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Some more midget questions....

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cl_miata

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Well in my leanings of these cars, ive come to wonder as to what the purpose of the switch with the red light in the middle of my instrument cluster is for.. I have a 69 with the mechanical brake switch if that means anything... there arnt any wires going to the Master Cylinder for brake levels or pressure. Just sorta curious, sorry if its a dumb question
 
apparently that is to let you know when your oil filter is due for a change, from what I have been told, P.O. disconnected it on my car & I haven't hooked it up again, but there is a wire that plugs in just above the oil filter canister so it makes sense that's what it would be for.
 
hmmm, so then it has nothing to do with the brakes???
 
don't think so , the only wiring on your brakes will be the pressure switch on the proportioning valve to turn your brake lights on...
 
hm ok...well also, how the heck do I reset the trip?
 
under the speedo on the bottom of the dash is a bit of a cut out, in there is a pin that you push to reset the trip odometer. I don't have to worry about that, my trip odo doesn't work :smile:
 
The light is to let you know when one circuit of the brakes has failed.
 
:iagree: Trevor is correct.
 
Trevor Jessie said:
The light is to let you know when one circuit of the brakes has failed.
Click to expand...

Agree.

According to Horler the addition of the rectangular brake circuit failure warning light above the steering column, on North American cars, began in November 1967 (HAN9-72034; GAN4-60441).

Horler, Original Sprite & Midget, pg. 96; photo - pg. 98

Ray
 
On my '78 the light comes on when the emergency brake is pulled.
 
by circuit do you mean electrically wise or pressure wise? I'm sorry, just trying to learn as much about these cars as I can... Ive only delt with cars with ECM's BCM's, power everything... never power nothing
 
As I understand it, the light is attached the brake switch, there's a little shuttle in there, as long as the front circuit and the rear circuit are working, the shuttle stays in the middle, the light on the dash stays off, when a leak occurs and pressure is lost, the shuttle get's shoved over to the side and triggers the light, warning you of eminent doom. I don't have one on my current Midget, weird new-fangled contrivances.
 
hmmm mine must be broke then, when I bought the car there was no brake pressure what so ever..... recently the master cylinder decided to magically start working again, but have a new extra just in case
 
When you push the button it is supposed to light as a test.

The emergency brake switch didn't make an appearance until mid/late 70's.
 
jvandyke said:
As I understand it, the light is attached the brake switch, there's a little shuttle in there, as long as the front circuit and the rear circuit are working, the shuttle stays in the middle, the light on the dash stays off, when a leak occurs and pressure is lost, the shuttle get's shoved over to the side and triggers the light, warning you of eminent doom. I don't have one on my current Midget, weird new-fangled contrivances.
Click to expand...
That is correct and there are O rings on that shuttle that need to be replaced every so often. if the O rings fail then fluid can sometimes come out of the switch hole. That switch is not fluid tight and was never meant to be, though I have seen many a plug screwed in that hole. That shuttle is big on each end and skinny in the middle. As long as the skinny part is in the middle then everything is ok, when the shuttle moves then a fat part is what pushes down on the switch.
 
mccalebr said:
Trevor Jessie said:
The light is to let you know when one circuit of the brakes has failed.
Click to expand...

Agree.

According to Horler the addition of the rectangular brake circuit failure warning light above the steering column, on North American cars, began in November 1967 (HAN9-72034; GAN4-60441).

Horler, Original Sprite & Midget, pg. 96; photo - pg. 98

Ray
Click to expand...

oops you guys were right, I didn't pay attention to the original post - a switched light, I thought he was talking about the light over above the temp/oil gauge like i have on my 67' I don't have a switched light in the main cluster... guess that came after 67'.
 
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