Main beam warning lamp not working, suspect connections.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Hi all, the main beam warning lamp on my series 2 is not working. I have checked the panel bulb and the wiring behind it and coming from the dim/dip foot switch.

Now, in the headlamp wiring on the near side there is a loose wire, I don't know if this is the cause of the problem or not, but there appear to be several possible terminals for this wire. (see photos).

Does it belong in one of them and if so which one?

No guesswork please as I don't want to fry the electrics.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

can't seem to upload photos yet will try later

[mike.perry]

The foot switch is Dip/Mainbeam, not dim/dip. Are your main beams working?
The main beam warning light wire is connected to the main beam blue/white wire after the dip switch.
There are only three wires in the headlight, black earth, blue/white main beam, blue/red dip beam
Click on browse, search for photo, click on open, click on preview, repeat until all photos loaded, click on submit

[beero]

On my 62 the blue/white wire for the warning lamp comes from the 4way bullet connector in the engine bay adjacent to the offside headlight.
So check that 4 way sleeve. You should have 4 wires, the thickest from the dipswitch is the feed, another one for the nearside headlight, another to feed the nearside headlight and one going back to the dash.

[bmcecosse]

As above -all blue/white wires go together. You NEVER mix up different colour wires at the same connector.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

thanks chaps shall give it a go.

my next problem: how do you tell the colour of 56 year old braided wiring?

[mike.perry]

Any colour as long as it is black! That is why I used plastic coated wiring when I rewired my Series MM. You will have to connect a test light to each wire and see what happens when you switch on and off etc.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Followed beero's instructions and checked the 4 way connector. Yes there was a spare terminal, so I plugged the bullet ended wire into that.

Fingers crossed I switched the lights on and yes, it's now working as it should!

Many thanks for all your help.

P.S. Although original, the wiring is generally in good condition, so as long as everthing works and no shorting occurs, I am going to leave it as is. Don't really relish the prospect of putting a new loom in.

[beero]

Glad to be of help. I have found, to aid reliability, clean all bullets and renew the sleeves (as neccessary) as they corrode and cannot be cleaned effectively. Done this on my MG and Morris now and it has cleared a lot of intermittent problems.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

I know what you mean about cleaning. One headlamp was on the blink, which turned out to be a poor connection. That's why I was poking around the headlamp wiring and found that stray wire which had me wondering if it was the main beam warning connection.