Dash lights

Colthebrummie · May 31, 2019

can anyone explain why the dash lights on a series are operated from a separate switch? Mine have never worked, I suspect the switch is faulty, so I've wired the dash lights into the wiring for the lights, they now work but don't give much illumination. I just can't really understand why there is a separate switch. Mine is a series 3 lwb stain wagon and the dash light switch is a double position one which also operates the interior light, that bit does work.

Col

tottot · May 31, 2019

Land Rovers were often sold to farmers, shooters and military. Getting the inside dark when hunting helps with target spotting.

Rodeo Joe · May 31, 2019

tottot said:
Land Rovers were often sold to farmers, shooters and military. Getting the inside dark when hunting helps with target spotting.

Just as likely is Landrover got a container full of switches from lucas in 1948 and it took them till 1984 to use them all up.....

ObiWanKenobi · May 31, 2019

I can't explain why, however about the dimness of dash lighting, I can share what I've done on my IIA.
I've replaced all of the instrument panel bulbs with LED bulbs with these exceptions: Green oil pressure warning light bulb, amber cold start warning bulb, and main ignition warning light. Reason being that LED's need an exact voltage to go on, and I feel that it's important to see the mild fluctuations and flickering of those particular warning lights. I did have LED bulb in my oil pressure warning light and it did not seem to work. Now, with the original incandescent bulb, I do see flickering when shutting engine off. Ditto the ignition warning light.

Turn signal dash indicator light and the bulb in the Magnatex turn signal switch on the steering column must be incandescent, not LED because they provide a "load" on the flasher circuit which needs to be there for flasher relay to build up resistance for the click.

As for the extra switch to turn on panel lights, I loved it from Day 1. The more switches, dials, and steam gauges the better!
Mike

Colthebrummie · May 31, 2019

ObiWanKenobi said:
I can't explain why, however about the dimness of dash lighting, I can share what I've done on my IIA.
I've replaced all of the instrument panel bulbs with LED bulbs with these exceptions: Green oil pressure warning light bulb, amber cold start warning bulb, and main ignition warning light. Reason being that LED's need an exact voltage to go on, and I feel that it's important to see the mild fluctuations and flickering of those particular warning lights. I did have LED bulb in my oil pressure warning light and it did not seem to work. Now, with the original incandescent bulb, I do see flickering when shutting engine off. Ditto the ignition warning light.

Turn signal dash indicator light and the bulb in the Magnatex turn signal switch on the steering column must be incandescent, not LED because they provide a "load" on the flasher circuit which needs to be there for flasher relay to build up resistance for the click.

As for the extra switch to turn on panel lights, I loved it from Day 1. The more switches, dials, and steam gauges the better!
Mike

I did get LED bulbs for the dash lights but every single one of them broke when I tried to screw them in, the glass bit separated from the base so the old bulbs went back in.

Col

ObiWanKenobi · May 31, 2019

Col -
Yeah - that is a problem. The LED tops are basically held on my the thin wires themselves. I'm going to invent a special tool for gripping only 1mm of the thin metal rim of small light bulbs. It would be like a bead crimper or tire valve puller. Maybe it's already out there...
Mike

Bobsticle · May 31, 2019

I have no switch for mine anymore. But I have gone to red leds to aid night vision.
It can take ten minutes to regain night vision in the human eye after a few seconds of white light.
I just need to fix the speedo, temp and clock now so I have something to read.

Land Raver · Jun 2, 2019

I just changed the bulbs. The old ones had gone silvery / blackened glass. With new bulbs they light up nice and bright.

rob1miles · Jun 3, 2019

I went to LED for the instruments but it has not really been a success. They don't last and they have a very harsh light. OK for some gauges where the bulb is central, but a couple of the (cheap) after market gauges let too much light around the side of the face. We have a map light that illuminates the dash as a back up.

suburban · Jun 3, 2019

I wired mine to lose that switch too

now I just put up with being dazzled by those 1w lucas bulbs because I can't turn them off

Dash lights

Colthebrummie

Well-Known Member

tottot

Well-Known Member

Rodeo Joe

Well-Known Member

ObiWanKenobi

Active Member

Colthebrummie

Well-Known Member

ObiWanKenobi

Active Member

Bobsticle

De Villes Advocaat

Land Raver

Well-Known Member

rob1miles

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suburban

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