HI all

I have a 3 gauge cluster(tacho) in my mini and most of the lights dont work. I have had a good look at the plastic wiring thing and its all good.

I have tested all the bulbs and they are good.

the only lights that work are the HIgh beam indicator, Alt light and left turn indicator.

I have tested with a test light a few other spots in the rear of the circut and have found power yet the lights that are applicable to said power dont work.

This leads me to think its an earthing problem.

I have also cleaned the terminals on the plug that connects the loom to the dash.


what do you think it is?


thanks everyone.

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Do any of the circuits on the printed circuit look burnt or bubbly? I have seen this on lots of cars.
It does sound like an earth problem considering you have found power at the globes.
Try jumping an earth wire to get the relevant lights working - just be careful not to create a short circuit. If this works you have found the problem

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

Have you had a look at the dash light dimmer switch?

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

the panel lamps are on the same earth (and all connected to E on the voltage stabilizer) so if your the left indicator and the high beam globes are lighting, then its the inputs of the ones that arent working that you need to look at. and the IGN and OIL lights both run to the I on the voltage stabilizer, so if your gettin one and not the other, then its the 12v input to that particular globe. trace the inputs from the plug. off the top of my head, 1 & 6 are indicators, 2 & 3 are temp and fuel gauges, 4 is high beam, 5 earth, 10 & 11 are your oil and ign globes, 12 is your 3 panels globes.

I am with Matt here. Always check at the start of the power source when looking for a fault and follow through to see where it is stopping. The Dash lights dimmet is often forgotten about. It could be either just an open circuit dimmer resistor or just simply turned down too low or even off.

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DID I MENTION THAT I AM THE BEST SUPPLIER FOR MINI ELECTRICAL PARTS AND REPAIRS?
"Let us remove your "SHORTS"

Oh my goodness! I've just had the same problem on a GT I've been working on and I found it was a combination of a few things. One was the main plug contacts and I also found two bulb printed circuit copper contacts were cracked. The cracks were not easy to see but a magnifying glass showed them. They were fixed by soldering a piece of fine copper over the crack. I also had to solder a wire over a crack in the board. IMHO, the whole thing is a piece of rubbish.

Regards
Al

thanks for all your help guys, I now have a few more things I can try...

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30 year old printed circuits are not much good now days. I think they were only designed to work for 10 years? A pity the designer of the Clubman dash boards didn't have the same idea of life expectancy as the designers of the rest of the car.
Probably find a few of the mini designers didn't expect their little cars to be still running after 40 to 50 years.

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1969 Cooper "S"
1967 Mini Deluxe
1973 Clubman Van (the fleet spare)
1978 ex 1275 LS ("Wizard" Eaton Supercharged)
2015 HSV GenF GTS(occasional drive & tow car)
2019 MINI F55 Cooper S

I have tested the printed circuit and repaired where needed. I still dont have any panel lights.

I have disconnected the dimmer and there is no current there. Is it an earth type thing?


I cleaned all the terminals with thinners and tested all the globes.

One thing that may be an issue is that I have no power at the cabin light. Every thing else in the car is working.

any more ideas?

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The dimmer is simply a variable resistor in series with the panel lights circuit, therefore not earthed. If there's no voltage there, sounds like an open circuit somewhere from the light switch. If your tail-lights are working, it must be in that wire (red/green from memory) as the panel lights and side/tail-lights are on the same circuit.

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1967 Cooper S - new front bearings to do.
1965 Cooper S shell - Slow progress. No time or money!
1966 Deluxe- next rustoration!
Mk 2 & XJ6 Jags. Less said the better.

Ok thanks mate, I will pull the switch panel off and test em.

I might even piggy back a wire across for a + somewhere and see if it will get some action.

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Have you checked all the connections on the light switch itself? Sounds like the wire from the light switch to the dash printed circuit may not be connected or there is a break in that wire.
Check for power at the plug at the back of the cluster (check service manual wiring loom for wire colour) but if you have no pwer to the dimmer the problem will be between that and the headlight switch.
Im not 100% sure if there is an inline fuse (10 or 15 amp fuse)behind the switches and heater controls that goes to the cluster lights.......the fuse holder will be hidden and taped under that cloth tape.
Good luck and let us know how you go.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU

thanks for that mate, I dont recall seeing a wire and inline fuse between the 2. I might have to run another one.

I retaped the loom so I would have seen it surely. I will give the plugs and contacts a clean and a wiggle and see what happens.

thanks again.

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I could not find a feed wire from the light switch to the dash. there was only 3 wires comming from 3 pins, power/headlights/parkers.

this is gunna make it hard to spit one and run power to my dimmer because I want the dash lights to work even when the parkers are on. But If I connect the dash feed wire to both outputs at the switch I will have all the lights on.

I might just have to compromise or find a 4 pin switch.

Turns out the PCB is rooted anyway.


thanks for your help everyone.

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I have a supplier of good second hand PCB's if anyone wants one.

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