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MG MGB Technical - headlight positions and wiring?

Hello mgb world...i have a 72 mgb and replaced the headlight switch and i'm a little confused as to the positions on the switch and wiring. I thought i rewired the switch correctly but maybe the person before me screwed up the wires in the back of the switch. The switch has a light indicator(i'm thinking to show if the lights are on but i don't see a bulb). Can anyone tell me if i have them correct...see attachments. Any help is better than no help.

Thanks

Paul

not sure why i cant upload pictures to this thread
p rook

Cant see attached but:
You should have brown (12V live) from starter motor to pin 4 of the switch.
Pin 7 of switch (Red/Green) goes too fuse block no1 terminal and to panel light dimmer switch.
Pin 8 of switch should be Blue wire to light switch on steering column.

You should also look at a wiring diagram for your year of car. http://www.advanceautowire.com/mgb.pdf Worth printing and laminating

Bernie

B Anderson

Bernie, i only have three pins on the switch....1,2 and 3....there are spaces for two more but they are not used. I looked at the wiring diagram and there are multiple diagrams for a 1972....early vs late model? my vin is 285786G....which one should diagram should i be using? thanks

Paul
p rook

Ok. The only diagram with a 3 pin is Diagram 13 at the above link.
Pin 1 is Blue (U on diagram)
Pin 2 is Brown (N on diagram)
Pin 3 is Red Green (RG on diagram).

Unfortunately the diagrams don't go by VIN so there is an element of guesswork involved!

Bernie
B Anderson

There was a night-time illumination (not to show when the lights were on) in all switches from 1977 for the UK, I'm not aware that North America got them that much earlier.

Apart from that all years had identical wiring of this switch, only the physical switch and its position changed from time to time.

Connect brown and red/green first, with brown on one end and red/green in the middle. With the switch in the middle of the three possible positions the parking lights should now be on. If not, move the brown to the other end and they should be now.

If still not then something else is wrong, either with the switch or the wiring. With the wires (brown and red/green) removed link the two spade connectors together and if they light now there is something wrong with the switch. If not then it's the wiring.

With the parking lights on with the switch in its middle position, put the blue wire on the remaining spade.

Operate the switch one way from the middle position and the parking lights should go off, operate it the other way and the headlights should come on, with the parking lights still on.
PaulH Solihull

By the way, to post a photo you must shrink it to below 1 MB, else the system refuses it. I take mine down to about 640 x 400 and that seems fine.
Mike Howlett

Mike Howlett, how about giving us some help on how to shrink photos ? I've managed it in the past a few times , but it's been by good luck rather than good management. My son in law says "oh it's easy, you just do this & that" But, 3 hours after doing "this & that " my 3 MB photo is still a 3 MB photo. Any help is much appreciated. Barrie E
B Egerton

You can reduce resolution or pixel count or both in programs like Photoshop, the former giving a larger image with a smaller file size. Microsoft Powertoys includes an image resizer that just does pixel count, for XP anyway.
PaulH Solihull

Barrie, I use a super bit of free software called Irfanview (google it). Open your photo in it, go to the Image menu and select Resize. In the box there are lots of options but 640 x 480 is quite enough for the BBS. Save this small picture under another name and you have a postable photo.

But there is a program supplied with most computers called Windows Live Photo Gallery. The Edit menu in it also offers a Resize function.

Mike Howlett

Paul, Mike, thanks for the help.I do have irfan installed but very seldom use it. My preferred prog. is Picasa. Please don't rub salt into the wounds by telling me I could have reduced the photo size in that prog. also. Regards for the new year. Barrie E
B Egerton

Consider yourself salted :o) In three different flavours according to the Picasa Help file, although I can't see how to do it in my version. Yet another way is to right-click and send to an email recipient, which on my system gives the option of sending smaller or original size versions. You could therefore email yourself a smaller version, save it and use that. A bit clumsy, but if there is no other way ...
PaulH Solihull

Hey Barrie

I find the free program Microsoft Office Picture Manager very good for reducing picture sizes (this program comes with MS Office)

It has a number of preset options for emailing, web posting, etc, but you can also reduce by specified percentage of pixels, or by custom setting of the number of pixels (WxH)

Very easy to use

John
John Minchin

This thread was discussed between 28/12/2012 and 11/01/2013

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