Rear light units

[LouiseM]

Hi,

I'm hoping that someone can help. I've spent the day working on my minor and, amongst other things, I've been fitting some new rear light units. The problem is that I seem to have blown something.

The old units had 4 wires - red, black, green & purple and green & red. The new units have 5 wires - 2 green, 2 black and 1 red.

I've connected the red to red and tried connecting the greens to the corresponding connectors but am not sure about the blacks.

As there was only one earth on the original units I tried just earthing one from the new unit and insulated the 'spare', thinking that it would work. It did briefly work, in that the flashers were working but the brake lights weren't. Then the fuse in the fuse box blew. I checked all the connectors again and tried a new fuse. This has not blown but now nothing is happening - no flashers, brake lights or fuel guage.

Should I earth both black wires, and if so, where to? There is a bullet connector for one black wire but nothing to fix the other one to. And if the fuse hasn't blown why isn't anything happening? Sorry if I seem a bit dim -I can usually manage mechanical things but am a bit wary of fiddling with the electrics!

Can anyone please help?

Thanks,

Louise

[Willie]

LOUISE... do the windscreen wipers still work? If no then you have
no 12volts coming from the fuse unit at all on the GREEN wires.
If the engine still works then you do have a live feed to the fuse on
the WHITE wires it is just not arriving at the other side of the fuse.
What is the year of your car?

[LouiseM]

Willie,

It's a '68. The wipers don't work but the engine & headlights do. What can I do to fix the problem?

Cheers,

Louise

[simmitc]

Ass Willie says, you've blown the fuse that supplies the green wires on the car. For the new lights, yes both black wires need to go to earth. Lead them inside the boot area. If a multi-way bulet connector is available for earth then use that, if not, fit some ring terminals and then use any convenient bolt or screw.

Now get a long piece of insulated wire. Join it to one of the green wires on the new light unit and touch the other end to the non-earthed terminal of your battery (use an in-line fuse if at all possible, just to be safe). One of the lights should now illuminate, and you can mark the green wire as either brake or indicator. The other green wire should be the other light. The red wire should be the side or tail light. Now hat you've got all the wires identified, you can ust join them to the correct ones on the car. Hope that helps.

[LouiseM]

Thanks simmitc, I'll try that this afternoon.

Lou

[LouiseM]

Fixed the lights after re-checking the wiring and replacing the fuses again (and badly banging my head on the boot lid!!). Both the 35 amp fuse to the green wires and the 10 amp in-line fuse attached to a red wire under the fuse box had blown. However, I now have another problem in that everything works except the windscreen wipers. The wiper unit felt hot to touch after the fuses blew and is now completely dead.

Any ideas anyone??

Lou

[Willie]

LOUISE.. the answer was in my post. the engine works so the
white wire side of the fuse is OK, the green side is(hopefully was)
dead! Solution, find out why! (fuse gone, fuse holder clips corroded
etc.). Hope you have sorted it by now.
REF the wipers...........the wipers have a live 12v supply at all times
when the ignition is 'on', when you switch them on you supply a path
to earth. The GREEN wire should be live
with ignition 'on'. the green/black lead should be earth(chassis) through
the wiper switch. The black lead should also read as earth.

[LouiseM]

Willie,

Our postings might have crossed. All fuses have now been replaced and everything - indicators, headlights, horn, engine, fuel guage - is working fine, except for the windscreen wipers, which were working fine before the fuse blew. As the fuse has been replaced I'm stumped as to how I can get the wipers to work again. Any suggestions as the Haynes manual is no help.

Lou

[Willie]

LOUISE.. see my edited post above. I cannot see any reason for
your wiper motor to have overheated during your earlier troubles
but, as with all electric motors, if the overheating is bad enough then
the motor will be rendered useless. If you check the green 12v lead
and the green/black earth lead as ok then remove the domed cover
on top of the wiper motor(three screws but mark its position first) and
check the cleanliness of the contacts and the state of the wire which
are exposed. The final position of this dome determines where the
wipers self park.