Bad earth?

[lefty67]

Everything working fine except when I have the right indicator on and press the brake pedal it stops flashing, tell tale light on dash and exterior lights stay on, depress the brake pedal and indicator works again. Does this point towards a bad earth and if so where should I start looking.
many thanks

[marlinowner]

Yes bad earth at right hand rear light cluster. At the moment the right hand rear indicator is earthing through the brake light bulbs and the left hand rear light earth. When you put the brakes on that earth path is lost.

[lefty67]

Thanks very much Marlinowner, will have a look and see if I can sort it.

[California Dreamin]

FYI; Rear light earthing faults on vehicles of this era were common. Think about it this way: separate feed wires going to 1) an indicator 2) a brake light 3) a reverse light 4) a side light 5) and possibly a fog light...so as much as 94 watts (7 amps) of current but only ONE earth wire on the return circuit serving ALL the lamps.

The simplest method of repair is to make a 1.5mm wire fly lead with small eyelets either end. Drill straight into the back of the lamp holder and through the common earth plate, use a self tapping screw and fasten the eyelet/lead to the back of the unit. The other end is also self tapped to somewhere behind the lamp on the body.

Martin

[lefty67]

Thanks for all the input.
Finally got round to doing this yesterday. It was a combination of a poor earth connection and degraded wiring to brake light
Cheers all