Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello, we have been carrying out some maintenance on our 1098 daily driver today, namely:
Replacing dizzy cap, cleaning rotor arm and replacing ht leads
3 tyres replaced (by a tyre company) today

Now we have no headlights!
But we do have:
Horn
Side lights
Indicator
Radio
Interior light
Car running fine

I took a photo of the dizzy cap before I started and I can't see any loose connections visually when comparing the photo with the end result.
There are no loose wires on the control box
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance

Looks like we have fixed it - thanks to information provided previously on this site
It was a loose connection on the dipswitch
Phew!

Have a good evening everyone

Well neither the Distributor nor it's Cap has anything to do with your lights, it's only function is to distribute the Sparks to the Engine.... so forget that completely.

You haven't said what year the car is (you might have mentioned it in a past post, but I'm not going searching for the info).
Later cars have a separate fuse for the headlights.
Since you said the sidelights are working, I strongly suspect that is your problem area.
Look around near where the other wiring and fuses are for an inline fuse.
Like this.....
I see you've already found the problem, well since I went to the trouble of finding a photo, I'll post this anyway.
The First line might be of use to you next time you have a problem.....

Dizzy has nothing to do with headlights!

If the car is standard and not modified then:
Headlights are NOT fused or switched by ignition, and so should work all the time that they are switched on.
Thick (not VERY thick) blue wire takes power from dynamo control box to light switch on dashboard and then down to dip switch by driver's foot.
Blue with red tracer goes to dip beam.
Blue with white tracer goes to main beam.

If both main and dip are not working, then it is likely that the blue wire has been dislodged from one of the connections. It's "just" a question of tracing it through to see where it's come adrift.

It could be a failed switch, but unlikely; and given that you've been working on the car, it's almost certainly a loose wire, just not where you've been looking so far.

Ah. you posted an update whilst Berni and I were typing. Glad you've got it sorted.

Thank you Simmitc and Geoberni much appreciated.
Geoberni, your engine bay looks much tidier than ours - the photo is really useful
Simmitc, the wiring description is also really helpful- I'm going to have another look in the morning using the info you have both provided to make sure all is permanently OK

On a dark November night stood outside with no headlights we really couldn't do without the help we get from all of you, both from the information from previous posts or from people taking the time to respond.

What an amazing group of people you are

houseamber wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:40 pm
Geoberni, your engine bay looks much tidier than ours - the photo is really useful

My car is far too old for a separate fuse, I looked that up online to post for you, since from what you described, it was the most likely area of concern, if your car was a latter model.

This is the same area on my car, with it's non standard terminal block that has been added sometime in the last 65 years...

Thank you Geoberni