Well my mini loving friends, i picked up my 1976 austin mini last week. I have one problem i need to get fixed ASAP. my back left tail lights running brake light isnt working. I have a whole new tail light to replace it but i plugged it in and still the light running light doesnt work. Any idea what it could be? also... how the hell do you replace the back left tail light without removing the gas tank?!

signed haggard newbie

 

Have you confirmed that the wiring is OK? I would assume the wiring is faulty before I replaced the tail light assembly.

My '73 had some electrical problems when I acquired it ... one being the turn signals. I found that the wire harness going to the rear section of the car had some chafing that caused some of the wires to short to ground. On my car the wire problems were below the bottom left corner of the front windscreen, as in behind the dash assembly where the wires are found.

Sorry, I can't answer your question about whether you can replace the light without pulling the tank. Pulling the tank is not as hard as it sounds ... it's just tedious and you have to drain the tank first. I pull the fuel line under the car and drain the tank into a catch can, then simply remove the tank.

Good luck,
Jeff

 

One other thing ... if you have a test light or digital voltmeter you can confirm that the wires are OK by checking the wire's continuity to ground. If the hot wire at the bulb is shorted to ground then you need to trace the wires to find the fault. The wire harness follows the left-hand-side roof line over the cab, down the A-piller and merges with the rest of the wiring below the bottom-left of the windscreen (behind the dash).

Hope it helps,
Jeff

 

When i bought the car the guy gave me the new tail light. He ordered it six weeks back and it came in the day i went to pick up the car. I plugged the new light in and it still had the same problem so i know its not the light its self. My only problem is i'm not 100% sure which line is running to the running light to track it down and see if there are any faults in the wiring. I'm probably going to trace all the wires sometime this week and see what exactly it might be. Also lastnight my rally fog lights cut out and now arent working so i'm going to have to check those too. Oh joy!

 

According to my factory service manual, the following wire colors are used for the left rear taillight assembly:

green: direction indicator lamp
red: tail lamp
green/purple: stop lamp

Hopefully that helps you out. If not, let me know what colors are in the left taillight pigtail and maybe I can cross reference.

Jeff

 

I have had the gas tank out a couple of times to work on the taillight .....gonna have to do it again....it isn't a really hard task....just a nuisance task.....good luck...but I would check out the wiring first.....Or following my first rule of "electrics" on the Mini....tap the fuse block with the handle of a screw driver.....my I have fixed a couple of "electric" problems that way....yes, I have a new fuse block on order....but right now it works fine.