Headlight Earth

[ek96]

Hi All!

I am currenlty having an issue with my headlights whereby, if I connect the wire to earth that is on the loom, and although a continuity test confirms it does indeed go to earth, the light does not come on. But if I hook up the headlight straight form the negative terminal of the battery, it works fine! So does this mean that there is resistance/insufficient current in the earth wire and, if so, what could cause this? A short somewhere? And where is the best place to start looking?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, and thanks in advance!

Edd

Edit: I have removed the bullet connector from the earth coming from the loom, and the wiring that connects to the headlight is brand new,
and it still didn't work when touched together, so it isn't an issue there.

[oliver90owner]

Won't be a short buthere might be an open circuit! Most likely obvious place to look is where that wire is earthed to the bodywork. Continuity does not necessarily mean very low resistance.

[ek96]

Thanks for the helpful advice!

I don't suppose you know where it would be earthed to the bodywork? As it is built into the loom I'm assuming there is one primary place?

[Monty-4]

Don't the headlights earth straight into those little clips on the inside of the engine bay, just forward of the arches?

305-1_1.jpg (63.19 KiB) Viewed 1962 times

I recently replaced mine as they had been painted over (by me) and then snapped (again, oops).

[simmitc]

Headlights should have an earth direct to the inner wing, below where the wiring loom comes in and above the seam to the lower panel. Bullet connector on the wire from the headlight into the clip so perfectly pictured above. A ring terminal and a screw or bolt is an equally good solution, but definitely not earthing through the main harness. Each headlight is earthed separately.

[ek96]

Hmm then it looks as if a previous owner decided on some modifications (not uncommon, but certainly makes things interesting!

Thanks all for your help, I'll take a look when I'm next out looking at the car.

Quite relieved that I don't have to 'journey to the centre of the 'earth'.... I'll let myself out....

[mogbob]

A new replacement earth http://www.morrisminorspares.com/electr ... pe-p829859 won't break the bank if you've not spent your last penny on Xmas. Other wise take off the existing clip and clean it back to bare metal again with emery paper. Scrape the paint work off , underneath where the clip was and get that back to shinny clean metal again. Install clip back again and cover with coppa ease or grease to stop rust getting a hold.
Bob

[Trickydicky]

Have you checked for problems at the switch and dip switch?

[ek96]

Yep, I checked this and it's deifinitely not that. I know it's the earth becasue, when I fed a wire from the negative terminal to the negative wire on the headlight, they worked, on both dipped and full

I have ordered the brackets shown above and will let you know how I get on!