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Parking Lights

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wsm

Freshman Member
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The right side parking lights, both front and rear, have all gone out on my '74 Midget. I've checked the bulbs in the front and they are fine. I assume that this means there is a common switch or circuit for all of these lights, with a short, blown fuse, etc., but my wiring diagram is sketchy and I'm not experienced enough to pinpoint the problem.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
 
I have a PDF wiring diagram for a Midget Mk. III, North America, Neg. earth, G-AN5-138801 onwards (1973-74), but it is too large to post here. I can email it to you if that helps. Hopefully this is better than what you already have. As with any electrical problem, be methodical and always check your grounds.
 
wsm,
check and clean the fuse box connections. the bottom two fuses should be your running lites. check those fuses as well. Do you have headlites? Brake lites? The other possibillity is your switch in the dash.

mark
 
Mark, yes, headlights, breaklights, turn signals, and even the parking and running lights on the LEFT side of the car are all working properly, just not the right side parking and running lights.

As far as I can tell there is just one fuse box (under the hood) containing 4 fuses. All fuses are ok and the connections seem clean. But, I did notice that the fuse box connection furtherest forward and on the driver's side has nothing connected to it. Could that be the problem? But, if this was the problem, it seems that none of the parking lights should be working. Thanks for any input you can give. I'm just learning about this stuff.

Thanks,
WSM
 
Is this something that just happened or are you sorting out a car you just got?


I just went and checked mine. there should be a red wire with green stripe on one of the fuses. this is the parking lite feed. Should be 12v with the switch on. On the other side of the same fuse, two connectors with two red wires each (four wires) one set on top and one set on the bottom. these are your left and right feeds. for the record my car only uses three fuses. one slot is empty. fuse blocks have been known to go bad. if you suspect this try using an inline fuse.

hope this helps

mark
 
Yes, this is something that just happened. I've had the car about 2 months, and the lights have worked until now. Also, just a few minutes ago, while driving, I lost the tachometer and turn signals! The flashers and headlights still work fine, but no tach and no left or right signals.

Could this be related to the right side parking light problem?

wsm
 
sounds like you need to start going over some wiring. i would be willing to bet you lost your brake lights also. the trunk is a good place to start looking for bad wires. Sometime loose items bouncing around in the trunk can cause some trouble with lights. I loose my tach, fuel gage, turns and brakes sometimes when spiritedly driving. usually it is just the fuse that blows.

Could this be related to the right side parking light problem?

i would say probably not. its best to fix one thing at a time. with electrical you need to be methodical about tracing it out. do you have a test light?


mark
 
Not yet, but I'm ordering one now. Any other tools you'd recommend for electrical projects?

Thanks for the tips Mark.

wsm
 
well that pdf diagram Chris offered would be a good one to have. A kit of connectors and crimpers. some wire, electrical tape, and patience?..lol a tube of rtv, i use it to fill butt connectors before i crimp them, helps to keep them clean and somewhat water tight.

more than happy to help

mark
 
WSM, I would also suggest a simple multimeter. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just one capable of doing resistance and voltage measurements. Should be easy to pick up for under 20 bucks.
Jeff
 
You should have it. Let me know if you need a different one, I think I have them all up through '74.

There should be a red / green wire going to the two fuses Mark mentioned, the left lights are fused to terminal 2, and the right are fused to terminal 4. There should be two red wires leaving terminal 4, one for the front and one for the rear. If you have left lights the switch is good, so it is either the fuse, fuse block, or wiring. Remove the fuse, check for continuity to see if you have a good fuse. Even if the terminals look clean, get a small wire brush and clean them, reinstall a good fuse, turn on the parking lights, make sure the left lights are on, if so check for power on both sides of the fuse at the blades that hold the fuse as well as the terminals (mine had a break between the blade and the terminal). If that all looks good, pierce the insulation of the red wires leaving terminal 4 and check for power. This is a last resort because it creates a corrosion point in the wire insulation and can become a weak point later, but at this point the lights don't work anyways. Let us know what you find and we'll go from there.
 
On the 74 there are 2 fuses for the parking lights up under the dash sort of behind the glove box.
They are inline fuses, follow the red wires.
 
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