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MG MGB Technical - Switches for late MGB wanted

My HRW, interior light and hazard switches are all broken. I find that the new switches are mad money, especially since theyre sh*te quality. Does anyone have a set of switches they'd be willing to sell me? I can paypal the money.
Ross Kelly

State the year and model, there were several different sets over the years.
Paul Hunt

You could try Andy Jennings:
http://www.mgcars.org.uk/andyjennings/mgb.htm
Great for those sort of things.
Steve Postins

Ah jesus sorry, I meant to say its a 78 UK spec GT. Theyre the squarer switches.
Ross Kelly

I ordered a set off Andy Jennings. £17 for the 3 inc. postage is a lot more reasonable than £20 per switch not including postage. He's not really flexible on price, considering he wouldnt include the price of postage in the £15 for the switches. Ah well theyre still cheap so Im not complaining, and it will finish off my interior nicely.
Ross Kelly

Theres the big square switches with the green light up bit and the small square switches.
The small (or smaller, they're still pretty big) square switches can be found cheeaply on the leyland marina, some land rovers and various other BL cars of the period.
I've seen some big square switches on an old landrover, early '80s, but they didn't have the green light bit.
The really big green light switchs are expensive.
About $50 for a head light switch, and the emergency blinker switch is off the charts.
At one stage I substituted two "cheap" switches from an electronics shop in the gap. Looked quite good and they were 25 amp rated and lit up when on.

Peter

Yeah they're the small square switches. I think the price for them was reasonable. I was thinking there must be other vehicles with the same switches. I saw a Land rover and a Morgan at a car show over the weekend that had similar switches.
Ross Kelly

The switches were still in use in the Mini up until the early 90s. However, although cheapish at £7 new from some Mini suppliers, they have a different bezel to the original and don't always look as good as the original.
Marthijn

God you'd think if they were going to be using these switches in so many vehicles they'd at least have designed something a bit more durable.
Ross Kelly

British Leyland combined with Lucas electronics. What more can I say. It set a new baseline.
Peter

More durable? They are 30 years old now! How long do you think modern switch gear is designed to last?
Paul Hunt

Well I suppose thats a fair point. I can't imagine many of the piddly little microswitches that are in use in most modern cars lasting much past 20 years, and theyre handling a lot less amperage.
Ross Kelly

Ross- Truly, electing to spend an evening at the kitchen table under a good light, and rebuilding the broken switches, is a proud and rewarding thing. When you're done, they are better than new! Same with the gauges. I thoroughly enjoyed pulling the tach, speedo, oil, clock, and water out and apart. Painting the inside with gloss white, paying $27 for a local glass company to reproduce the bezel glass ( with holes for the Tach and clock)and replacing the plastic "glass", all bezel seals were ez to find at HD or Ace in the correct diameter and thickness, and the bezels were polished to a chrome-like finish for a really custom, snazzy look for the 76-80 dash.
I am now playing with diodes to light the gauges and provide blinking warning lights in various colors for the turn indicators, engaged OD, fuel pump operation, and the like, reducing the voltage to 4 or 5 for the different diodes using a resistor to knock down the feed voltage. Fun and games, eh? Cheerios, Vic

PS- Anybody know of a service that provides a set of fonts or perhaps a full gauge face replacement in Magnolia maybe, maybe....
vem myers

I've rebuilt the toggle and original rocker switches successfully, but gave up after two goes at one of the late illuminated type. The bits are much smaller and harder to get right.

On different fonts for speedo etc. the first organised run this year was dull and wet so we had the hood up all day. This makes it difficult to read the odo for the next junction without my glasses, but I can't use them for driving without squinting over the top. I work with reading aids for people with sight limitations including large-print devices, and jokingly said to my wife I wonder if anyone does a large-print speedo. A couple of weeks later in the Sunday Times somebody recommended just such a device, albeit digital - http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article3988447.ece (Blind Spot).

Paul Hunt

There's a company called metal monkey who do custom gauge faces and if you scan your gauge faces in with an exact measurement of their diameter theyll make up whatever faces you want and make them available for everybody to buy. The first person to scan the gauge faces and send them in gets a price reduction. Their website is http://www.metal-monkey.co.uk/
Ross Kelly

This thread was discussed between 26/05/2008 and 06/06/2008

MG MGB Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.