Damn light switches.

[Hasbeen]

Having relayed my lights, fitted a new switch, & converted to the use it or loose it system of turning my headlights on & off every time I start the 7 in the shed, I thought I had a handle on the things. [^]

Wrong. [:(]

Last night I went to pick up my daughter from town. It was a lovely night, with NO rain for a change, so I took the 7. With our lousy weather it's over 5 weeks since I used the car, so I flicked the lights on & off a few times before going.

Going through town, 30Km from home the instrument lights went out. When I went to flick the switch off & on, it offered considerable resistance to moving, so I desisted. I could find no Lucas smoke, or heat anywhere. The indicators, brake & reversing lights were working so I drove on.

Fortunately I know the car well enough to judge it's speed by engine sound, so no problem. My daughter tried to catch me out by flashing her phone light on the speedo a few times, but stopped when she could not catch me out wrong. [:D]

At home it took quite a bit more effort than usual to move the switch to off the first time, & a little more to move it to on, but there after the switch operated normally, as did the instrument lights.

I have not pulled the thing apart, but will soon. Any ideas what the problem may be? I can only assume the contacts had fused together, but I felt no heat, & saw no smoke.

Hasbeen

[FI Spyder]

Don't have clue. Never had any problems with light switch. Never use it except at night, maybe once a month in summer when I take it to club meetings or the odd time when I go off island. It's not relayed (yet). It's the original thirty one year old one that had the green grunge until I cleaned and lubed it when I initially got it home.

Coming back from Portland ABFM last year, Ron's switch broke and had to follow his son's coupe home after coming off the ferry. I think the plastic broke. Was that it Ron?


TR7 Spider - 1978 Spitfire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[trekcarbonboy]

Clearly you have run out of Lucas smoke. I suggest you replenish it asap, to get things working properly.[:)]

Craig

[PeterTR7V8]

In my experience (twice now) if the switch is hard to move then one of the plastic pins that tensions the contact strips has melted or broken. Obviously the relay mod is supposed to fix this. I asked a local engineer if he could make the pins from metal but he advised against it as it would just end up melting more of the switch. I don't think I agree with him though.



The map: http://tinyurl.com/wedgemap . The blog: http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8548

[Hasbeen]

Haven't been near the 7 today.

I just went up the shed to get some tools & found the headlights up. They must have stayed up when I turned them off last night.

If I think about it, that should tell me something.

Hasbeen

[Odd]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">If I think about it, that should tell me something<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> You've probably fried your switch - if you haven't already: Do the relay retrofit I wrote an article in the TWOA/TRDC/TRR magazines on.
If you don't have access to it down under I could send you a CD (that you could get into your local Club magazine/s).

<font color="red"><b>My two 1980 Wedges...</b></font id="red">

[Beans]

Simple enoug hto pull the switch and dismantle it.
Check if the spring loaded pin is still there and that it's not deformed or blocked.

Little pin is just visible inside the lever at the top of the picture ...



<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
<b>[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]<u><b><font size="2"><font color="red">My Weblog</font id="red"></font id="size2"></b></u>[/url]</b></i></center>

[Hasbeen]

I haven't looked yet Beans, & I'm putting it off as I have no spare switch parts left. They all went on the 8.

Odd I relayed the lights on both cars a couple of years ago. The 8 has been used often at night since, with no trouble.

The switch in the 7 has not done more than a couple of hours since it was fitted a couple of years ago, which is probably the problem.
I payed A$145 for this switch here in Oz, so it is about A$77 an hour for lights at present.

Hasbeen

[FI Spyder]

You see them all the time on eBay. Have you tried one of these?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Headlamp-Light-Switch-Triumph-TR7-TR8-/150577798927?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3ATR7&hash=item230f22df0f#ht_500wt_715

Only one left now as I decided to buy one for a spare.[}:)]




TR7 Spider - 1978 Spitfire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Hasbeen]

I finally decided I had procrastinated long enough, & attacked the switch today.

For some reason this one has always been difficult to separate from the wiring plug, & this time it was no different. Somewhere in the stream of expletives this difficulty caused me to express, I must have hit the right one, & out it came.

I also pulled the 2 fog light switches out [they come easily] looking for spare parts, that I may not have cannibalised before.

Yes Peter & Beans, it was a melted pin. One of the white ones they supply in the latest batch of switches, the old pattern black pin was fine. The black the is one I fitted before the relaying, after the new switch had lasted only 40 minutes.

Peter we may find out how good that engineers advice was, as I found the only spare pin I had was a metal one I had made some time back in one of the fog light switches.

On the assumption that I don't need fogs, if I don't have headlights, I pinched it, reassembled the headlight switch, & put everything back together, What a fiddly thing that light panel is.

The moment I reconnected the battery, the light pods went down.

Should those headlight motors have power to them when ever the battery is connected? It doesn't sound like a great idea to me, but I have noticed it before.

Now if it will only stop raining.

Hasbeen

[FI Spyder]

Got my Main Light Switch today. Paid $29 something including shipping (it was @1.75 from down in the South Sates). I took it apart to clean (polish) the contacts (switch is new but copper oxidizes) and put light coating of dielectric grease on them and pins at back and put it back in baggy for to carry in trunk. As you can see the pins are black. Never had any problems with them but Hasbeen has and Ron had his break so as it takes no space and weights nothing I will carry it as a spare. It can't cost too much to ship to Austalia Hasbeen, you should look at eBay to pick one up.





TR7 Spider - 1978 Spitfire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Hasbeen]

Yes Spyder, I know I should, but a worry about things I know too little about, & inertia gets in the way.

My wife, & a friend both got accounts cleaned out when they used cards on the net, which makes me pause [:(].

I keep threatening to set up a totally separate A/c to use on the net, & phone, with stuff all in it, but driving my new [to me] Honda S2000, keeps getting in the way of anything useful, just at the moment, & I'll probably have another excuse to do nothing next week.

Besides, it's only the kids inheritance I'm spending anyway [}:)]

Hasbeen

[DNK]

If the kids are past college.
Go for it

Don
"No More Cars For You"
71 TR6- Perpetual remodel
80 TR7 V8 Kick in the pants

[Jez]

Hasbeen, there is a constant supply to the headlamp relay (a brown to brown/pink wire after a circuit breaker), so the minute you re-installed your new switch and powered it up - with the switch in the off postion, it will "open" the contactors in the relay and will close the pods, so I reckon that is normal.
Your brown wires in the wiring loom are a constant supply from the battery, it must be BL thing as it was the same in the SD1 I dismantled.
Cheers
Jez

11/80 Inca Yellow TR7

[Hasbeen]

Thanks Jez, at least now I understand, even if I don't like it too much.

Knowing so little about the electrics I guess it makes me worry that it will set fire to the thing, while no one is around. Everything else seems to go wrong with the electrics, why not that?

Hasbeen