Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[TM8]

Hi to all, I have a 1935 Series 1 Morris 8 that i have just found. I have found alot of useful info so far on this forum. The Car has all the bits and pieces on. The Brakes needed attention and the wood is in good shape. I tried a search with resepect to the 6 volt system. I would like to keep the 6 volt system as is but that means low watt headlights. I have found H4 55/60watt 6 volt globes but was wondering if any one has done this type of conversion. I understand that 2 relays would be required to save the switch one for the Main beam and the other for Dip beam. What else should i be looking out for if i consider this route?
Regards

[colwyn500]

The modification using relays is a good one for any older car, including 12volt versions. Among other things, this has the benefit that it routes the heavy main load created by the headlights away from the ageing terminals of the light switch on the dash and from the dip-switch. This reduces the chance of a short-circuit or overheating terminals and will usually give brighter lights. You need to be sure that the wiring follows a short but safe and sensible route and that the correct additional fuses are in place. I hid all the gubbins under a couple of original junction boxes next to an engine flitch-plate in my old Austin.

[alec.elliot]

Hi there

And welcome to the Forum. You will find its a useful place to look for ideas/ inspiration for what you have taken on. The Morris Register is also useful and I would recommend joing it as there are a lot of like minded people in the club. They also have a forum although its not used that much really (cannot understand why!)

The brakes are straight forward enough to sort out. I did mine last spring with new wheel cylinders, master cylinder kit, linings and new flexibles. All readily available from a variety of places. I also replaced the old fluid with silicone.

As regards the headlights I would be tempted to leave them alone although it does depend on how often you intend to be out at night with your car. I changed my lights over from the original "dipping solenoid" type (Main Beam = both sides lit, Dip Beam = one side lit.) This was straightforward but did need a relay that I have tucked inside one of the headlight bowls.

All the best

Alec

[ukdave2002]

Hi and welcome to the forum

There is growing number of us Morris 8 owners on the forum

The better headlamp question comes up quite often; I think the way forward depends on how you plan to use the car.

If you stick with 6v your suggestion of putting 55/60W bulbs in would only be ok for runs that don't last any more than 10 mins, reason being that you will be drawing 20 amps just to run the head lamps, the M8 dynamo can only deliver about 15 amps, so your battery will be discharging, hence only safe on a short run.

If you plan to do lots of night driving, I'd move to 12v and fit an alternator.

Either way I think one of the challenges with a pre war car lighting wise is making sure you are seen by other road users, I have been playing around with LED's not the cluster of low power LED's that been shoe horned into a standard lamp cluster, but using the same high power LED's that today's vehicle manufacturers use in day running lamps; here is my prototype for the rear, the object was to maintain a completely standard looking lamp with upgraded lighting, I wanted to include flashing indicators as modern road users often don't see semaphores:



The LED's are run at 4.8v and the lamp has a regulator achieve this, the LED's on the curve of the "D" are amber to be used as an indicator, they are that bright that they will create amber through the red lens, I'm building a flashing circuit in, so there is no need to mess around with external flashers.

I'm doing the same with the front side lamps, including amber LED's for the indicator.

Dave

[alec.elliot]

Hi there

Thats a nifty looking thing you are doing with the rear light.

Any chance you can let me know what sort of LED's you are using for this conversion?

Best regards

Alec

[ukdave2002]

Hi Alec

I'm using Osram's Dragon Platinum LED's; they have a forward voltage of 2.4v, so I am wiring them in pairs, rather than using a dropping resistor, I'm using a simple 4.8v regulator, to maintain voltage whatever the dynamo output is.

Flashing for the indicators is created by using a cheap 555IC timer, and there is some simple protection for the electronics from the noise and voltage spikes that mechanically regulated dynamos create.

All 6 of the left hand leds are run for the tail light , but only at 25% power, the brake lamps runs them at 100% power, this gives the correct light output ratio.

The controlling electronics will be on the reverse side of the veroboard.

I will probably need to add an additional LED for the number plate illumination.

Cheers

Dave

[Rick]

Do you have any photos uploaded anywhere of the tourer? Quite a gathering of 8 owners on here now which is great to see.

RJ
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[TM8]

Hope this works Rick.[/url]

[Rick]

What a cracker

RJ
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[Rosco663]

Nice car Trevor,

Looks to be in really good nick - is it original or an earlier restoration? Best of luck with it.......as Rick wrote above it's a cracker

Cheers
_________________
Rosco

[Bugly]

Hey TM8 - there are available 6V 25/25W BPF Halogen bulbs which will fit straight in the Morris headlights and draw only 4 amps each on both high and low beam. The wattage is a little less than the original bulbs, but being halogen the light should be brighter anyway. I am fitting these to my 1935 Morris 8 in Darwin Australia, along with 6V White Ba15s LED lamps in the park and tail lights. Running at night shouldn't draw much more than 11A all up.

I had problems with my CFR2 cutout (and modifications to the cutout and wiring by the previous owner) so I have converted my 3-brush dynamo to 2-brush, and am presently fitting an 11A DVR3 voltage regulator. The regulator will hide in the cutout relay box and be largely invisible.

Hope this is of value.

[TM8]

Thanks for the interest and knowledge shared so far. The Car was completely restored in the 1980's but due to some parts the owner at the time made alot of plans when restoring certain items. The car has since then been stored in doors so the wood is in relatively good shape. The Picture does it justice from far but closeup a different store. I have had the car for about three weeks now and it is almost compelety stripped. The body leaves it chassis this weekend and on to a trailer to go to the Trimmers to redo the Soft top which currently does not exist, only issue the price of the Material . The Engine and Gearbox will be next for a complete rebuild. Parts are obviously in short supply this side of the world and will making use of alot of Pigeons to try and get the correct and replacement parts required from all over the world. Regards Trevor

[peter scott]