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Thwart off the Prince of Darkness....

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David_Doan

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The gauge light sockets theoretically ground to the gauge which theoretically grounds to the painted and/or vinyl covered dash, which realistically does not always happen. The pic above shows my simple solution. A small stainless hose clamp snugly holding a dedicated ground wire to the lamp socket.

The is my 1st LBC. The sprite is so simple, there's really no reason to have reliability issues. IMHO the grounding scheme is the cause of most of the intermittent electrical issues.
 
For my old BE, I have a dedicated ground wire to each gauge......that works for all the gauges, but not the flasher light. For that I have had to solder on a ground wire to the base. How did the Prince of Darkness ever expect that the dash would be a good ground?
Scott in CA
 
Learn to solder stuff like that and you'll be very glad you did.
 
smaceng said:
For my old BE, I have a dedicated ground wire to each gauge......that works for all the gauges, but not the flasher light. For that I have had to solder on a ground wire to the base. How did the Prince of Darkness ever expect that the dash would be a good ground?
Scott in CA
Click to expand...

To be fair, the Prince of Darkness didn't decide on the dash as a good ground, that was some MG design engineer.
 
David_Doan said:
Good point, Lucas components get a bad rap due to poor systems design.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it.
Remember just how ancient LUCAS technology really is.

"In the 1850s, Joseph Lucas, a jobless father of six, sold paraffin oil from a barrow cart around the streets of Hockley. In 1860, he founded the firm that would become Lucas Industries. Harry Lucas, his son, joined the firm around 1872, aged 17. Initially called Joseph Lucas & Son from 1882 it was based in Little King Street, later Great King Street Birmingham. At first it made general pressed metal merchandise including plant pot holders, scoops and buckets and later in 1875 lamps for ships, later moving into oil and acetylene lamps for bicycles from 1879.

In 1902, what by then had become Joseph Lucas Ltd, incorporated in 1898, started making automotive electrical components such as magnetos, alternators, windscreen wipers, horns, lighting, wiring and starter motors. The company started its main growth in 1914 with a contract to supply Morris Motors Limited with electrical equipment. During the First World War Lucas made shells and fuses, as well as electrical equipment for military vehicles. Up until the early 1970s, Lucas was the principal supplier to British manufacturers (such as BSA, Norton and Triumph) of magnetos, dynamos, alternators, switches and other electrical components."
 
David_Doan said:
do this with a torch?
Click to expand...

I would not use a torch, too hot.
A good solder iron with the right size tip and some flux core solder should do the trick.
 
David_Doan said:
do this with a torch?
Click to expand...

I use BernzOMatic lead bearing/rosin core solder on guitar electronics, # LRC464. (and a cheap electric iron)
Guitar stuff can be fairly delicate so I would think if it works there, it would work well for you.

Best solder I've ever used AND it's American made. I'll never go back to RadioShack for solder again.
 
smaceng said:
For my old BE, I have a dedicated ground wire to each gauge......that works for all the gauges, but not the flasher light. For that I have had to solder on a ground wire to the base. How did the Prince of Darkness ever expect that the dash would be a good ground?
Scott in CA
Click to expand...


Scott, when i started doing my physical wiring it became obvious that a wire to each gauge makes more sense. I used ring terminals over the mount posts with the intent of using an additional nut as a lock nut to hold the terminal snugly between the nuts.

After I was all done, I realized the the gauge posts are not 8-32, 10-32, nor metric. Some weird old British standard that is basically unobatanium.

How did you do yours?
 
David_Doan said:
Scott, when i started doing my physical wiring it became obvious that a wire to each gauge makes more sense. I used ring terminals over the mount posts with the intent of using an additional nut as a lock nut to hold the terminal snugly between the nuts.

After I was all done, I realized the the gauge posts are not 8-32, 10-32, nor metric. Some weird old British standard that is basically unobatanium.

How did you do yours?
Click to expand...

Additionally, the older 4" gauges have different size posts (smaller) than the newer 3.5" gauges.
 
Yes, I used double nuts with ring type wire connectors and re-threaded the posts, can't remember if it was 10-32 or 8-32. I couldn't find the nuts either.
Scott in CA
 
Those knurled knobs are in the Moss Caralig at $4.95 each.
 
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