9 replies to this topic

[xrocketengineer]

Can somebody check for me, please, the wire colours on LF-14 on a Japanese Mini?  According to the factory repair manual, the wire feeding LF-14 is purple and the one coming out is purple too. It turns out that on my 94 Japanese Cooper the wire feeding the fuse is brown and the one coming out is purple. 

 

Making a short story long, yesterday I found out while troubleshooting my driving lights that LF-14 is alone behind the multifunction relay (with the wrong colours) and the rest of the in line fuses are behind the air filter housing.  Among those is also LF-5 for the auxiliary fan relay which turns out to have a brown wire feeding it and a purple one coming out.

 

A while back, I found out that my radiator auxiliary fan was not working and it turned out to be internal resistance in the wire between the fuse an the relay. So the old output purple wire was cut out and replaced with a new wire between the fuse and the auxiliary fan relay. However, I did not realise at the time that there were two fuses with the same wire colours. So, I fixed the auxiliary fan relay problem but apparently I broke the driving lights!  I guess I will have to undo my fix and rewire both relays to make them right.  

[xrocketengineer]

Ok, I just finished rewiring the purple power output wire on line fuse 5 (LF-5) for the auxiliary radiator electric fan. I also fixed the purple power output wire on line fuse 14 (LF-14) for the driving/spot lights. Now everything works as it should and appears to be on its proper fuses. 

It seems to me that the factory wiring diagram(s) for the power distribution for the SPI driving lights are wrong. It makes no sense to have LF-14 (15 Amps purple wire) fuse to be fed by F3-4 (25 Amps). My car is wired more like the MPI where the driving lights fuse (B1 15 Amps) is fed directly by a brown wire. It is the only fuse fed by another fuse per the diagrams and it seems wrong.   

Edited by xrocketengineer, 26 January 2020 - 12:52 AM.

[Bobbins]

Are you only using the wiring diagram from the factory manual or have you used these: http://www.theminifo...agrams-redrawn/

[viz139]

Ok, I just finished rewiring the purple power output wire on line fuse 5 (LF-5) for the auxiliary radiator electric fan. I also fixed the purple power output wire on line fuse 14 (LF-14) for the driving/spot lights. Now everything works as it should and appears to be on its proper fuses. 

It seems to me that the factory wiring diagram(s) for the power distribution for the SPI driving lights are wrong. It makes no sense to have LF-14 (15 Amps purple wire) fuse to be fed by F3-4 (25 Amps). My car is wired more like the MPI where the driving lights fuse (B1 15 Amps) is fed directly by a brown wire. It is the only fuse fed by another fuse per the diagrams and it seems wrong.   

 We often find errors in wiring diagrams and it appears you have found another. The fact that your car has a brown wire feeding the fuse is the correct way and it wouldn't be feed through fuse F3-4. You can confirm this by turning on the driving lights and removing F3-4 ( they should stay on).  I suspect you will find two brown wires on F3 terminal and removing either of these will cause the lights to go off. I think the diagram shows the Brown(purple) wire connected to the wrong side of F3-4. If you can confirm these points we can fix the diagram.

[xrocketengineer]

Are you only using the wiring diagram from the factory manual or have you used these: http://www.theminifo...agrams-redrawn/

I am using the factory manuals from the Heritage and additional factory manuals from other sources and they all have the same diagram. I will probably check what viz139 suggested tomorrow.     

[xrocketengineer]

The results of the test are as follows: 

 

Fuse 3-4 removed, driving lights work

 

Fuse 3-4 removed and brown wires removed from F3 terminal, driving lights work also.

 

It appears that the power connection for the driving lights fuse LF-14 is more like this:

 

 

 SPI Power Distribution Correction for Driving Lights.jpg   37.07K   6 downloads

[viz139]

I think your right but now we do not know where the second brown wire on F3 is going.  Leaving the fuse in ,if you disconnect the brown wire leaving the terminal ( horn should still work) check the car to see what is not working with the engine running.

[xrocketengineer]

Ok this is what the fuse box looks like:

 

 

There are three brown wires on F3. One with a black/red sleeve on the same white connector as a short pigtail not connected.

 

When disconnecting the white connector, the horn works and the driving lights. There is no voltage on the white connector.

 

 

 

My biggest concern now are the bare terminals on the other side for F2 an F4.  Is there something either connected or for protection that goes there? Everything was working on the car to this point.

I am stopping the experimentation here since apparently I lost the brake check light when I disconnected the white connector and it did not come back after reconnecting. 

I have also lost the headlamp flash and the horn. However, the front fog lights, driving lights, hazard warming and all exterior lights work. I think I blew a fusible link. Now to find which one....  

Edited by xrocketengineer, 29 January 2020 - 03:00 AM.

[xrocketengineer]

I also had lost the auxiliary radiator fan, relay clicked but would not run.

 

Short Story

It was a fusible link and it has been fixed. I think.

 

Long (Weird) Story

I had checked for voltage yesterday at the pigtail on the F3 terminal and I was reading like 4 volts. This morning I check and it was 12 volts!  So, I tried adding a load, pushing the brake test light button and the voltage disappeared. I figured that I had high resistance in the wire, which to me meant the fusible link is not 100% melted.

Disconnected the battery and tried to measure resistance from the F3 pigtail to the terminals on the starter solenoid. No success.

I then disconnected all the terminals from the solenoid and started removing the rubber sleeving and I found this in one of the terminals:

 

   

 

I lucked out and my local (O'Reilley) auto parts store had fusible links and my Home Depot had the crimp on sleeves. The old stuff was cut out and the new put in:

 

  

 

Interestingly, the wires are brown/purple (alternator?). Additionally, when I tried to check for continuity from the F3 pigtail to the new fusible link and again no success. I reinstalled all the terminals back on the solenoid. It looks like the original mess except for the new blue terminal.

 

 

 

I connected the negative battery terminal loosely, there were no sparks but nothing worked. I tried again and fortunately everything appears to be working again. It is probably a good thing that this issue came up at this time since I was working on the car anyway. The grille was already off and the "melted and resoldered-back-together fusible link" was probably weakened during the distributor cap replacement. 

It might have a been an ugly surprise if it had happened at some other time. 

 

In conclusion, the wiring in my car is weird and it had been butchered at some point. There is no point in changing the wiring diagrams with such flimsy evidence.  

Edited by xrocketengineer, 30 January 2020 - 09:16 PM.

[viz139]

You have a lot going on there and hopefully your work will lead to better reliability. The pigtail is usually found on the end of the additional loom for spots or fog lights.  When you fit the extra loom you replace a brown wire on F3 with the one on the loom and than fit the removed wire on the pigtail.