relevant facts, as if we are mind readers.

But there are people on here who put them all to shame. Look at the standards some people have in theri rebuild threads, every hodden bracket and gusset repaired properly, and every millimetre of rust cut out and replaced by fresh steel, carefully welded. Meticulous engine rebuilds, stuff that will run reliably for upwards of 100k miles. Yet there is probably no intelligence gap between the two sorts of people. I think it is more of a cultural thing, in the south of England at least, many people (not just where cars are concerned) have a misplaced sense of values, and instinctively waste money by doing things badly, because they can't accept that they actually save by doing things well. The same type of people waste lots of money every saturday, by driving round all the supermarkets in their area trying to save a few pence on various items. The same mentality, when they go into politics, is responsible for short term-ism and total waste, like the on-going, highly disruptive and totally inadequate, possibly even dangerous, M1 upgrade.

I think that the eductaion system has failed very badly.

[TA2DMAC]

I've only had the car for a few weeks and it's my first Mini. There isn't anyone near me that I have found that works on them. Hell most people don't even know what it is. However as farthe as I can tell the wiring and speedo are all factory. There are different requirements for Canadian and American cars which could explain the wiring. Ill take pictures as I may be describing things improperly. I'm trying to learn as much as I can and this forum has helped greatly. I don't have access or the knowledge of these cars as many of you have.

[xrocketengineer]

Hi,
This might help you out figuring out the wiring. It includes the diagrams for the Canadian Minis:
http://www.minicoope...anual_76-89.pdf
However, I think that Dan might be right that the instruments are not original to the car.

Hope that helps,

Ivan

[tiger99]

TAD2MAC, my rant was not addressed at you, in case you were wondering (look around the forum, you may see some people who do resemble what I described....), and you did ask sensible questions, so I am sorry if it came across as referring to you. We understand your problem, with severely limited local expertise and sources of parts. I am quite sure that 90% of US and Canadian citizens have no recollection of ever having seen a Mini, as the quantities imported were never all that great.

If you decide to go the route of having a locally available alternator adapted to fit, I don't think that anyone here should be surprised, or complain. Some people even do it here in the UK, even though the Lucas parts are readily available, and cheaper. You can probably adapt other locally available parts too. One good thing is that the screw threads on the Mini are all UNF/UNC (with a couple of minor but important exceptions) so you will be fine with nuts and bolts, spanners etc.

[Spitz]

Your speedo set up looks correct for a CDN market car.
The green light at top is your rear defrost "indicator"
You'll have a few things different than UK cars....what year is it? It's pre 74, or the later bumpers have been removed.
By the colour ( Java Green? )...and metric...I'm guessing 79 or 80

Edited by Spitz, 24 May 2012 - 02:37 PM.

[TA2DMAC]

Thanks. I want to keep the car as close to stock as possible aside from what I can't replace due to limitations. The shop that I plan to have the alternator fixed at, has worked on Lucas before,
so I'm hoping to get a few leads for other owners or possible a spare.

Im just glad that others share the same passion for this car as I do.
It brings back some good childhood memories from a not so good childhood.

[Spitz]

What year is it.......?
I posted links for Seven that seem reasonably priced replacements
Do you still have the air pump and connections in place? ( usually the first things removed from a CDN car

[TA2DMAC]

From what Ive researched all things indicate it was made in March of 78.
The bumpers have been replaced and yes it's Java Green.
I'm getting a collection of picture from the previous owner of what it looked like
when he bought it and of the work that has been done on it since.

[Spitz]

Any other questions or pics needed of a 78...I have two of them...and a 77...pm me.
You'll have stronger doors than other MINIs as well...also added body strengthening in the boot ( not a great help without the original bumper though )....and great tie down tabs fiited to the subframes if you ever need to trailer.
This is what your car would have looked like originaly: ( took this at MMW 2010 )

Edited by Spitz, 24 May 2012 - 03:04 PM.

[TA2DMAC]

I remember him telling me about the blocky bumpers and the signals being mounted up top like that. That's how I knew the bumpers were not stock.

[dklawson]

I want you to keep posting here but you should consider posting on the Mini Mania board at least to introduce yourself. Once you fill out your profile there and introduce yourself I am sure you will find other Detroit area Mini owners who can help you learn about your car and how to work on it.... Then be sure to come back here!

Sorry, the only MI Mini owner I can think of at the moment is across the state from you in Holland, MI.

[TA2DMAC]

I remember him telling me about the blocky bumpers and the signals being mounted up top like that. That's how I knew the bumpers were not stock.

[TA2DMAC]

It think he may be the one I bought my 13car inch wheels from.