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Rear reflectors BJ7

Griz

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OK, I've been at it for about an hour and I can't get the rear reflectors into the holes on the BJ7. Is there a special trick to getting them installed?
Also, I've heard that some have converted these to an additional brake light, which seems like a good idea to me. Is there an article or post out there that tells how it's done and what parts are needed?

Thanks,
Griz
 

twas_brillig

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I can't advise regards re-installing the rear reflectors, but we had a shop convert ours to signal lights some years ago, using a kit 'Indicator Lamp - fits in shroud' from AH Spares, from their Healey Performance Catalogue: https://www.ahperformanceparts.co.u...DICATOR-LAMP-fits-in-shroud.aspx#.WSxk_9y1vIU
I expect that the kit is available from other suppliers but here is where I got it. It uses a standard incandescent bulb and gets the signal light bright and separate and higher up than the low-near-the-bumper stock location.
It allows you to convert the reflector (BN4 to BJ7) to an amber signal light, such that the lower lenses only retain the tail light/brake light function. I highly recommend the kit; I also highly recommend converting the brake/tail light to LEDS: have a look at Classic Auto LEDs https://www.classicautoleds.com/AH.html , but they are now manufactured by Steve of BMC Autos (https://www.bmcautos.com/ ) but that site is down at the moment - I purchased some BugEye tail lights from him last year, both positive and negative ground. Doug
 

Keoke

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A Wee bit expensive I would say---:friendly_wink:

Coarse now I am a bit CHEEP.--:wink-new:
 

twas_brillig

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You're cheap? Heck, between my joints squeaking and my wallet squeaking when I walk, it's tough to have a conversation!
More seriously: not inexpensive, but the vehicles are fairly valuable and fairly rare and quite low. I was toying with the idea of adding a high-mount brake as the 'candle in the wind' Lucas electrics aren't quite what the guy in the RV behind you expects, but am comfortable with folks seeing the brake lights now that I've got the LEDs back there, and I really like the clarity of communication that having the signal lights doing their thing separately from the brake/tail lights. Dpig
 

steveg

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I did mine with inexpensive parts - they function as auxilary brake/turn lights.
See: https://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/reflectorconversion
ReflectorsToLights.jpg
 
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Griz

Griz

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I knew I'd seen an article about converting the reflectors to LED brake/turn signal/tail lights and I found it in my pile of information. I've now ordered the parts necessary, and with a hole cut out of the rubber reflector back mount for the new LED lights, they should be much easier to install in the rear wing holes. The regular tail lights will be converted to LED bulbs too.

Thanks,
Griz
 

vette

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Hi Griz, I have just been studying Steve's method of putting the extra light where the rear reflector is on the 100/6 and BJ7 cars. In Steve's method, the top light will act exactly as the bottom light on each side except for the running light part. Meaning the top light will be a brake light and a turnsignal light AT THE SAME TIME THAT THE BOTTOM LIGHT WILL BE. This will certainly brighten things up back there. The running light will stay the same as it is on the bottom bulb.
My BJ7 was delivered to Germany when first produced and as such it is one of a few that has what was referred to as an early Euro lighting arrangement. In that it has the light configuration like a later BJ8. When I restored my car after driving it for some years, my wiring harness was shot. There is no wiring harness in the aftermarket for a car such as mine, it has an early dashboard arrangement and later lighting arrangement. I had a choice to buy an early 100/6 / BJ7 harness or a BJ8 harness. Either way I would have to modify the harness. I chose the early 100/6/BJ7 harness thinking that to rearrange a BJ8 harness to match my dash would be a pain. Alas, I may have chosen unwisely because to make my lighting work with the earlier harness I would have to eliminate the brake/turnsignal flasher relay box on the inner left front fender well. Well that's what I did and here are the mods necessary to make your rear lights configured to perform exactly as a BJ8. Refer to the pics of the relay box and the rear of my car for example. You will be eliminating the relay box. the wire on the relay box that is at top left of the drawing and marked as coming from the brake switch is to be taken off the box as well as the wires on terminals 7 & 3 marked left & right brake filaments and these 3 wires are to be spliced together. This will turn on the brake filaments when the pedal is pushed. Terminal number 1 is flasher power coming from the cylindrical Turnsignal flasher. This wire will be removed from the brake/flasher relay and extended to the common wire at the bottom of the steering box. This is the center common terminal in the trafficator. Right now (before modification) the right and left wires of the trafficator pull the brake/flasher relay to the left or right respectively, they will no longer be attached to the relay. So the wires on terminal #4 and terminal #2 will be taken off and will be spliced together. the wires on terminal #8 and 6 will be taken of the relay and spliced together. This will effectively make the trafficator turn on the right and left turnsignals. To make the back turnsignals work you have to add a wire for each side to the rear. The top lights on the BJ8 are amber and are the turnsignals. So to make this new light work you will run a new wire from the splice of wires you took off of terminals 2 &4 for the left side to the left rear turnsignal location. For the right side, you will run a new wire from the splice of the wires you took off of terminals 6 & 8 to the right side rear turnsignal location.
I realize this is a much more involved mod to get the extra lighting in the rear. It all depends what you want and this will give you two options to choose from. See pics.
 

