Now you see me.....

[Peetee]

Joe Mog's (1966 four door saloon) tail lamps and numberplate light are not working. I suspect the red feed wire is to blame. How is it routed from from to back through the car?

[Cam]

It goes together with the other rear lamp wires in a loom along to a grommet located near the rear seat mounting flange and between the diff bump and the right hand floor bump. Then it disappears through the gormmet and is 'clipped' to the underside of the car. It then goes through the crossmember and appears in the engine bay close to the starter motor where it then goes up vertically and joins the main loom on the bulkhead.

[Peetee]

Cheers Cam.

[Peetee]

I've checked it out now and found there is no red wire to the switch. Sure enough the front sidelights don't work either. I've had a look through to the back of the dash (no glovebox liner you see) and I can't see it anywhere . i know it's there somewhere cos it did work . I guess I'll have to wait till it's brighter and warmer.

[Packedup]

Does the speedo lighting work? Should be on the same circuit.

I can't remember the switch wires at all now I'm trying to.

When I fitted the pickup loom (no box liners) I pulled the whole lot as far through the speedo hole as possible, went through each wire one by one to fit them and check lights/ switches, then fed things through teh right way and put it all together properly. There's a lot of wires flapping around back there for such a basic dash, might be easier to pull teh speedo to hunt the right one down

[Peetee]

Well this problem isn't going away.
When I spoke about the red wire to the switch I must have been looking at the wrong wiring diagram. I have long suspected the big ringbound Morris workshop manual does not have an accurate wiring diagram for a late Minor and now I'm sure. The best I can come up with in it is N29 - 'cars with flashing direction indicator equipment'.
On more than one car I have owned and seen, a blade fuse sits beside the wiring loom just below the control box. In one end goes the red/green wire from the light switch and out the other comes the red supply to the rear lights. This fuse (10A) keeps blowing. Any ideas?

[bigginger]

Seen the fuse there, but never a blade fuse, just a cylindrical one in an inline holder Not helpful, but surely all that can mean is a short?

[Peetee]

Seen the fuse there, but never a blade fuse, just a cylindrical one

that's the widget. looking back at my photos i can see that Boris had a cylinder fuse. The evidence suggests it was a factory addition - but what a cheap way to do it - and why? Was it legslation or response to a known problem perhaps?

[bigginger]

From memory, it was standard on the later vehicles (certainly is on LCVs), but yeah, it does look awfully home made

[Peetee]

Andrew I did think that maybe water had got into a back light and it was shorting and blowing a fuse. I just wanted to check all posibilities before I venture outside as I'm off sick at the mo and don't have a lot of energy to waste.

[lowedb]

Water doesn't often conduct enough to blow a 10A fuse so I don't think it will be that. It's more likely there's a short somewhere else, probably where a wire passes through a panel. Grommets can fail and the panel cuts through the insulation.

[bmcecosse]

Most likely wire chaffed through. Could rig temporary repair with a single wire run through the car, until better weather/health allow proper repair!

[Peetee]

Found the problem!
I had replaced the wires at the boot light in the wrong order. despite the fact that one of them is a return to earth at the boot hinge it also earthed through the mounting to the bootlid. Once I'd connected the live to this one the fuse was doomed!

[bmcecosse]

Ah well - at least it's sorted.