Good afternoon. Oddly I've never had a problem sourcing the levers/knobs. What I have difficulty finding are the ammeters. Does anyone have one they are prepared to sell? It would not be for resale but to assist with a restoration. Has anyone found an alternative?
What I would commend are the brass strips (buzz bars) sold by Tony Betts, they make a real difference.
Not all the levers are the same. There are some that are longer in the "body". I don't know which application they were from. My father bought a pair from an autojumble as his were broken. When he fitted them they stood out from the panel about 3/8th " from memory. This was fitted to the 6 wheeled lorry he built, and is still on it for all I know.
Perhaps they are from the Morris/MG application, since the instrument panel on those is steel, so perhaps there needs to be extra insulation behind the panel.
Like you I couldn’t find an ammeter and ended up fitting a replica. These tend to be much thicker and bigger diameter. so I extended the levers and spacers and open ended up the hole slightly. Here is a picture of the extended levers and the finished dial. Of course you need the additional clearance behind the front of the dial so it might not fit!
Unfortunately the ammeter is the weakest link in the circuit from the battery to (say) the lights. If you get a short-circuit somewhere it will usually be the weakest link which blows. So please do fit an inline fuse between the battery and the ammeter, so that if something electrical goes seriously pear-shaped it will be the 50p fuse that goes rather than the valuable ammeter.
28-01-2021, 04:59 AM (This post was last modified: 28-01-2021, 05:00 AM by Erich.)
Hi All,
I've got a serviceable SM5 switch panel but the paint is bad and I would like to repaint. Taking it apart is not an issue, nor is painting the face black, but does anyone have suggestions on how to repaint the white bits. In the day, were these hand painted or was their some sort of masking involved? Any help is much appreciated.
I've got a serviceable SM5 switch panel but the paint is bad and I would like to repaint. Taking it apart is not an issue, nor is painting the face black, but does anyone have suggestions on how to repaint the white bits. In the day, were these hand painted or was their some sort of masking involved? Any help is much appreciated.
Just a quick observation, switch panels fittted to MGs are Rotax, not Lucas, so again, the knobs may not be the same. I know that the same switch panel was also fitted to the Singer Junior...
