I was trying to fix the broken signal stalk on the steering column; however I accidentally tripped the circuit and I saw some sparks from where I short the circuit, please see the image below.


The car couldn't start up after that, I thought it was simple as I blew a fuse. I checked the fuse box in the engine bay but I couldn't find a blown fuse.
The battery indicator light on the gauge doesn't even lid up when I turn the key like it used to. I was looking around in the engine bay and noticed there's a silver box, please look at the image below,

is this a main fuse?

I even tried to connect a jump start cable to the battery to anther car but no luck, I couldn't start the car nor any electrical components worked.


I'm so frustrated here

 

Not sure what this means - sorry. Can you clarify?

Also, what year is your Mini? Most older Minis only have a 4-fuse panel, and I assume that you pulled out all 4 fuses and checked them, correct?

Oh and just a friendly reminder: when doing ANY work on ANY car's electrical system, be sure to disconnect the negative battery terminal before doing anything. With the negative wire off the terminal, current will have no way to return to the battery via the chasis, and hence there's no chance of an accidental short. Do your work, check all your wires and splices (at least three times) and only THEN re-connect the battery.

 

When I rewired my 1973 MK3 Mini, I created lookup tables for, among other things, the turn signal and ignition switches. Since you didn't identify the year of your Mini, I can only assume the wire colors are the same.

Turn signal switch wires:
Green / Red: Left turn signal lamp
Green / White: Right turn signal lamp
Blue / Red: Headlight low-beam lamp
Blue / White: Headlight high-beam lamp
Purple: 12V BAT+
Blue: Lighting switch - headlight pin
Light green / brown: flasher
black: ground
purple/black: horn

Ignition switch wires:
Green/White: switched 12v ACC+
White/Red: starter solenoid
Brown: 12V BAT+
White/Blue: Ignition Coil
Purple/Pink: Ground?

My guess is that the ignition switch is no longer grounded, so no current can flow to the starter solenoid when the key is in the ON or START position. I can't recall if there were more than one ground wire on my '73 originally, but based on the picture you provided, there are more than one black wire going to your switch (perhaps one to the ignition switch and one to the turn signal switch).

If you have a volt/ohm meter, you should be able to do a continuity check between the black wire (that's broken off of the switch) to body ground. If the wire is connected to ground the meter should read nearly zero ohms. If that is the case, part or all of the switch is no longer grounded.

While you're there with the volt/ohm meter check the voltage at the 12V wires I specified above (with the key on engine off). If they're all 12 volts, you've got a grounding problem. If they are 0 volts, it's a power problem (like a blown fuse or burned up wire).

Hope it helps,
Jeff

 

my bad, I meant a silver box with two prongs on it.
My mini is a 1972, but I'm not sure if it is the same as a 1973.

 

that broken piece of black wire is connected with the purple wire though? how can it be a ground wire if Purple: 12V BAT+ ?

 

It looks like the broken wire is part of the turn signal switch, yes? Interpreted from my factory service manual (agrees with my previous post regard):

Looking at my factory service manual (it has wiring diagrams for all of the Mini variants such as saloon, estate, 1275GT, cooper, everything). Regarding the turn signal switch, all of the wiring diagrams have the same wire colors for the same circuit, so even though my turn signal switch looks like a different design than yours, the colors are most likely for the same circuit.

Turn signal switch:
Purple: from: battery, to: high-beam switch inside turn signal switch
Black: ground
Purple with BlackStripe: from: horn 12v, to: horn switch inside turn signal switch

Can you procure a test light or volt meter? At least with a test light you can figure out if the purple wire is hot. If it is, then either the black is not ground or the black wire didn't break off of the connection you circled. A volt meter would be a lot more helpful though ...

Sorry I can't help more,
Jeff

 

jeffm5150,
when you look at the broken piece of black wire, it is joint with the purple wire connected to the turn signal assembly,



what do I do with this piece of wire?

My friend suggested me to check the positive wire from the battery first thing because it seems like no current flow to the car at all similar to what you have mentioned. My question is that where does the thick positive battery wire/cable go? does it go to the starter directly? if this battery cable is good then where and which wire should I start with checking with volt meter?

thanks!

 

Sorry this is so long ... bear with me.

The purple wire (not purple/black) should be connected directly to the battery (on mine it terminated at the starter solenoid, being fed 12v from the positive battery cable). It should be 12v always, regardless of key switch position.

