MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - 73 Midget dashlights Electroluminescence

i set out on a quest this week to upgrade my dashlighting with electroluminescent wire in place of the stock lights. It wasn't exactly easy, but with careful planning it made a huge difference and looks nearly stock. I found a site online which sold me a 12v driver that had 4 wire extensions (one for each gauge) and an attached dimmer built in. This meant i could replace the existing rheostat and not worry about what to do with that hole in the dash. there are quick connecters prewired onto each extension wire so each gauge has it's own connection. If a gauge should fail and need replacing i will only have to replace one piece of wire. The larger gauges are wired with "high brightness" wire to try to even out the lighting with the smaller gauges. all my pictures are posted here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24467943@N06/sets/72157622686225823/
here is the before photo: yes, the gauge lights are ON here!!


Chris Edwards

and here is the after, even the switch lights are brighter... i was probably losing a lot of power to a burnt out rheostat


Chris Edwards

My rheostat also is whack, it has off, dim, and off.

Not to take the shine off your good work, the gauges look great, but could one just bypass the rheostat altogether without endangering the wiring and live with bright at night?

R
Richard 1600 5 speed

Richard,
Yes.

Chris,
Looks nice!
David "/verbose" Lieb
David Lieb

yes, bypassing the rheostat would make a difference, but you'd still have one bulb in the back of the gauge to light the whole face. I prefer the full light on the front. I know this mod isn't for everyone's taste. and thats cool. I didn't remove the wiring for the original lights, i just bypassed it, so it wouldn't be that hard to undo this if i changed my mind later... (but i don't imagine I will!)
Chris Edwards

As a dim Dutchmen I would like to know: What is a rheostat? Do I have one in my '73 midget?
Alex G Matla

A rheostat is a high-watt (ie high current) variable resitor to control the bightness of lights by controlling the current. They are wasteful of power, but do the job.

A
Anthony Cutler

Alex ..If your a dim dutchman then maybe your Rheostat needs adjusting.
R Mcknight

Alex,
You might. My 72 does not, my 74 does. If you have the little toggle switch on the side of the steering column "bubble", you probably do not have the skinny knob by the choke.
David "I prefer the toggle switch" Lieb
David Lieb

MH, so its to dim the lights. Think it's gone now then, probably one of the PO's took it. I do have some spare holes in my dash though.
Alex G Matla

Chris -

That looks great! I'd really like to brighten up my instruments, especially after breaking a bulb trying to get it back into the tach after refinishing my wood dash overlay a while back.

Where did you get the electroluminescent wire?

Thanks,

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

Alex, i cant remeber but do you have a amrican dash too?

Chris, how did you get the wire in the oilpressure/watertemp. gauge?
Isnt the glas clamped on to the clock and not to be openend?
I replaced mine last year with a new smith-unit but it only enlights half(the right side) of the gauge insted of the complete gauge as the original did.

On your pictures the light looks blue/greenish, is that because of the photo?
Is the light "white" or collored?(and no, im not a member of the clu clux clan!) :)
Arie de Best

Thanks for the comments guys. I have actually been planning this project for over a year, but i wanted to find just the right driver for the wire and be realy sure i knew what i was doing. Even so, i had to make it up a little as I went.

Gryf: I got the wire and the driver, and the quick connectors from http://www.glowire.com/ i over purchased, but still only spend $40. I bought high-brightness wire for the big instruments and standard wire for the small ones. they charge by the foot, i bought extra just in case i messed up and needed to re-do something. I also left my wires extra long, because the driver can burn out if you run less than 3 feet of wire. (or so they say). I haven't done the math, but EL wire doesn't pull much power and produces no heat.

Arie: the dual gauge was definitely the scariest gauge, but i just resigned myself to purchasing a new gauge if i messed up. (i tested it, and it still works!) you can remove the glass carefully from the front, what you cannot remove is the capillary tube from the back of the gauge. I actually did that gauge in place, i only fed enough of the tube through the firewall to allow me to pull it a few inches forward and get to the back of the gauge. I fed the wire through the original lightbulb hole, carefully negotiated it past the face (there were some scary moments of levering/wiggling to get it past the face plate, which is actually quite thin metal) I ended up bending the top of the faceplate just a smidge down to get the wire through. Then i wrapped it around the dial. The wire does show just a bit on the little gauges because there's not much space to hide it.

Rather than re-paint the gauge housings white to reflect the light (as many do) I lined the fronts of the gauges with reflective tape. maybe overkill, but i didn;t want to have to do it again.

The wire i used is "aqua" according to my research, this is the brightest color because it is the natural color of the phosphorous used to make the wire. white wire is available, but i liked the aqua.

here is a link to a vid that helped me learn to soder the wire... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPDpl72RAhQ

i take no responsibility for your gauges should you attempt this... It is definitely a fiddly task, but if i can do it, it can't be that hard.

Chris Edwards

This thread was discussed between 15/11/2009 and 16/11/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.