• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!

    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
  • When posting a classified ad, you MUST select a prefix from the drop-down next to the subject line. If you don't you will get an error and your ad will not be posted!
Tips
Tips

Spitfire Early Spitfire headlight switches

JKB1957

Jedi Hopeful
Country flag
Offline
I am restoring a 1966 Spitfire MK2 and am currently installing a new wiring harness. Here's my question. This car has a light switch on the instrument panel, a lighting switch on the right side of the steering column, and a high beam foot switch to the left of the clutch pedal. It seems that the footswitch and column switch both operate the high beams, but maybe not. If someone could tell me what each of these switches is supposed to control it would really help. Thanks.
 
JKB1957, The switch on the dash is for gauge lights, the column, first click , parking lights and second head lights. The floor switch controls the high-low beam. I didn't think the early models had this, but it's sounds the same as the TR4A and the TR6.

Wayne
 
To clarify what Wayne said, the column lighting switch on the US-spec. Spitfire 4 and Mk2 is off - side - head, with an additional "flash to pass" feature activated by pulling the switch towards you. High and low beam control is via the floor dimmer switch, and the dash switch only controls gauge lighting. "Home market" cars had a "master lighting switch" on the dash: pull out for lights, twist/pull again for instrument lights. The column switch on those was side - main (high beam) - dip (low beam), as well as the flash to pass function.

The only wiring diagram that will correctly show the US lighting specification is is in the US version of the Owners Manual. That diagram is reproduced on my web site, as it is largely the same for the US-specification Triumph Sports 6, for which (near as I've been able to tell) no factory documentation existed for its wiring (same situation for US-spec. Herald 1200 models)!
 
Back
Top