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MG TD TF 1500 - Lighting

I am thinking about improving my night lighting so I can have better road visibility.
My car came with the badge bar shown. I assume the mounts are for mounting stem lights. There are also a couple of wires tie wrapped behind the apron that I assume are for the lights. I will have to trace them to under the dash.

What is the difference between fog lights and driving lights?
Moss shows a 162-780/785 kit and also the 162-700/800 lamp assembly only.
Are they the same lights?

How do you aim these lights?
I can see the left/right swivel but what about up and down?

How have others mounted the switch?

Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Mort







Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

....a driving light is similar to your high beam...it spreads out as well as shows forward.....a spotlight is a straight beam going 'very' far forward....a fog light can be any of the above, and also yellow/amber.... few lights seem to actually work in fog...but the idea was to get the light as close to the ground as you can...

I have a driving lamp and a spotlamp (both original Lucas with the car) and use them on occaision.....
My switches are old Lucas Rally long stalk switches added in the 60's....(as well as a turn signal switch in the group)


gblawson(gordon- TD27667)

I put these on the TD


L E D LaVerne

And these on the TF. More show than go in my book. I think the money would be better spent buying some decent halogen headlights. That might require a relay be incorporated into the headlight circuit.


L E D LaVerne

I have these Hella lights from Moss....I think I would have liked the glass lenses , similar to LaVerne's better, but these are really bright.
Easy to adjust, up, down, side to side.
Edward


Edward Wesson 52TD

I run one of each: Driving/Fog in amber.

The Driving lamp is a clear lens and bright as hell.
With the amber lens it certainly gets attention.
The fog lamp is "fluted lens" and not nearly as bright. Living near a lake I get fogged in often and it does help.

"Old School" trick was to put a sheet of newspaper over your headlamps when driving in fog to improve visability. I used that a lot in my motor cycle days driving in fog. (Seems I always live near a lake!)

If memory serves me (at least on the TF) the facory ran one circuit to front of the car for these. RED w/ YELLOW trace. On the TF that was connected to the "AUX" switch on dash. Not sure where that would termanate on the TD.

ON mine I ran seprate wires to a couple toggles under the dash on my "aux" pannel. (I wanted to be able to engage them seperatly as the driving lamp is way too bright for fog use). I used relays and fused them. I also wired mine (with 3 way switch) so they can be set to work with the turn signals. Got sick of people turnning left in front of me because the turn signals are hard to see in bright sun!

"Height" adjustment is made when you tighten the bottom nut via a "piviot". At least on orginial lamps it is ...not sure on the repros they sell now.


David Sheward

Better shot of Fog & Driving lens differance.


David Sheward

Dave wrote: <<With the amber lens it certainly gets attention. >> Exactly why I am putting amber 576 lights on my TF when it is back on the road -- to be seen by those cellphone talking while driving soccer moms in SUV's.
Frank Cronin

Frank,
Another one you might want to contenplate.
Do you have the "1500 reflectors" on the rear tub?

CPSM's sit pretty hi-up.
I "bridged" my stop and turn signals to those and put lights in them.
Our light are very low on the car and this gets it up a little higher to be seen and there are 4 of them now.

I did not like the looks of any of the "3rd light" set ups. Nobody even notices the bulb in there untill they come on.

I did this a long time ago with regular 1157 bulbs in mine but with how many options there are now for LED's it would be even easier to do now. (and brighter!) Keep meaning to get around to changing to LED's.

My wife said it made a big differance in being able to see my turn signal and stop lamps when she is behind me. So far it seems to be working as none has run over me yet! LOL
David Sheward

I run another set of lights up front, LED's on the rear and a removable third light on the wheel carrier in the back. Nobody should miss me that way.
TOM Maine

my solution on TD 19435 :)


R.S. Ralph Siebenhaar

As Gordon mentioned, fog lights should be mounted as low as possible. Here is another pic of the stage 6 B roadster, showing the fog lights underneath the front bumper

Ralph


R.S. Ralph Siebenhaar

Fog lights have a flat top cutoff and a wide spread. NO light should be above the cutoff, and they should be mounted as low as possible, as per Ralph. If they don't meet these specs, they ain't FOG lights, regardless of the lies - and there are many. In Lucas, fog and driving lamps take different bulbs, as the filaments are oriented differently; many sellers show the same bulb = NO!

The first thing to do is to correctly measure your delivered voltage AT THE BULBS. Then fix it, then install relays, because you cannot make it right without them, This will give you decent light in front, and far better light in back, with NO other changes.

After that, you can go with better lights, halogen sealed beams or MUCH better, H4 lamps.

Mort check yr email

FRM
FR Millmore

Fuse things properly. The lighting is not fused at all. But a burning wiring harness will provide some illumination at night.
MW Davis

Mort - Is that some sort of a light covering the hole for the handcrank? Just curious. Lou VanK.
Lou Van Koningsveld

Here's mine.
Regards
Declan


Declan Burns

FRM, how do you install H4 lamps in TD headlight assemblies? I plan to do so, with relay power, using the standard fog lamp switch as the control.
What wattage H4 should be used?
Corey Pedersen TD #7169

MW Davis,
I put this fuse block in when I first got the car. All my lighting and other accessories are fused.

Lou,
That device is my E-Z Pass (for toll booths). It covers my crank hole. My crank holes on the various components don't line up due to the PO's robust driving. Not a problem for my driver.

Corey,
I am about to do the same thing. The Hella Halogen Headlamp from Moss(902-969) replaces your sealed beams. The H4 bulb assembly fits into your existing socket and mounts into the new headlamp housing. I am also adding their relay kit(117-515).

Mort


Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

Any chance you did a write up with pictures for your fuse panel Mort? I have one I printed off someone's blog post I encountered when I first got the TF. They went with a fuse block similar to yours. I have always intended to install one, but it hasn't made the top of the list yet.

Alex
Alex Waugh

my four lights....spot light on the right...driving on the left....


gblawson(gordon- TD27667)

Corey-
As Mort say. If the Moss Hella lights are the ones I think they are (Vision Plus, I think), they are quite good. They are not E-code, but SAE legal I think - helps in picky states. I prefer E-codes, and any E-code is far better than any SAE sealed beam.

Watch out for discount store H4 in the US = all sorts of garbage out there.
Cibie (Daniel Stern), Bosch, Hella, Lucas ( Roger's Motors in Northhampton Ma - specialists in Old Lucas treats, great folks!)Susquehanna Motorsports/Rallye Lighting are also favorites of mine, for all this stuff.

"Standard" H4 are 60/55W, and are all you need IF the system is as it should be. Higher wattage bulbs are NOT necessary, and WILL cause problems, unless the entire system is upgraded.

All assuming you are not driving much over 100 mph in the country for any great amount of miles!

FRM
FR Millmore

Alex,
I first got the idea from this BBS. Evan Ford did a great job in a write up and you can find it on buds TTalk site.

http://www.ttalk.info/Tech/TechIndex.html

Scroll down to Contributions/Links and look for
"MG TD Auxiliary fuse panel installation by Evan Ford".

Or you can try this link directly.

http://tseriesmg.blogspot.com/

All our cars are a wee bit different from each other so minor changes will be made. But a great article with sources also.

Thanks again Evan and thanks Bud for that great reference site.
Mort
Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

This thread was discussed between 17/02/2013 and 18/02/2013

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