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RAC68

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HI Griz,

Although I do prefer the brightness of Steve's use of a halogen bulb, let me warn that the heat generated by the bulb could easily melt the reflector and/or deform the plastic reflector. Although in short bursts, as when used as a turn signal, sufficient captured bulb heat does not built to the point of melting the plastic, it is when also used as a brake light and waiting for a traffic light that I have experienced sufficient heat captured between the bulb and lens to destroy the lens.

A not as bright alternative is to use LEDs as a light source. Since the heat (and there is also heat to consider) of an LED is not at the bulb but at the rear of the unit, standing on the brake at a traffic light will not generate sufficient heat to destroy your lens but will be open to cooling within the boot area.

Steve's creation of a bulb mounting is good to follow and will easily be joined with a purchased standard LED receptacle. I have had the LED combination for a number of years and converted to the LEDs (still standard incandescents within my original tail lights) from the halogen bulbs after destroying and replacing my reflector lenses.

I like the addition and believe the extra lights are a definite safety addition without diminishing any of the original look.

All the best,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 
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steveg

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HI Griz,

Although I do prefer the brightness of Steve's use of a halogen bulb, let me warn that the heat generated by the bulb could easily melt the reflector and/or deform the plastic reflector. Although in short bursts, as when used as a turn signal, sufficient captured bulb heat does not built to the point of melting the plastic, it is when also used as a brake light and waiting for a traffic light that I have experienced sufficient heat captured between the bulb and lens to destroy the lens.

An alternate, but not as bright, alternative is to use LED as a light source. Since the heat (and there is also heat to consider) of an LED is not at the bulb but at the rear of the unit, standing on the brake at a traffic light will not generate sufficient heat to destroy your lens but will be open to cooling within the boot area.

Steve's creation of a bulb mounting is good to follow and will easily be joined with a purchased standard LED receptacle. I have had the LED combination for a number of years and converted to the LEDs (still standard incandescents within my original tail lights) from the halogen bulbs after destroying and replacing my reflector lenses.

I like the addition and believe the extra lights are a definite safety addition without diminishing any of the original look.

All the best,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

Yes the halogens have distorted my plastic lenses. Agree use LEDs instead.
 

Keoke

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twas_brillig is toying with the idea of adding a high-mount brake as the 'candle in the wind' Lucas electrics aren't quite what the guy in the RV behind you expects.

Ther are many informative approaches to this upgrade here on this forum give the topic a search.
 

John Turney

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Yes the halogens have distorted my plastic lenses. Agree use LEDs instead.

Agreed Steve. One well-known Healey expert's opinion was that the turn signals / brake lights are on for only a short time, so they wouldn’t generate enough heat to damage the plastic. This is true most of the time, except:

Photo 6 - Healey waiting for train.JPG

Also, I again wonder about twice the current flow through the thin wire, and the resulting load on the relays. This is where LEDs might have some application, so I ordered a pair of 7 Watt red LEDs with 1156 bases. 1156 bases have only a single contact. The result:

SAM_2938 (640x480).jpg

Maybe better seen in the shade:

SAM_2936 (640x480).jpg

Turns out the LEDs are at least as bright as the original brake lights with halogen bulbs:

SAM_2920 (640x480).jpg

The LEDs and sockets are available from Amazon:


  • Jtech 2x 1156 BA15S 7W Cree Q5 LED Pure Red Light Lamp Bulb. Note - Use RED bulbs, not white ones.
  • Satco Bayonet Base Single Contact Socket – 802099:

The wires on the socket are color-coded for AC rather than DC, so the white wire goes to the shell. I cut them off short and spliced them so the colors are reversed. That way, the black becomes the ground wire and the white connects to the white/purple or white/brown in the tail lamp. The following photos show how they are installed:

The reflectors easily come apart. I have a BN4 with the cone-shaped reflector.