The white/red wire should be connected to the starter solenoid. If you locate the white/red wire at the starter solenoid, you should have continuity between the starter solenoid white/red and ignition switch white/red always. This wire should be grounded except when the ignition switch is in the start (III) position when it will have 12v.

The battery is in the boot of the car. The negative battery cable is connected to the body near the battery, effectively electrically grounding the body. The thick positive battery cable exits the boot and runs under the car and up to the starter solenoid near the engine. The starter is also connected to the starter solenoid. The ignition switch triggers the starter via the white/red wire.

I've noted the expected voltages of each of the ignition switch wires for each of the ignition switch positions. The ignition switch positions are: OFF, I (ACC), II (RUN), and III (START):
Green/White (switched 12v ACC) - off = 0v, I = 12v, II = 12v, III = 12v
White/Red (Starter) - off = 0v, I = 0v, II = 0v, III = 12v
Brown (unswitched 12v BAT+) - off = 12v, I = 12v, II = 12v, III = 12v
White/Blue (ignition coil) = off = 0v, I = 0v, II = 12v, III = 12v

I know you're focusing on the black wire, but you also mention that there is no current flow to the car. Before you can reconnect the black wire, you should determine if the ignition switch is getting power or not.

Your question was: what do I do with the black wire? I can't say for sure, but you will need to do a little volt meter testing to figure out if the ignition switch is the problem or if the wiring is the problem. Once you troubleshoot following the below items you'll better understand where the problem lies.

(1) verify the ignition switch is grounded
Set the meter in resistance mode (ohms, not volts) Connect 1 lead of the meter to the metal body of the ignition switch and the other to a good ground point. There should be no resistance (like < 5 ohms).

(2) verify 12v supply to ignition switch
Set the meter in DC voltage mode. Verify that the brown wire has 12v (connect 1 lead of the meter to the brown wire and the other to a good ground point) for each of the switch positions.

(3) verify the ignition switch produces switched 12v to the vehicle wiring harness
Set the meter in DC voltage mode. Verify that the Green/White wire has 0v with the ignition switch in the off position as 12v for positions I, II, and III. Again, connect 1 lead of the meter to the green/white wire terminal and the other to a good ground point.

(4) Determine the black wire's voltage potential
Set the meter in DC voltage mode. The ignition switch position here does not matter. Connect 1 lead of the meter to the exposed black wire (the wire, not the terminal that you believe previously connected the wire to the switch), and the other lead to a good ground point. If the voltmeter reads around 12v, I would guess that, for some reason, the black wire provided 12v power to the ignition switch. If it's zero volts, it is for some other purpose.

If you can determine the results of each of the above steps, you should be able to determine what the problem is. It's dangerous to simply 'try' reconnecting the black wire to the switch without knowing the above results, as you can smoke the wiring harness and/or ignition switch _very_ easily.

good luck,
Jeff

 

The main positive lead goes from the battery, along the underside of the car and into the solenoid. If it were me, I'd get a multimeter from Radio Shack or a hardware store (<$20), and then start at the battery terminal and start tracing the line forwards to the solenoid and from there to the fuse box, testing along the way. You can use any bare metal spot on the chassis for an improvised ground - so long as the negative battery cable is connected, any metal spot should serve. You should see "12" on the multimeter, assuming you've set to read DC volts (see the multimeter manual for how to set it and perform a test).

When you find the spot that no longer reads 12V, carefully inspect everything between that point and the last good test and you should find the fault spot. Look for melted/charred spots in the wire. When repairing, I like to replace EVERYTHING between connection spots and use the SAME COLORED WIRE - it makes it easier for the next guy if the wiring isn't a nightmare rainbow of colors. Use crimp-on butt caps and NOT twist-on wire nuts or electrical tape, as both are not intended for long-term repairs on car wiring. If you're really ****, you can seal the ends of the butt cap with a small dash of silicone for a 100% watertight fix - I recommend this for any splices under the bonnet. Overkill? Perhaps, but none of my wiring fixes have ever worked loose (yet).

 

UPDATE: the problem is fixed magically by itself for some reason. it just starts up fine no problem now; however i still need to fix the broken signal stalk, i accidentally broke the mechanism of the signal stalk so now it wont stay in one position but it's freely moving from high beam to low beam vice versa. sometimes it stays on high beam even after the engine is turned off and draining all the battery, is there sth i can do to the signal switch? maybe unplug the wire of high beam? or do you know where to get just the signal switch/stalk? thanks!

 

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