Indicators. Bad earth?

My series 3 Lightweight has the usual nightmare wiring typical of a vehicle that’s nearly 50 yrs old as successive owners have added their own bit of spaghetti. Behind the dashboard is a mess of domestic 3 core cable & scotchlok connectors. I’m rewiring it next year with a new wiring loom from Autosparks (18 weeks delivery!). In the meantime I have a problem with the indicators that I presume is a bad earth but I can’t find it!

Problem 1
When I first start the car the indicators don’t work properly & both start flashing fast when I try to use either one. After a couple of miles they sort themselves out and work properly. All I can assume is that’s there’s a bit of moisture affecting them somewhere.

Problem 2
When side lights or headlights turned on indicators start flashing very quickly as if a bulbs blown. The front indicators flash orange but at the rear the indicators don’t flash but the rear lights do - very faintly.

I thought I’d fixed it the other day after remaking a couple of earths under the bonnet.

Anyone got any other ideas? The side \ headlights are on a separate switch to the indicator so there’s no common wiring.

Check your relay might have moisture inside on damp days or could need replacing. If wiring already fickle at the light units then clean contacts if not could be chaffing at joints or exposed wire to the harness.

Here’s the nightmare behind the dash. After disconnecting everything I could & pulling all the lights out I found the problem - hopefully!
A previous owner has put all the rear light connections into junction boxes under the rear wheel arches. Again a mixture of domestic 3 core cable & butchered wiring loom. All earths connected to one terminal that bolts through the junction box to the rear tub. Running an earth lead I made up with two crocodile clips from this to the chassis seems to have cured all the problems. Just got to do something more permanent now

Birdbrain said:

Here’s the nightmare behind the dash.

Click to expand...

Have you tried running a wander lead from battery -ve ( assuming -ve earth ) to various points - a supplementary earth will identify the problem quite quickly IME - such a lead is a fine and pretty cheap addition to your tool box too