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MG MGB Technical - Weak Dash lights

I have 1963 MGB, the dash lights are weak and I can get them to adjust brighter. Should I buy a new reostator ,new lights. any answers out there
David A

If you feel you are handy enough, remove the reostate and clean the contacts on the moveable arm and the spring. Clean and or replace all bayonet connections.

Also, check and clean all the grounding points of black harness wires and bulb holders

As with so many maintenece work, fixing the problem is generally easy --- it's getting to the problem that's a problem.

glg

David,
MG dash lights ARE weak. There's lots of complaints & solutions in the archives.
In brief-
A-Bypass the reostator. This is easiest to do & gets you about 10% brighter. It'll take about 5 minutes to do.

B-Paint the inside of the instrument covers matt white (instead of orrigional dull blue). This gets you about 50% brighter, but will take you all afternoon. After removeing the instruments from the dash you get the covers off said instruments by rotating the chrome surrounds and tabs and gaps should line up. You might need to resort to a screw driver and some carefull prizing
I did A & B which solved the problem.
However I've read that some people have experimented with replacing the bulbs with lower amperage (brighter & shorter life I guess) or even halogen. How sucessful this was I don't know, but there must bave been a heat problem that they've had to deal with.
peter

Replace your gauge bulbs with halogen bulbs, available online from the Little British Car Co. ( www.lbcarco.com )

I put these bulbs in all the gauges in my '66 B three years ago, and it made a tremendous difference. All gauges now easy to read at night. The bulbs are pricey, but I highly recommend them. It's an upgrade that is definitely worth doing.

Using halogens also requires that you turn the dimmer full on, so if you want to go ahead and bypass the rheostat, you can.
Kim de B

An unexpected consequence of changing my headlights over to a relay system was the immediate increase in brightness of the dash bulbs, tho not quite as bright as those that Kim has used. I have a 68 GT and it has NO rheostat for dimming, only a switch on the steering column for on and off (and no particular reason for that that I can think of). At the time I changed to headlight relays, the ONLY changes in existing wiring were made at the harness terminations up under the hood latch panel near the grille, so why the dash lamps became brighter (and some other things worked better), I don't really know, other than to speculate that less total current draw through the OE harness may have meant more juice available in it once the lamps were removed (???).

This may or may not encourage you to install relays, but if you are curious, a good site with a good MG-specific discussion is at http://www.mgbexperience.com/electrical/h-lamp_relay.html You will find many other MG related electrical issues discussed here, so go to Rick's home page and bookmark it too. Good luck!
Bob Muenchausen

David A.

A real simple solution that has worked well for me was to replace the bulbs with #50 bulbs. These bulbs are rated 7.5v, 220 ma. Being rated for a lower voltage means that they burn much brighter. After putting in these bulbs I even had to move the rheostat off of max for the first time. Yeah, the bulbs will burn out faster – but I’ve only had to replace a couple over nearly 4 years. They are cheap too and you can get them at your local Radio Shack (Catalog No. 272-1133).
Boris

I agree with Kim. I put the halogen bulbs in my 70 B and can see gauges easily. I only replaced the ones for the speedometer and tach but there is enough spillover for the other gauges.
Gary Mills

Boris,

Just taken your advice and ordered bulbs from our local Radio Shack, they only cost about £1 each.......I removed the rheostat some while ago in an attempt to improve lighting, maybe I will need to rewire it.

Mike
Michael barnfather

Michael - those bulbs increase the current through the rheostat which may burn it out if set to almost but not quite full brilliance. They cropped up on the MG mailing list a couple of years ago, but the rapid burn-out rate, albeit in opposition to what Boris says, led to them being discounted as a long-term solution. The halogens are said to be better, I don't know what their current draw is. Fow myself the beauty of an analogue gauge is that one doesn't need to read it, only see where the needle is pointing, and for that my dim eyes and dim bulbs are good enough.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 26/08/2003 and 28/08/2003

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