Light switch panel help

[dustie]

I am new to the forum, and just purchased a 1980 TR7. Among the issues with the car is that the headlights don't come up. I have ordered the missing circuit breaker, but in the meantime I decided to take apart the switches and clean them. Can anyone tell me if there a specific kind of tape I should use to replace the old black tape along the clear plastic labels?

[dursleyman]

May I be the first to welcome you the the best TR7/8 forum there is.

Headlights are a frequent topic on here and cause a lot of folks a lot of problems. I would suggest having a look around the previous threads on here and have a good read before you start as the wiring can be a bit complicated if you just dive in. Start with these couple of threads which will give you a flavour:-

http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.a ... C_ID=18994

http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.a ... C_ID=19048

Good luck






Russ

1980 TR7 Sprint DHC
Dursley
UK

http://tr7russ.blogspot.co.uk/

[Ianftr8]

Hi dustie,

The black tape is only there to stop the light "leaking out" so any type of dark tape such as electrical tape or anything really will do the job.

Whilst you are doing the light switch its probably worth doing the fog light and the hazard warning switch as well.

Also worth doing the earth points under the bonnet and the two red and white connectors at the frond behind the lights as well.

These all have big effects on the workings of the headlights.

Cheers
Ian

Ian Freeman
1979 TR8 DHC
Triumph Courier
Triumph owner for 31 years

[dustie]

Thanks so much Ian and Russ. I realize it is a bit of a silly question, but I had to ask. I was hesitant to use electrical tape, thinking there might be something else I should use and didn't know about.

I had already read all of the headlight threads on the forum, which were tremendously helpful in cleaning up the switches. I did all three while I was at it, benefiting already from the shared wisdom of this group. I had to steal one of the spring-loaded pins from the fog lamp switch to put in the headlight switch as the tip was so worn out that a bit of it fell off and it would no longer make contact. I don't currently have fog lights anyway.

The earth points are definitely next, though the right hand side has nowhere to attach the ground. I found a screw hole where I suspect it used to be attached.

I ran a bypass of the missing circuit breaker just to test if the cleaned switched did the trick. I now have headlights that come on and up, as well as hazard lights that previously were not working at all.

[vitessesteve]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by dustie</i>

I am new to the forum, and just purchased a 1980 TR7. Among the issues with the car is that the headlights don't come up. I have ordered the missing circuit breaker, but in the meantime I decided to take apart the switches and clean them. Can anyone tell me if there a specific kind of tape I should use to replace the old black tape along the clear plastic labels?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I used black electrical tape at first but found it did not stick very well. Currently using black Gorilla tape which is excellent.

Steve Weblin - AKA vitessesteve
1982 TR7 Sprint DHC