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TR4A warning light position


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My 4A has the walnut dashboard. The warning lights for ignition and indicators have never lined up properly. The holes in the steel dash panel are not lined up with the timber facing. I am going to take the dash apart and redrill the steel. My query is whether the lights should mount through both the timber and the metal, or only the metal, which is where they are now.

Rockie

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When I bought my TR 4, a long time ago now, it

had an extra market wooden dash fitted, and no, the holes for the Green/Red Warning Lights did not

line up.

What someone had done, was obtain two extra warning lights, and cut the lens/chrome bezel off

and let them into the wooden part of the dash locted with some, mastic. None of this could be seen

and the light shone well enough through both to be OK in use.

John.

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The May 1965 Autocar Road Test of the 4A stated ---  "The new walnut veneer dashboard is very well fitted and stands up admirably to Californian sunshine, we are told. It is slightly marred by two clumsily cut holes for warning lights between the main instruments, but otherwise gives a nice touch of luxury." I reckon it was rather too soon to comment on West Coast longevity of the veneered dash but that's another story.

The warning lights on my car were not central in their apertures when the car was built and this always annoyed me. Some years ago, when I fitted a replacement dashboard and matching door cappings I took the opportunity of judiciously modifying the holes in the panel with a rat tail file thus allowing the warning lights to be repositioned exactly centrally. I also arranged for the cut outs on the bezels to be at 3 and 9 o'clock - what an anorak!

Tim

692704343_Warninglightssorted!.thumb.jpg.f88a55fd96625bf5f22a751c7e450ceb.jpg

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I have LED instrument panel bulbs Pete, to reduce current draw on my dynamo equipped car, and the existing rheostat has zero effect. The lights are a bit too bright for my taste, the tape is just to dim the light to a more acceptable level. I have a small  circular piece of blue insulating tape on the speedometer glass covering the main beam warning light for the same reason.

 

Tim 

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Bob,

If this is available as a direct replacement for the existing rheostat could you please advise source. Many thanks.

Tim 

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Thanks Bob. the required modification is beyond my skill level so will stick with my current bodge. The brighter panel lights have accentuated the reflection from the chrome speedo and tacho bezels, which create unwanted virtual images on the screen. To eliminate this issue for night driving I have a removeable piece of PVC leathercloth which attaches by Velcro to the heater vent, it can just be seen in the attached.

Tim 

Vital signs spot on, M74 southbound Saturday early evening.JPG

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Interesting, I get reflections in the windscreen as well from the LED instrument lights.  I have not tried to do anything about it yet but it is slightly annoying.  I put the effect down to the angle of reflection and me being tall so catching it just wrong.

That digital dimmer would also be appealing but I also don't have machining skills of facilities.

Paul

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Dimmer not "digital" ! just a different value to the original, also smaller.  the machining is only necessary if you wish to exactly replicate the original method of mounting the control knob. You could probably get away with just shortening the spindle, & pressing the knob on, perhaps with some thin packing to stop it slipping.

Bob

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Good thought Bob, might try this. After all it's not as if the knob has to be pulled out and I guess very little force is required to rotate it.

Paul, I used small pieces of self adhesive hook and loop tape as shown. When not in use the PVC sheet stows in the door pocket taking up hardly any of the limited space therein.

Tim

 

 

DSC01238.JPG

DSC01239.JPG

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Good luck.  BTW the fixed resistor (mounted on the back of the pot) is there so that the LED bulbs do not go out altogether when the pot (dimmer) is only half way down.

with the fixed resistor there should be a smooth transition from off to full on over the travel of the pot.

Here are some pics I took of a setup I did recently for Pogo:

                        807438421_Fullyanticlock.thumb.jpg.2672f1fef0f2ff9ad4a7eb34625f980d.jpg         36805066_Halfwayup.thumb.jpg.ac1006c7711aa480fdc1f8a2dc965a48.jpg          1914774675_Fullyclockwise.thumb.jpg.66b252c29cb5660980bc0aa071fb9643.jpg

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On 3/16/2019 at 11:15 AM, Lebro said:

Here are some pics I took of a setup I did recently for Pogo:

                         807438421_Fullyanticlock.thumb.jpg.2672f1fef0f2ff9ad4a7eb34625f980d.jpg         36805066_Halfwayup.thumb.jpg.ac1006c7711aa480fdc1f8a2dc965a48.jpg          1914774675_Fullyclockwise.thumb.jpg.66b252c29cb5660980bc0aa071fb9643.jpg

Hi Bob

Nearly ready to install these now. Looking forward to seeing it all done.

Roger

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Hi Tim,

did you have trouble fitting the LED bulbs to the larger instruments? I bought a set of green ones on Ebay - they fit nicely on the smaller gauges but hit the back of the gauge face when I try to fit them to the larger ones. Just wondering if you found a workaround ....

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Hi Ricky,

I ended up using two types of LED bulb for the panel. Type 1 give a concentrated light in one direction and these were ideal for the main beam, ignition and indicator warning  functions. However, I found them poor as instrument bulbs, for those I used Type 2 bubs which give the required spread of light. In both cases the overall length of the bulbs was quite close to the original filament bulbs and I had no clearance issue on the speedo or tacho.

Tim

 

 

LED Instrument Bulb, Type 1.jpg

LED Instrument Bulb, Type 2.jpg

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  • 2 years later...
On 3/14/2019 at 12:11 AM, tim hunt said:

I have a small  circular piece of blue insulating tape on the speedometer glass covering the main beam warning light for the same reason

You could always revert to the original bulb  for that application. They were never too bright!

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  • 1 month later...

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