What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Tony Griffiths]

Regarding LED stop and tail lamps.  The ones from some suppliers consist of a single LED, with two different value series resistors to give a high current for stop and a lower (= dimmer) current for tail.  That's all fine and dandy, but there is an increased chance of backfeeding and odd effects with this simple setup, especially if the car has a mix of LEDs and filament bulbs.  In my setup, I resorted to adding series diodes in the wiring to prevent back feeding.

Another effect is that if bulbholders are not in the first flush of youth, their slightly tarnished connections may work fine with filament bulbs as the higher current tends to "wet" the contact.  I'm uncertain of the exact mechanism, but possibly a bit of micro-arcing burns through the tarnish. If you use lower current LEDs contact may become less reliable, especially if the "bulbs" have hard nickel contacts rather than the traditional more accommodating soft solder.  The cure is thorough cleaning or using new holders.

The reproduction Ruby rear lights we have were so poorly made that the contacts - even with filament bulbs - were hopeless. I ended up soldering the wires to the bulbs using a short length of cable connected to the loom with a "screw connector" so the bulb could be changed easily. I once had a similar problem with a set of trailer lights - not the contacts but the badly-made bulb holders breaking away from the housing. The cable and solder trick solved that one, too.

[GM6VXB]

Rear lights now working as they should. Now got 0.25 Ampere pull up resistors fitted.
Also fixed the brake switch problem.
The switch had become 'sticky', not sure why as it was only fitted in July, but
a squirt of good commercial cleaner/lubricant has fixed it for now.

Just as an aside, nearly all the lights (except dashboard and front sides) are
made by Lucas, or at least they came in Lucas boxes.
Checking the website: lucasclassic.com does not show any of the bulbs, so
they may have been dropped from the product line but are still available from
a few vendors.
WW13090 is headlight,  WW13091 is stop/tail if anyone is interested.

Now got a strange problem which I will ignore for now, but with the ignition off
and side or headlights switched on, the charge warning light glows. Not as
bright as with ignition on, but enough to confuse and annoy me !. Maybe
chase this fault when I have nothing else to do (who said never !)

[Nick Lettington]

Now got a strange problem which I will ignore for now, but with the ignition off
and side or headlights switched on, the charge warning light glows. Not as
bright as with ignition on, but enough to confuse and annoy me !. Maybe
chase this fault when I have nothing else to do (who said never !)

When I fitted LED bulbs to my panel lights, they glowed with the battery removed... I  couldn't decide if it was the capacitor discharging through the lights or the car slowly dissolving and generating its own electricity.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

I was getting withdrawal symptoms!  So yesterday despite the frost and salt I started and took both the RK and Van for a very short scoot around town.  Today it was the turn of the special for a trip around the lake.  Not very far but far enough for the tell tale white residue of salt to form on the tyres.  It will get a thorough hose down this afternoon.

Cheers

Howard

[Reckless Rat]

Here's a question for you, Howard. Will your van still be MT when it's full?

[Howard Wright]