Side light trouble

[Monkeyfish]

Hi all,
After laying in bits for a long time it's to put the ol P6 back together again. The problem I'm having is with the drivers side indicator / side light, when I turn the side lights on nothing happens but when I indicate right the side light flashes with the indicator. There is a really long (2ft) earth wire coming off of the wire running to the side light but if this touches the frame then the indicator / side light goes out and stops flashing. There is also an earth running from the sidelight wire on the Passenger side that's not attached to anything but that light works fine. The number plate light at back is unwired at the moment would this affect anything.
Hope someone can help, nice and simple though please as electrics are witchcraft to me.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[Dave3066]

Hi Rich

Seems to me you have an earth problem there. The most likely cause will be a bad earth causing the indicator to earth through the side light, hence the flashing sidelight. Do you have a wiring diagram for the car as this will help to identify which wire should go to what. Sometimes the best way to sort wiring snags is to isolate everything and start from there. With everything disconnected make sure you have battery voltage at what should be the supply wire then check you have a good earth. Reconnect lights etc one by one and check them as you go to see if they work. I had a sidelight problem on my car recently in that the passenger side light would not illuminate. The bizarre thing about it was that I could measure battery voltage at the bulb connector but the bulb would not illuminate. It turned out I was getting a "borrowed" supply and earth through the other sidelight and it wasn't until I disconnected that one that I figured out the supply to the passenger one was broken.

Dave