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Another wiring question

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delisaj

delisaj

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Great weekend to have the TRs out up here in New England. The car is SO MUCH Fun to drive!! Passed a beautiful maroon TR6 on the Merritt Parkway this afternoon.

Anyway, I was tinkering with the wiring under the dash (can be foolish- I know...), and I wanted to hook up the FASTEN BELT light with the ignition light, so that the two lights would light up when starting the car. (silly, I know.). The ignition bulb has a brown and white wire and a white wire going into the bulb holder. Can I cut one of the wires (I was thinking the brown and white one), and attached the bulb in series with the ignition light? Would that work? Or do I need to do something different?

As always, thanks in advance for any insight and help. It is truly appreciated.

John
 
John- do you have the Master's colored schematic. Is the seat light working? A lot of them have failed and the car won't start so they disconnected them. It also might get power from the Wait a minute! your bio says you have a 71 . There ain't no seat belt light on a 71!What year do you have?
 
DNK, thanks for your reply.

yeah, it is a 71, and there is one light in the middle of the dash that says FASTEN BELTS. It is connected to nothing, and there is no belt wiring anywhere. I don't really want the belt wiring, but I thought it would be neat to have the indicator light up for a few seconds when I start the car, and I thought I could run a light bulb in series with the ignition indicator on the tachometer.

John
 
i don't think that is a stock light. I might be wrong(definintly wouldn't be the first time) but mine is a 71 and I don't have one And I have no idea where it would be mounted.
 
Came with the car, and it mounted below the dimmer switch. Anyway, I was just hoping to have it light up once in while, the black and red lettering would be the brightest thing on my dash...
 
Do you want it only to light up on start or stay lit?
 
Nah, just a light up on start. If it stayed lit, it would probably annoy me. That's why I thought a hook up in series with the ignition indicator would be a good idea.
 
You can probably do that. The wire I think is a P/O. the other side goes to ground. Still don't know why anyone would add that to the dash?
 
DNK-

Thanks. What do you mean by a "P/O"??

The hole is drilled in the wood, and the light and the indicator are already there. Figure I would just made it light up once in awhile.

Thanks again.

John
 
John:

If you want the seatbelt light to illuminate with the ignition light, connect them in parallel, not series. If you connect them in series, they will be dim, maybe too dim to see.
 
John,
Maybe someone swapped in a '72 dash. Later '72 cars had the "Seat Belt" light as well as a different (slightly wider) hazard switch. The new type switch eliminated the need for the hazard relay.

Maybe you could wire the SB light with the oil pressure light. If you have an original canister filter, it will stay on awhile when you crank up!

Jeff
 
Hey Jeff-

It is possible that there is some hybrid 71/72 stuff going on with the dash. The buttons, for instance, had both symbols and lettering, which is also inconsistant. I replaced them all with the symbols for the authentic 1971 look!

The oil pressure light could work also. I always get nervous cutting existing Lucas wiring that actually works, but may give it a go.

My hazards don't work, and neither does my horn. But those are for another day.

Thanks again for your reply

John
 
Didn't you have the seat belt light hooked up to a courtesy light dimmer so it would illuminate then fade out? I had that post bookmarked as something to do when I rewire my dash. I was going to post a link to that thread here until I realized that it was your post! Did something go wrong with the installation?

Ken
 
Ken-

Yes, that was me. I racked my brain and I think I bungled the installation on that one.

There were three wires that needed to be connected for the light to dim. It worked perfectly when I had the ignition on, but the relay fried when I started the car. So, I wasn't sure why that happened..

So, I went to plan B, which looks to be to run the fasten belt lamp in parallel with the ignition indicator lamp on the tachometer. Not as elegant a solution, but one that could work pretty easily.

Now, I just have to have enough courage to actually CUT the wires.

John
 
By Tag into it, do you mean strip some coating from the wire and just use some electrical tape and hook it up that way?
 
Actually I meant tap into it. There are some real nice wire connectors now that don't do to much damage to the wire.
 
What kind of Triumph?
GT6? TR6? Spitfire?

Is '71 the build year or model year?

If by '71 you're going by the commission plate, that means it was *built* in 1971, & if built after something like September, it is a 1972 model year car.

If it's a '72 m/y car, yes it should have the square Fasten Seat Belts light & other stuff that goes with it.
 
If you have a seat belt warning light on your dash, lift your carpet at about where the driver's-side seat belt bolts to the bottom of the B-pillar and you might see that some wires were cut and taped off that went beneath the seats for this light.
I have a 73 and just replaced my rear wiring harness. These wires are in the 73 harness and yes I had (the key word is <u>had</u>) a seat belt warning light. This hole is now used to house my internally-lit rectangular fog light control switch.
 
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