Hi guys, long time no questions!

Well here's one... I went to start the mini to give it a run and it wouldn't fire, lots of turning over though. So I thought fuel but all seemed ok. I then thought electrical so checked the fuses on the engine bay wall to find the top one had blown. There was a spare so I put that in and it blew to. Bought some new fuses but same thing, so I presume there's a short some where.

Are there any notoriously obvious places that short?

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thats a lucas loom for you, post what colours the wires were that came off that fuse,

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any parts for a 76 clubby pm me or ring 0405 329 326

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44717

Brown wire

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Well in a standard loom both your coil and your ignition to starter solenoid are unfused and fed from the ignition switch - so a blown fuse in itself shouldn't stop it from starting (assuming a standard loom).

Is it Brown on one side of the fuse and Purple on the other side?

Brown wire to the front of the fuse with a brown, purple & red wire off the other end.

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I am just trying to nut this out...
This may not be correct as I am working from a bad book....

Brown on one side is power into the fuse (always live)
Brown on the other side should run to light switch.
Purple and Red (could this be purple and brown?) could be live accessories like horn and things.

Try disconecting one wire and see if the fuse blows then try disconecting the other one.

There are 2 purple wires, 1 red and 1 green coming off the back of the fuse.
One of the purple wires is the culprit, the fuse only blows when this purple wire is connected. It runs down into the engine bay towards the front of the car, I'll see if I can find exactly where it goes to in the morning.

Thanks

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It would be the live feed to the horn.
The horn is live all the time and earths through the switch.

Sometimes the wires in the engine bay will rub through but other times the horn itself will be the fault. Give the horn a tap with a hammer (carefully) and see if the problem clears. Also check that the horn is not full of water.

Thanks, will do.

Water could be the issue as we've had bucket loads of rain lately.

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Both purple wires go to the two terminals on the horn.
I disconnected both these from the horn and the fuse still blew

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Disconnect from the fuse holder and see if it blows and if not then trace the wire to find the break

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

I discovered the 2 purple wires weren't going down to the horn, when I pulled the tape off the loom one of the purple wires did a u-turn and went to the interior light. It seems that when the light is on the fuse blows. But if I turn the light switch off the light comes on but the fuse doesn't blow. So I've pulled the light bulb out until I can work out what's wrong.

The reason the car wouldn't start was two dodgy spark plugs.

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Told you so. With a standard mini loom the engine running has no connection to the fuse box. The only two essential circuits, +12v to the coil and +12v to the starter solenoid cranking over (plus elec. petrol pump where fitted) are unfused and fed straight from the ign. switch. A short in the ignition circuit (where a tacho is incorrectly wired or a wire is shorting on the body) will prevent ignition but this will not be blowing any fuses.

mike be nice a told you so is not nice and also the short was not the reason for the car not starting it was teh interior light .... bne nice kid's
makka

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