The old gal came to a smoking holt the other night.
The wire from the starter solenoid to the ignition has totally burnt out.

I have replaced two blown fuses and now have no power to the ignition or the lights or nothing except for the horn and interior light.

Anyone got any ideas?

Have tried starting with a wire direct from the battery positive to the starter solenoid but have no response.

Would really appreciate some advice if anyone can shed some light on this.

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64 Van 'Morrison'

If the insulation has burnt through the wire may be shorting on the body somewhere.

Hey mate. Sounds like you have battery power but no ignition. Does the car crank of the key? You could possibly have a bad connection on your engine to body earth which would cause the car to chase an earth via a seperate circuit. Possibly in your case the ignition

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The best part of fixing your mini is the test drive

Minis..

1976 van daily drive
1975 van
1968 deluxe in the shed
1967 deluxe high strung 1310
1959 austin healey sprite

Thanks for the replies.

Is it right to understand that the short could be anywhere?
Ie, not necessarily near the solenoid or the ignition or with the wire that has fried?

Your right boomini.
I have 12.5v at the battery but nothing at the ignition.
I also some 12.5v at the solenoid.

My prelim thoughts are that the ignition or solenoid are faulty and haven't let go of that wire after starting/whilst the car is running and so it has drawn heaps of current and melted off.

What I would like to achieve now is to get power back to the ignition so I can Start the engine without the use of that wire (by running direct from battery to solenoid) to test my theory.
Problem is though. No power to the ignition for fuel pump etc.

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64 Van 'Morrison'

As mentioned check the main earth connections - battery to body in the boot and chassis to body front right in engine bay - then work back

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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!

My guess is you are going to have to find the original problem first , and rectify it .

The wire from the starter to the solenoid shouldn't carry much current - that is just the starter current to trigger the relay. If it were sticking on, then the starter would keep going! But if there has been a bad crimp or something the wire could get too thin and get hot.

If you want to start the car without the starter wire, simply put the car on accessories as if you were about to start it, and then get a jumper lead and short across the solenoid terminals. This is essentially what the solenoid does when it is 'on.'

However I would look at fixing the other issues first. Check that there is current going to the fuse box on accessories. The horn and interior light work without accessories, so I'm suspecting that your ignition barrel might be on the way out.

Be very careful connecting power back up to your car.
If there is a direct short in the loom you risk doing more damage.
First advise is get someone who knows what their doing to look at the fault.
If a wire has melted in the loom, power could be shorting anywhere along the melted wire to another circuit.
Power plus short equals heat and fire and goodbye car.
Tread carefully.
Cheers Rob.

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82 BJ42 just completed resto
64 850 Modified(about to start rebuild)

Yes I agree. Somewhere in the loom the original wire may have now melted and damaged several others with it. I would be carefully removing and unwrapping the loom.

I've seen some real horrors when you unwrap looms where people have made "repairs".

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

There are methods to fault finding madness.

The best method is called the half split method. This is where you remove a link halfway down a loom and use a multimeter to try and source the fault either upstream of the break in the wire, or downstream..

In this case its the fuses.

You're blowing a fuse, the fault will be down stream of the fuse.

You need to remove all the connections on the fuse (everyone) and use a multimeter to check for short circuits on each of the outgoing wires.

It may be a bugger, but the fault may not present itself easily. The short may not be present without the car running. So you may also need to arm yourself with a few spare fuses yet.

Once you have found the individual wire causing the fault on the fuse box, then you can start looking downstream.

This way you don't spend all day chasing rabbits down empty warrens.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Thank you all. I am off to Perth this weekend but will take it on after my return.
Will no doubt have more questions.
Or... When I solve the issue ill post the breakdown and solution.
Cheers.

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64 Van 'Morrison'

Bit late...but disconnect the battery over night, or while you are not looking into the fault...just to be on the safe side.

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"Show me the Mini!"

I noticed you mentioned an electric fuel pump.
Check that the wiring to the pump hasn't shorted to earth.
Also to help everyone with fault diagnosis is this on the 64 van in your sig.
If so does it have floor start or key.
ie solenoid under floor near exhaust or on engine.
Is starter a later type with solenoid attached or original.
Little details will help others to visualise what your working with.
Good luck.
Rob.

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82 BJ42 just completed resto
64 850 Modified(about to start rebuild)

Hi All,

Thanks for all the replies and help.
I am back on the road and thought i would give some feedback.

The issue was... drumroll.... a faulty ignition switch.
Once i had returned power to the ignition by reconnecting a wire from the alternator which must have disconnected during my initial fault finding, it was obvious that the ignition switch was faulty. With power to position 1 and the key turned to position 2 (first click of key), the ignition was not sending power to position 2 until the key was turned to position 3 on the ignition at which point there was power to everything.
Not what it should have been doing!

I taped up a couple of wires in the loom that had been burnt in part and put a couple of fusible links in. one on the wire between the alternator and ignition switch as well as on the replacement wire that was burnt from starter solenoid and ignition position 3.
I didnt have a spare ignition switch on hand so rigged up something as a substitute ignition switch and all has been well now for a week.

A significant bit of knowledge gained is that the mini circuit offers no protection between the ignition switch and the starting (solenoid, alternator) side of the circuit.
I would suggest as a matter of imperative that everyone put some protection in this circuit somewhere.
I have been advised by an auto electrician on this forum that a 30 amp fuse on the wire that gives power to ignition switch is a good position. I also put one on the wire between solenoid and ignition as an extra safety, especially in light of that being the wire that burnt out on my circuit.

Thanks again to all.

Geoff

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64 Van 'Morrison'

Yes, it has always been that the ignition side was hard wired and fuseless. I don't know what the context of all this was. I suppose they figured if it wasn't going to get you home it could just burn

Glad you sorted it out.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.