SAM_2922 (640x480).jpg

Using a water-based surfactant (In this case, 409 cleaner) and a 3/4” Forstner bit, I drilled a hole in the middle of the rubber piece. The LEDs are about 0.78” in diameter, so the rubber will hold them.

I then used some 0.025” aluminum and made a holder that hooks behind the rubber flange inside the shroud.

SAM_2926(640x480).jpg

The cutout is like this:

SAM_2933(640x480).jpg

The end on the left is the top, because the shroud is rounded above the reflector. The large circles at the ends are 1 1/4” diameter, although 1 1/8” should work. The thread on the end of the socket is 1/8” pipe thread; the nut is available in the electrical department of your local hardware store.

The reflector is installed in the shroud, the bulb and socket is installed in the holder, the bulb is pushed into the rubber opening and the holder ends hooked between the rubber and backside of the shroud. The wires are connected to the black and white/purple or white/brown wires in the tail light with connectors in between to make removal easier.

If you look carefully at the reflector, there is one side labelled “TOP”. I assume that should be at the top.

Because the load from the incandescent tail light is still there, no change is required to the flasher relay.
 

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Griz

Griz

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John, what you have shown is very much like what I had planned to do. Thanks all for the good info.

Griz
 

twas_brillig

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One other item to consider is incorporating 4 way flashers - the shop added these such that our-shiny-new-reflectors-converted-to- signa- lights were the rear flashers. Doug
 

bob hughes

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I am not clear if the first part of your question has been answered - you kind of screw them in. If I remember correctly there are two ? gaps in the perimeter of the opening in the shroud diametrically opposed and the rear of the reflector fits into the gaps and then you give it a turn.

:cheers:

Bob
 

RAC68

Darth Vader
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Hi All,

John, are the LED bulbs you have chosen multi-directional (i.e. equipped with multiple light sources)? If so which ones?

One of the reasons I previously installed an incandescent bulb (that wound up melting the plastic reflector when standing on the brake for a light) that Steve's pictures demonstrate, was for their brightness at all angled viewing. My LED replacements are bright when viewed direct on but loose substantial brilliance when viewed at an angle. Since most cars on the road are much higher then our Healey tail ends (even with the higher location of the reflectors), it is likely that these lights will be viewed at a diminishing-light-angle unless viewed from far away.

As a side note, I have retained my incandescent multi-filament bulbs in my taillights and therefore do not need resistors with the LEDs as the proper flasher resistance is still provided by the incandescents. If I were to change the taillights to LEDs, I would need resistors to retain my original flasher or change to an electronic flasher.

Just thinking,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 

John Turney

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Hi Ray,

The LEDs I'm using are not multi-directional, but because of the reflector, there is a wide dispersion of the light. They have a single surface-mount LED behind a lens:

Jtech 2x 1156 BA15S 7W Cree Q5 LED Pure Red Light Lamp Bulb.jpg

I had seen your comments earlier about viewing at an angle, so I took some off-center photos. This one is at about 30-deg off center.

SAM_2919(640x480).jpg
 
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Griz

Griz

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Bob, thanks for asking, I did get them in but only after drilling a 1" diameter hole (with a hole saw) in the rubber base making them much more pliable. The hole is for my planned conversion to LED lights. Following up with that idea, I've learned that LED lights are polarity sensitive and I have yet to decide if I will be converting to negative ground. I'm still checking with distributors, but has anyone discovered a source for positive ground 1157 LED's?

Griz
 

John Turney

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.... The hole is for my planned conversion to LED lights. Following up with that idea, I've learned that LED lights are polarity sensitive and I have yet to decide if I will be converting to negative ground. I'm still checking with distributors, but has anyone discovered a source for positive ground 1157 LED's?

Griz
If you are putting LEDs behind the reflectors, you want 1156 LEDs, not 1157. 1157 bulbs have a low intensity mode (tail lights) and a high intensity mode (brake and turn signal). The LEDs behind the reflectors only function as brake lights/turn signals.

Of all the 1157 LEDs I've looked at, they were either not bright enough or the difference between low and high intensity wasn't big enough to adequately alert the drivers behind, not to mention positive ground. (I converted to negative ground for an alternator). What I did for the regular tail/brake/turn light was obtain some bulbs from the hot rod boys that increased the candlepower from 21 Hi/6 Lo to 50 Hi/14 Lo. Best source I found was https://www.bobdrake.com/FordItem.aspx?Item=81A-13465-HP12V.
 

RAC68

Darth Vader
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John,

I thought the pictures of your tail lights seemed brighter then standard and the bulbs you referenced seem a very good addition I would like. How is the heat generation of these high output incandescents?

Ray(64BJ8P1)
 
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