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I thought I’d looked everywhere for this tool – clearly not! But many thanks to Paul and Peter for their helpful input.
Hi Sean, yes, I’ve completed this job now. I posted a similar question on FB and there was a suggestion that the wing didn’t need to be removed (but didn’t say more…!) and I did remove the wing. The cover panel/shield behind also needed to come off and I couldn’t find any way of getting to at least one of its retaining screws with the wing in place.
With the shield off, you can clearly see what’s what, but access is still quite tight. When I hooked on the new cable, it ran very close to the adjacent metal work and ideally I wanted to loosen the clamp from the control rod (on the anti-rollbar) to move the cable’s lever just a few millimetres to its right. But the clamp nuts are “D” shaped (goodness knows why, when you’d think an ordinary hex nut would have worked perfectly well) and I didn’t have a specific tool to fit. I hunted the internet high and low without success and eventually I phoned a DS specialist who confirmed they had had to make their own! If ever you need to adjust the front height corrector, which has a similar arrangement, good luck!
Anyhow, I don’t think anything is snagging, I’ve applied liberal grease around and along the cable and everything has been put back with no bits left over. Setting up the front ends of the two cables with the headlamp self-levelling mechanism has been trial and error in front of my garage doors after dark, but so far, so good – time will tell if the repairs endure.
Hope your job goes smoothly, and please post again if more information needed.
DavidMany thanks to David Park who was able to supply me with a substitute speedo. Initially, this unit also read ‘over-fast’ but I experimented with it, albeit in a rather unscientific process! The speedo releases from the instrument panel quite easily, but the unit itself seems held together with pressings rather than screws or bolts. Therefore, couldn’t get inside, but it felt like there was some kind of spring action providing a resistance to the needle if you tried to gently rotate it when static.
By trial and error, I merely wound the needle back against the resistance slightly then re-tested on the road. Took several goes, lots of backwards a bit then forwards a bit, but eventually the result was a reasonably accurate reading throughout the speed range. Seems to be working fine now after several weeks of use. The substitute speedo was an older version than mine, so didn’t match the tacho in appearance/colour etc., but it gave me the confidence to try the same process with my original, and that too now works just as well.
As I say, very unscientific and hopefully hasn’t compromised any of the internal components which I’m sure are very sensitive, but it’s working at the moment, so that’s a result.Hi Chris,
Sorry, abroad just now and cannot access precise info. But, my car is due to support the CCC’s stand next week at the NEC, so maybe we could look at the bulbs/speak then?
DavidI would say ‘mix and match’ is entirely sensible. For example, fitting LED side, stop/tail bulbs is a simple plug-in replacement – instant visibility improvement, no changes needed to anything else.
Indicators are similar, but you will need an LED flasher. For my “3rd nose” car, this was a simple swap-in/swap-out for the existing can behind the instrument binnacle, but perhaps for yours, you might have to extend the wiring from your stalk? But otherwise, another instant gain in performance. For those for whom appearance is important, the LED’s that can be seen through the lenses are pretty similar to the old ones, so not an issue for me.
I didn’t fit headlamp LEDs until some time afterwards – mainly to do with cost, but also to research the fitting aspect. I understand there’s a difference in the various headlamp units, but I’m not an expert! But I’m sure there’s a solution and the website I’ve previously mentioned has a lot of helpful guidance. As with most LEDs, there’s little necessity to change any of the actual wiring – the bulbs run cool and the load on (our often ancient…) wiring is much reduced.
I did make some mistakes! I tried replacing the instrument lighting, but the LEDs were far too bright and white, so I’ve reverted to the originals. Something similar for the interior lights, although there’s no denying they are much more useful for being brighter, especially in my Safari.
Oops! My attempt to include a link ddn’t work!
Supplier was: http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.comFor my auxiliaries, I fitted H1 ‘ultimates’ from .
This was two years ago and they wern’t cheap then! However, they do the job. The rearmost body of the casing is cylindrical with a diameter marginally larger than the width of the spring retaining clip, so it needs a small amount of fettling to encourage a mild curve into the sides of the spring clip. This doesn’t seem to affect the swivelling motion, providing any wiring is ‘free’ and not prone to wrapping itself around the case.
Hi Peter,
I have, over a period, changed all my bulbs to LEDs – side lights, indicators and headlamps. I’ve used this supplier: http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com – the website answers most queries.For indicators (and hazards if fitted), you’ll need an appropriate LED flasher. The headlamp bulbs are available in both ’43’ and ’45’ H4 formats – for my 1974 Safari, they are direct replacements, virtually the same size with no cumbersome heat sinks, and they give a precise cut-off pattern for dip. Not cheap, I’ll admit, but can offer a quick fix instead of the expense and faff of getting old headlamp units re-silvered.
As I understand it, the latest MOT rules now prohibit the retro-fitting of LEDs to cars not so originally equipped, however, I’ve found a lot of discretion exercised by testers, assuming your lights are correctly angled and do not dazzle. Don’t quote me (!) but I think taking reasonable steps to safely increase visibility and making your older car compatible with modern driving conditions is a fair defence. Of course, an MOT is not even required for an historic vehicle, but it’s easy enough to carry a couple of spare headlamp bulbs ready to swap if your local Plod should object…
LED indicators and side-lights particularly are a huge improvement, and the bulbs themselves look very much the same as the originals, so not a big issue (I think…) even for the most ardent perfectionists! As Paul has said, there’s no real ‘conversion’ factor involved in the units I’ve used and the much decreased load on the electrics is a comforting bonus.
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