Hey Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Moseso
Jedi Knight
Offline
I know this is going to be a HUGE shock to readers of this forum, but I have recently suffered a spate of electrical failures in my TR3.
1) My brake lights failed to light up anymore, even when I pressed on the brake pedal. I removed the wires from the switch and touched them together: They light. I put a continuity buzzer on the switch and press the pedal: Nada. Conclusion: Dead switch. This switch was a replacement, installed at the time of the rebuild -- had about 8000 miles on it. Many people here have talked about putting a pedal switch on the pedal box as an alternative to the hydraulic switch. Given the performance record of the one in my car, that seemed the best idea. I went to Napa and found a switch with a 3/8" (10mm, actually) shaft that would fit the hole Triumph thoughtfully provided in the pedal box for this purpose, extended my wires to reach it and, presto, everything works again.
2) A couple of days later, getting out of the car, I feel something hit my leg. I look around, don't see anything and forget about it. The next day, getting in my car, my foot hits something. I look and retrieve a large coil spring, about 2-1/2" long x 3/4" diameter. I KNOW that there's nothing like that up under the dash, and as I'm scratching my head wondering where this thing came from and what it is, I happen to notice that my headlamp dimmer switch looks "funny." AHA! I feel around the front edge of my seat and, sure enough, there's the cap from the dimmer switch. Last night I had to work, and drive home after dark, so before I took the car, I made sure that the switch was locked on low-beams. Today I removed the switch. The cap and spring are held to the pot metal actuator rod by a swage on the end of the rod. After only 51 years, this cheap POS arrangement had failed, although the switch innards still work fine. So -- I drilled a hole down into the end of the actuator rod, and tapped a small screw into it -- put the screw, with a lockwasher on it, through the hole in the cap and screwed the cap and spring back onto the shaft. Total cost: too low to mention here.
I've had so little trouble with the car that these are the worst stories I have to relate this year. I thought that it was pretty funny that they were both Lucas stories, and that they happened within a week of each other.
1) My brake lights failed to light up anymore, even when I pressed on the brake pedal. I removed the wires from the switch and touched them together: They light. I put a continuity buzzer on the switch and press the pedal: Nada. Conclusion: Dead switch. This switch was a replacement, installed at the time of the rebuild -- had about 8000 miles on it. Many people here have talked about putting a pedal switch on the pedal box as an alternative to the hydraulic switch. Given the performance record of the one in my car, that seemed the best idea. I went to Napa and found a switch with a 3/8" (10mm, actually) shaft that would fit the hole Triumph thoughtfully provided in the pedal box for this purpose, extended my wires to reach it and, presto, everything works again.
2) A couple of days later, getting out of the car, I feel something hit my leg. I look around, don't see anything and forget about it. The next day, getting in my car, my foot hits something. I look and retrieve a large coil spring, about 2-1/2" long x 3/4" diameter. I KNOW that there's nothing like that up under the dash, and as I'm scratching my head wondering where this thing came from and what it is, I happen to notice that my headlamp dimmer switch looks "funny." AHA! I feel around the front edge of my seat and, sure enough, there's the cap from the dimmer switch. Last night I had to work, and drive home after dark, so before I took the car, I made sure that the switch was locked on low-beams. Today I removed the switch. The cap and spring are held to the pot metal actuator rod by a swage on the end of the rod. After only 51 years, this cheap POS arrangement had failed, although the switch innards still work fine. So -- I drilled a hole down into the end of the actuator rod, and tapped a small screw into it -- put the screw, with a lockwasher on it, through the hole in the cap and screwed the cap and spring back onto the shaft. Total cost: too low to mention here.
I've had so little trouble with the car that these are the worst stories I have to relate this year. I thought that it was pretty funny that they were both Lucas stories, and that they happened within a week of each other.
