Weekend update - I was asked to drive my Midget in a parade next weekend in
Ocean City, NJ, and there is a banquet after that, so I figured I will be
driving home after dark. I better get my parking and marker lights working.
(Headlights and brake lights are fine.) As you might remember, I replaced
the fuse block and one fuse blew as soon as I inserted it. This was the fuse
for the right side markers and parking lights, but the left side didn't work
either.
Got out the multitester and started tracing wires. Dead short to ground on
the wire from the blown fuse. (No surprise.) I pulled off every lamp cover
and removed all the bulbs. That's ten lamps! Same dead short at every lamp
contact. I found a strange (DPO strange, that is) black wire connecting the
left-side with the right-side red circuit in the boot. That explains why all
the lights don't work instead of just one side. I also found a few red wires
clipped.
To make a VERY long story short, I found that I caused the short when I
installed the missing black grille behind the front bumper and caught the
parking light wire in the bolt clip. With that fixed, I decided to trace all
the wires so I could figure out what the extra black jumper in the boot was
for. I also found a black jumper in the front, behind the grille. The
wiring mess is just about unbelieveable! Of the four red wires on two fuses,
two actually connect to lights and two go nowhere. One works the fronts and
one works the rears, instead of left/right as it was intended.
All the lights now work off of two wires and two fuses, and I won't have time
to make it all right before next weekend. That will be a project in itself.
Whatever posesses DPOs to do this kind of stuff?
Allen Hefner
SCCA Philly Region Rally Steward
'77 Midget
'92 Mitsubishi Expo LRV Sport
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