Bad Earth

[barrymknight]

Another amateur question I'm afraid....

My right hand indicator isn't working as it should. Left indicator blinks fine but the right blinks very slowly or just stays on....unless my sidelights are on, in which case it works fine!

I have read enough old posts to assume that this is down to a bad earth. I know what this means but no idea how to remedy it! Where do I look for the earth to enable me to fix it??

Sorry, I'm sure this is a very stupid question.

Thanks,

Barry

[Steve Cureton]

The lights are usually earthed via the fixing pins which hold the lamps in place. The earth connection is made by the metal-to-metal connection which effectively links back to the earth/negative post on the battery via the bodywork and earth brades. The earths are sometimes via a black earth cable attached to the lamp fixing pins. Over time these connections become corroded thereby reducing the effectiveness of the connections.

To fix the problem you need to undo the fixings, being careful not to break them if rusty, and clean up the surrounding painwork and earth wire connections with glass paper or similar. Once clean smear the connection with Vaseline to prevent corrosion, and re-tighten.

In some cases you might need to also remove the bulbs and clean up the lamp holders and the bulbs metal body to get a good connection.

[Spitfire1500]

Hi Barry,

I had exactly the same issue, it would work initially then the right hand indicator would stop blinking and the tell tale was just a solid green light. The earth is the black cable going to a clip that can be bent to shape.

As the connection is quite weak, you could clamp it tighter with your fingers to stop it dropping out (as seemed to be happening with me). Although my connections weren't corroded, I ended up reversing the lead so it went downwards into this clip (therefore was more stable) and I never had the same problem again, my earth cable did keep on dropping out. Changing the bulbs is a good idea as well, I ended up changing indicator bulb as well.

Cleaning up as Steve has suggested is a very good idea.

Kind regards,

David

[Howard81]

If you have fibreglass valances check for additional non-factory earth wires..