Ignition Wiring
electrical, wiring & in car entertainment problems & advice
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Ignition Wiring
Think i have gotten to the bottom of this......there is break in or the wiring is incorrect running from the ignition switch. From my understanding of the wiring diagram there should be a white wire with red tracer, running from ignition to the starter solenoid, AFAIK the wire is running into a relay from the ignition and there appears to be two white wires with red tracers, that are slighty different gauge, the large of these terminates into some connection block in the drivers side of the engine, not sure what this is a cannot find it on wiring diagrams, it looks like the alternator terminates here also...
would i be safe in bypassing the relay and other termination black and running a new cable straight to the solenoid (pre-engaged)
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
...so you're asking for verification as how to hot wire a Mini?
Nozzle
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Nozzle - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
lol, no ihave my little beaut sat on my drive, the last owner made a right mess of the wiring when they put a pre-engaged starter on... delivered to me on trailer, been trying to sus out the wiring, but tracing is proving difficult. ill get some photos uploaded 
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
I have diagrams of the starter circuit on this page - and links to the full diagrams.
The relay didn't exist on early cars, so yes it will work, but the purpose of that relay is to protect the ignition switch from large currents which may burn the contacts. Safer to rewire it the correct way.
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asahartz - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
That second diagram is perfect, now I can see the "missing"relay. Will check the wiring and test the relay for faults
Thanks
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
http://imgur.com/a/WnVd3
one of the white wires with red tracer terminates here any idea what it is as i cannot find on the diagram ??
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
What I'm seeing in that pic is the relay that energises the starter solenoid, the one that's at the bottom left of the 2nd diagram. Or is there something else you're trying to point out?
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asahartz - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Wanted to check that this is the thought to be the starter relay, I will clean up and test it. Thanks
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Yeah, that relay is somewhat cream crackered!
What's going on with that starter?
Nozzle
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Nozzle - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
well, when i was removing the bolts to test the starter the plastic just split off...so i got some epoxy on it ...guess the mix wasn;t strong enough to hold, as when i went to start it it split again....new one is winging its way to me by the end of the week i hope
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
new parts arrived and fitted, still not getting anything, not even getting oil pressure light on dash (which i was getting before i changed the relay), tested voltages to solenoid and starter getting good 12V+, going to whip the starter and solenoid off and test again to make sure not faulty.
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Update changed the battery and connections that we dodgy , and hey presto we have it turning over not starting. It that could be down to the petrol being 6month+ old.
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Assuming the timing hasn't been changed, warm the spark plugs. Take them out, heat them up a bit with a blowlamp, or even on a gas stove (my dad used to put them under the grill!) them drop them back in quickly while still warm. Often helps to start a stubborn A-series.
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asahartz - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Are the plugs wet and have you checked for a spark if these are ok then try some fresh petrol direct into the carb, it usually takes a while to get fuel to the carb if they haven't been run in a while
- Aaron3
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Where are you based maybe one of us can help
- Aaron3
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Sucked some of the bad fuel out and dumped some fresh on to the float valve area and managed to get it to nearly start, need to replace my choke cable and accelerator cable as both are kanckered.
Also going to drain out all the bad fuel, hope that will make the difference:)
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Finally got it running little bit of tinkering with the ignition wiring replacing rusted connections and melted wires got through the bad petrol and starts every time 
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Headlamps - check the bullet connections under the bonnet slam panel.
Indicators use a different relay to the hazards so that's first suspect. The indicators also run through the hazard switch; a a faulty hazard switch will stop the indicators working.
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asahartz - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Hazards work, replaced the silver relay behind the dash so possible faulty stalks or wiring to indicator relay, the wiring to the headlamps is crappy at best as I can see bits have been replaced thinking of building my own loom using these guys for the wire
https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/ ... ategory/12
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
But even if the hazards work, if the hazard switch contact to the indicators is faulty then the indicators won't work. It's more likely than the stalks which IME rarely fail, and are more expensive and more difficult to replace. You can check this by bridging the two green/brown wires on the back of the hazard switch.
I'm inclined to agree about the headlamp wiring, even though I've never actually had to resort to that. In fairness, the entire wiring loom is pretty poor by modern standards, and these cars are around 30 years old now. When I buy electrical parts I use these guys: Vehicle Wiring Products, who are fairly local to me. They stock pre-wired headlamp looms which makes the job quite easy.
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asahartz - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Thanks bypassed the hazards by connecting the brown green wires together,
The stalks seem to be working as they change the voltage going to the flasher relay but the relay doesn't seem to be responding,
https://www.minispares.com/product/Clas ... o%20search
was what I put in not sure which wire should go where so went solid green to B and green with light green to l. Bit stumped now..
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
I think the relay needs the proper load on the contact side to work - so also check the connections to the actual indicator bulbs - or stick in a temporary one. Or check the supply side to the contacts. I've not checked the diagram so I don't know if the coil side and contact side use the same fuse.
Nozzle
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Nozzle - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Bizarre whilst checking voltages the relay suddenly kicked in very slow to flasher on drivers side and normalish speed on passenger , put the old relay back in an it was flashing at a good speed on both sides, went to adjust the location of the relay and suddenly no more flashing, possibly the connectors are dodge but still getting good voltage on the exposed part of the flasher.. it was working with both the hazard removed and installed.
Thanks so far with the help
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
So I started tracing the wiring from the flasher back through the dash and I think I can just see the break in the loom, think I'm going to have to bite the bullet at some point and get a new loom.
- slackda
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Re: Ignition Wiring
Now you've done the hard bit locating the break, it's straight forward to fix with a soldering iron and some heat shrink sleeving.
Nozzle
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Nozzle - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
As I said, the looms were never great and at 30 years old they do start to fail - in fact my experience is that the looms in the 80s cars seem to fail sooner than older cars - perhaps a change in the type of insulation used, but they harden and crack in the engine bay especially.
I've never bought a new loom, but I have done extensive rebuilds, especially to the engine bay loom. Unless you want to maintain originality, then making your own, if you have the skills, is the way forward because you can modernise the loom that way, build in modern features, get rid of redundant wires, upgrade the fusebox and even bring it inside the car.
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asahartz - Contributor
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Re: Ignition Wiring
the wires in the engine bay are terrible, cracks melts, splits... i'm confident enough making a new loom it just getting the gauging correct and connectors correct i.e loading on weather proof connectors.
thanks again
- slackda
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