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Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Sorry I havent read all the replies so this may have been mentioned but I had electrics doing all loads of weird stuff.

Is their a good earth to that bunch of black earth wires that goes just next to the front tower mount on near the master cylinder. because if like me its bad or you totally forgot to connect it then nothing works and every swich seems to be connected to everything else.

I thought I'd cocked up big time but I simply forgot to connect that bunch of earths.

Good news! Taking the 6DA unit out of the equation got the wipers working!

I also ran a wire to the horn direct from the purple and black wire at the switch, earthed the horn on a well grounded earth and got nout! Then took a multimeter to the switch and got 0v both with the horn down and released, and checked that I had decent supply to the stalks via the seperate purple and black wires and the multimeter reads near 13 volts! So im pretty sure its the switch dont you think?

Also fiddled with the fusebox, and the bottom male spade terminals move about a shitload, when i wiggle them they move the fuse itself up and down pretty much a couple of mm either way!

Looking at the haynes this is:

"Left-Hand side and tail lights, instrument panel lights, headlight dim dip relay"

It also says the top fuse is dim/dip relay too, whats the deal with that? I got a multimeter on the bottom terminal and got a reading of 0.63 volts, so its definately not right, going to search for a spare fusebox.

Halfords dont sell these type fuseboxes do they? Prefably a blade type?

Thanks

A friend of mine had the magical 0.63V reading a couple of weeks back ..... changed the wire from teh fuse box to the light switch and bingo ..... everything worked!!!!

Since there are no relays in a standard pre mid 90s Mini the switch gear and loom take a beating .... moral is don't right off either the switches or the wires from being the whole problem!!!!

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

I have no idea what it does. Its a relay that is something to do with the starter motor.

It starting buzzing madly yesterday when cranking over and stopped the crank over. Im not sure what I did to fix that but managed it.

Yes I meant the live from the switch on the rail.

0.63V seems to show as a result for nearly no connection on some of the "less expensive" DVMs, no idea why but I do know that 99% of the time it means a wire has given up the ghost.

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

Cool thanks for the tip, i'll be replacing that tomorrow with a new fusebox!

Going to try a new stalk system too off a friend, to see if I can get the horn working!

After I fiddled around with the fusebox earlier none of the lights worked after that so I think its just a crap fusebox!

Was looking at my old loom earlier, and it too has the same rogue connector that we where talking about earlier, the one that was dangleing around the wiper unit!

Still no idea what its for, ive had a mooch on some diagrams but cant seem to find it on there!

Cheers

The 6DA unit needs to be earthed, probably why it stopped the wipers working when dangling.

Hi guys, finally got round to having another attack at the wiring yesterday after finishing the fitment of my flipfront!

Went and got a blade type fuse box, and crimped all new spades onto the wires and connected it all back up! Got the ligts working perfectly now, solid 12v where i was having .63 before!

Fortunately this sorted the indicators aswell, so they all work like a gem too!

Tried a mates spare steering colum and stalk assy and determined that it was the switch that was fooked causing the horn not to work - so thats sorted aswell.

Wipers work fine too! Its just the hazards left to do now, same problem as before - nothing happens when i flip the switch!

Also almost forgot to mention - when i put the lights on, the drivers side rear comes on but with the braking light! Passenger side is ok, and the brake light comes on when the brakes are applied but its just the drivers side that always has the brake light stuck on. Ive played with the connections on the back of the light unit but the light just goes off altogether when i pull the wires back.

So yeah that annoying little problem that i didnt have before - and the hazards which still dont want to work, any ideas?

PS reckon this should be shifted to "Help Needed"?

Thanks!,

Rich

Rich,

You're nearly there...
What colour wires does the rogue connector have going to it? I'll see if I can find out what it is. On the brake light make sure it's got the correct bulb in (compare with the other side), it should have two offset pins on the outside of it. If it's got pins at the same height it's possible to put it in backwards and then you get the brake light working with the side lights and the sidelight working with the brake lights. Does that make sense??

Regards

Neil

Edit: If the rogue connector wires are light green / purple and purple / orange it's the hazard flasher unit, which explains why they don't work. The earlier cars had two flasher units, one for the indicators inside the car capable of feeding two 21w bulbs and one for the hazards under the bonnet capable of feeding four 21w bulbs. If you fit an indicator flasher unit on the hazards they flash very fast....

Edited by neilj1678 on 21st Sep, 2007.

Hi,
Check for power at the hazzard flasher unit plug, purple wire. You can link the purple to the green to bypass the flasher unit, the lights should come on, but won't flash
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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A radio or something gets my vote too:

Red /Green is sidelights (radio illumination?)
Purple is fused permanent 12v supply (radio memory backup)
Lt green/white is ign switched 12v supply (main radio power)

The lack of hazards might be the flasher unit, try removing it and linking the two spades with a piece of wire, if the indicators light up when the switch is pressed it's the flasher

I replaced both flasher units with new ones so they are ok themselves, i tnink it might have something to do with corrosion in the socket for the hazard flasher.

I will try that bypass trick gav, hopefully get some answers from that!

I think it is to do with the radio neil, as i have a spare loom from a 93 mini that came standard with a radio which has the same connector! I cant think of anything else that it would be used for!

Will let you know my findings!

Rich

Neil - it was the bulb! Nice one

Ive chopped the plug off the hazard flasher unit, crimpped two spades on but that hasnt fixed it. Before that I connected the two wires together, but the lights didnt come on solid or anything at all!

Got a multimeter on the purple cable and the back of the switch, only getting .98 volts!.......

Guess the problem is somewhere else then, any thinkys?

The hazard flasher sometimes has its own in-line fuse on the bulkhead, have a look for this.

Hi,
Check the inline fuse holders. I'm sure one of them is for the hazzards. They are located on the bulkhead dangling out of the loom somewhere near the carb.....
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Got a multimeter across the inline fuse, 12v in with the brown wire, around .30 volts out on the purple/orange wire!!

Took the fuse out and the fuse holder is squeaky clean, notice that its a 15v fuse itself where as in the haynes it wants a 10v, does this matter much?

You mean 10A and 15A, for the purpose of the fault it doesn't make much difference. Sounds to me like the fuse is blown, continuity test it.

Yeah 10A and 15A. Tested the fuse for continuity and it was fine, tested the 12v side of the fuse holder that was ok too, dropped the fuse into this side of the holder and got 12v through the fuse although had to hold it at a funny angle to get it. So i thought that this may be the cause!

Swopped over the holder and the hazards work perfectly!

So chuffed as thats everything wiring wise done now and im so pleased i managed to do it all!

Thanks alot to the guys who have helped, ive gone from being frightened of wiring to learning a shitload in the last few days so thanks so much!!!

Rich

Hi,
Nowt to be scared of as long as everything has the correct fuse.
Worst you can do is blow a fuse...
Always glad to help. :)
Cheers,
Gavin :)

VEMs Authorised Installer / Re-seller. K head kits now available!

WB/EGT gauges. Click here for customers write-up

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Hi,

Result! Glad you got there in the end

Regards

Neil