Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,

Just had the coil replaced on my 1960 Moggie but now neither the fuel guage nor wipers will work. Correction the fuel gueage comes on with the ignition (sometimes) but dies as soon as something else is switched on, either starter
(works fine) or wipers (nothing at all). Also the indicators wont work....and all this seems to be a direct result of having the coil replaced as they were all working only hours previously. Any ideas?!?

Ps she is negative earth if that makes a difference?

The fuel gauge, wipers and indicators are all on the same fuse, and if you check the brake lights you will probably find that they are not working either. Check the fuse with the green wires attached.

Thanks but fuse is ok and fuel guage will work but only before anything else is turned on...

Are you sure that the fuse contacts in the box are good?
Neg earth will make no difference.

no they are a bit rusty and i have given them a quick scratch to no avail - proper clean up is a job for tomorrow evening - but if it were the fuse why would the fuel guage work intermittently and why would it have become such a suden problem when the coil was fitted? I've driven from Weymouth to Glasgow in the last 3 days with all working fine until the coil died and we had a few hours rest in Penrith whilst it was replaced...and all of a sudden the wipers wont work... i am suspicious!

Check connections to ignition switch, control box and fuse box. I would suggest that a white feed wire is loose somewhere

Hello Ma02hk,

it has to be coincidence as it is fed directly from the ignition switch (no fuse). and changing the coil will not disturb any wiring relevant to your problem. Ideally a multimeter is the best tool to check where the poor conection(s) is, but you can use a bulb between earth and the points you wish to check; at a poor connection the lamp will not be so bright. Do all checks with the circuits on or you will get a false reading. (disconnect your coil while doing the checks so as to avoid it overheating)

Alec

Who diagnosed the failed coil?? Because - it's 'never' the coil...... I suspect some wiring maladies instead. The gauge works because it draws little current - and when anything else on that same fuse circuit is switched on - the connection can't handle it and everything fizzles out! Out of interest - try the old coil again, please! It's also possible the 'new' coil is incorrect for the car - and it's drawing far too much current which has exacerbated the poor connection problem........

first it was diagnosed by a passing off duty highways agency guy with MM previous, then again by the recovery crew. The car coughed a bit then died and wouldn't restart, very weak spark being produced from the coil, all else working ok. new coil, car now starts and runs so i'm not doubting the deadness of the old coil but correctness of the new one is indeed a concern...

If there was a spark - the old coil was fine - yet another coil changed without good reason! The 'weakness' of the spark is down to something else - bad connections/low volts/worn out condenser - or simply mal-adjusted points! But the fact other items are not working suggests low volts - probably due to a bad/loose connection.

I had the exact same problem just yesterday!
Turned out to be the fuse. If it''s intermittent I suggest removing the fuse and cleaning it and the terminals with a fibreglass pen. If that doesn't do it go through the circuit removing all of the spade connectors and cleaning them too. Once I did that everything was back to normal