Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi everyone

I have wanted a Minor for years and eventually bought a 1970 saloon last week. It was all going well until I brought it out in the rain today. Unfortunately the wipers and indicators have stopped working. I am devastated as prior to that everything was perfect. (I hope I haven't hurt its feelings!)
I have checked the two wee fuses under the bonnet and they look fine. I have put it (no name yet!) back in the garage to see if it will dry out. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I will post some pictures soon.

Many thanks
Colette

Hello Collette,

congrats on choosing one of the very best cars in the world of all time and welcome to the forum!

I have had the same problem as you and although the fuses might look fine in a visual inspection, they may have still failed behind the silvery end caps or the solder cracked at one of the ends. Try swapping the two fuses over and you will find that the wipers work again. If so, you do need a new fuse. Good news is that they last decades.

Let us know how you get on!

Hi
This is all a bit strange. I replaced the two fuses and everything worked. I tested the old ones and they were fine. (I'll put them in the bin anyway).
I took the fuses back out and cleaned the connectors with a nail file just in case they were dirty - put back in and everything still working. Thank goodness.


Many thanks for your help. I was starting to worry.

Colette

You say you cleaned the fuses.. did you also clean contacts in the fuse box.. pulling the fuses in and out a few times could have cleaned them slightly which is why everything now works. might be worth a quick look

Hi Colette and welcome. glad you threw out the old fuses, I have found they can test and look okay but will fail under load. This has caused me no end of problems in the past!

Spray the contacts and fuses with a wee splash of WD40!

Sometimes just wiggling the fuse in the holder will work. Note that not only were your wipers not working, neither were your indicators, brake lights, heater or fuel gauge as they are all on the same fuse.

Thanks everyone
I cleaned the contacts and sprayed with wd40 so everything seems to be ok now.

That's right Mike the heater had stopped too. I didn't realise that the brake lights weren't working! I was concentrating on seeing out the windscreen with no wipers in the rain!

Again many thanks everyone for all your help and advice.

Oh and I have called her Lucy.