intermittent rear lights (please read)

Hi all, new to the forum but on my 2nd defender..

Having recently bought this defender I'm now finding it has a few minor problems. All started when I when to press the horn pulling up the front of our house to show the kids daddy's new toy, (no horn) simple fix I thought. Into the fuse box and found the horn/interior light fuse blown so I replaced it, good all sorted or so I thought until my neighbour knocked on the door and asked if I realised my brake lights and numberplate light were on?? This was with the ignition off and the car locked. Once I got back into the cab I found that the headlight indicator on the dash panel was lit up green? so not being particularly good with electrics I pulled the fuse out, turned ignition on checked all lights ect and they were all fine apart from the number plate light. Put the fuse back in and the brake lights went back on. Frustrated I wiggled the gear stick and hey presto the light indicator on the dash panel went out, I looked around the car and the brake lights were off as was the number plate light?? So wiggling the gear stick has sort of fixed this problem but I'm expecting it to re occur. Any help would be great thanks in advance. Jamie 300tdi 90 pickup

Fuse box
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Lights on no key in ignition
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With the fuse in question removed does everything (with the exception of the horn) work as it should? Including the interior light, brake lights, reverse light and fog?

Everything apart from the interior light with exception of the horn

I've only got the Haynes diagrams here, so a bit limiting.

Is it possible that you'd put it into reverse when this first happened? I'm trying to find a simple reason for your wiggling the stick fix (You're not Hogwart's trained?). See if you can make it happen again and report back.

If the physical action of wiggling the gear knob affects the problem, you have some bare wire touching somewhere. Have a really good look at the fuse panel, maybe loosen it and have a look behind for bare wires/contacts.

Will do thanks, what I have found so far is that the motion of selecting the reverse gear and back to neutral knocks off the fault, this weekend I will loosen off the fuse box to inspect, I think I will also check the electrical connections on and around the top of the gear box (reverse selector) will keep thread updated thanks

I can't think of.any connections around the gearbox except for center diff lock cable... Maybe something to do with the reverse light wiring and the rear wires at the back or as they leave the chassis at the back?

The wire from the reverse switch to the lights is Green/Brown, and I suspect that it's chafed through to touch a similarly damaged Red/Orange or Red/Blue. I'm not sure where the reverse wire joins the loom that runs to the back, so you'll need to find that point and work backwards from there.

I don't think that it's the same problem as your horn/interior light fuse.

Thanks ks for all the advice, starting this weekend will post my findings

For anyone interested it turned out to be a bad interior light causing the above mentioned problems, thanks for all the help Jamie.