Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ray White]

[alastairq]

[Vulgalour]

I miss my cats, I don't miss the hair and the secret poops.

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Time for another Lanchester video. I've left in the mistakes and misunderstandings I had at the time of recording this, since the video was made this forum and others have helped me understand better what's going on. It's all part of the process.

https://youtu.be/PzjQWo_d3iI

[Vulgalour]

It's a lights update this time, with some success.

https://youtu.be/4qM83qISoyM


When I recorded the above I didn't know what the issue was, now I do. For the sake of video narrative, I'll let you know what the problem ended up being in the future. I'm a little behind on written updates, they will appear eventually, they just require a little more creative effort and energy than work and life have permitted of late.

[Vulgalour]

I also found this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364010959862 which has a couple of small items our car could do with and have contacted the seller. In an ideal world I'd buy the whole car and strip it at my leisure but I simply haven't the time or money to do that currently even though I do have a space on the drive it could occupy. Certainly made me feel a lot better about the condition of our car.

[Vulgalour]

Another Lanchester video for you. When it arrived, the interior light didn't work, in this video we investigate why and, happily, get it working.

https://youtu.be/pyI4dll_W0c

[Vulgalour]

https://youtu.be/PzjQWo_d3iI

More rewiring. I've actually learned a few things since recording this so some of the mistakes you might see could well be rectified already. First thing was to get more of the bullet connector sleeves that aren't provided with the harness, I was just waiting on a replacement bullet for the one that fell off here.


Then a case of figuring out what wires do what. This purple-black with a white-red inside is for the brake switch, it turns out.


That comes out under the driver's side front footwell where the brake switch lives.


The other two purple-black both have a plain white inside, one of which is for the wiper and one of which is for the horn. Happily the wiring for the wiper is pretty close to the wiring I'm trying to identify so doing a continuity test to work out which is which won't be too difficult.




Then I found out the battery in my multimeter had died and being an A23G it wasn't one I happened to have a spare of. Rather than let that stop me, I moved on to a different job, namely the dim-dip switch.




This was one of the items where the original wiring on the back of the switch matched the colours on the wiring diagram I was using so that made life a bit easier. I did each wire individually before moving to the next one so I didn't get anything muddled, I knew the switch worked so the wiring on it should be correct. The connectors are an open spade connector so you just slacking the screw, slide the spade connecter in, and tighten the screw down. Aside from the awkward access since you're in the footwell to do this, it actually went quite smoothly. The plate bolts to a cross beam but because it's nuts and bolts that aren't captive, it's a two person job to reinstate it. I couldn't get tools to stay wedged to do it up myself and my arms simply weren't long enough to reach both sides simultaneously.




I then spent some time identifying what wires went were and trying to get all of the instrument panel wired up properly. Not the easiest job to record or do as access isn't the best and removing the cluster from the dashboard didn't really give any better access due to wire lengths.


One issue I did encounter was the telltales for oil and ignition had yellow wires with bullet connectors on that couldn't reach anything else on the wiring, including each other, and the two wires that were probably to feed them had ring connectors on. Initially I didn't know what the problem was with this and when I found it, I was a little bit disappointed.

The new battery for the multimeter was got so I could do a continuity test and figure out which wire was for the wiper motor, and then I connected all the wiring to the voltage regulator in the way I thought was correct according to the information I had at the time.




I also figured out the flasher cans (that were provided) go on the custom wiring spur for the indicators. Whether this means the semphores are going to flap in and out in time to the indicator flash or not, I don't know. Some people think they will, some think they won't, but I can't see how you'd provide power to activate them and flash the bulb without deactivating the power to them. Maybe the flash rate is such that the arms stay stuck out but the bulb flashes, I won't know until I test them.


I figured out what was amiss with the telltale bulb holder wiring too. Not only did the new bulb holders not like to stay in the instrument binnacle, they didn't actually have the correct provision as standard for the wiring. There's probably some way to modify or complete the wiring provided to make them work, instead I opted to fit the old known good holders to the new harness. This did then resolve the connectivity issues. The old holders have an additional tang on the side with a screw which allows you to connect those eyelets that I couldn't connect to the new wiring, it also did away with the mystery of the bullet connectors and where they're supposed to go.


It was then a case of reinstalling all of the spaghetti, including the ignition switch wiring, to get everything ready to go.




Another thing to do is to connect the harness inside the car to the harness that comes in from outside the car. Again, not enough sleeve connectors provided for this so I had to acquire more for that


The last thing was to see what happened when I turned the ignition switch on and, happily, the oil and ignition light came on like they should, the fuel guage jumped to full (it's not actually connected, but it's good it moved) but the panel lights didn't come on as I didn't have that fully connected yet. Progress at least.

[bjacko]

There are now bulbs available in UK for semaphores which flash without the arm going up and down with each flash.

[Miken]

I wired my A40's semaphores and indicators to this simple diagram.
It all works well.
Flashing LED's and its even better.

http://www.loopybunny.co.uk/A30/Images/ind_a30.jpg

[petelang]

I used the flashing LED Bulb replacements in the trafficators and managed to wire the system with only one relay, used as a double pole changeover switch. Can't remember how I did it now but it saved quite a bit of extra wiring, but there are two plug in diodes involved.
_________________
Daimler Fifteen 1934
Armstrong Siddeley 15 Long 1933
Daimler V8 250 1969

[MVPeters]

If your existing trafficators are working correctly, you should be able to fit these LEDs without any wiring changes:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183773051711?hash=item2ac9ba3b3f:g:TzEAAOSwJY5jj4LD&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsNvdhjvHN0D7uZYumjN9w%2BQ64nT4twjvyeSUfIkO7DcKwX3zFiV5sXQy1yGFPm3FBBYfUMeWr%2FYZjNP4OkxdREshBpdW%2FBPnyGh6PoWdpRD4FnMSLV%2Bj3BLK2xl1Rg3AQpBEe7IFsHDRL35azSGt8ltaLBbaEzZ5vlWIxGSlsDxv1d9i4DF44%2FOJEaz2VAZh2NgRzPwcmUHpGPGXbRuClDtrwDU5H%2BUDRxLLatZPfzdc%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4r47IufYQ
_________________
Mike - MVPeters at comcast.net
2002 MINI Cooper 'S'

[Ray White]

THat's AMAZING!!

I remember when my Father in Law wired up my A30 for flashing indicators he disconnected the traficators.

I was sorry to loose them as they were one of the quaint things that I liked about the car.

Not very practical though.

These little bulbs would have been ideal.

Best of both worlds. I ought to buy some for possible future use.

[peter scott]

I think semaphores with flashing bulbs are better than non flashing and are probably useful at night but I wouldn't trust other motorists to see them during the day, they just aren't bright enough.

http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk/LED%20Lighting.htm

Peter.
_________________
http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Ray White]

[peter scott]