At 09:58 AM 8/21/2006 -0400, Bill Spohn (WSpohn4@aol.com) wrote:
>.... I ordered the Moss tank, .... was very pleasantly surprised
>when I got it. .... Well done on the gas tank, guys!
>
>OTOH, I bought some new MGA 1500 style front turn signal lights ....
>
>The socket is oversize so that the bulb wanders and does not make
>reliable contact and the round phenolic disc that holds the two
>contacts in place in the socket is 0.20" thick - little better than
>heavy paper and a strange place to save money. One of mine came with
>one of the tabs that orients the assembly in the socket already
>broken off. The stock item uses a similar metarial about 3 times as thick.
>
>Make them so that the bulb fits the socket and the darned thing does
>the job reliably or don't sell them.
>
>One 'A' for the tank and a C- for the sockets.
This is a little odd. Perhaps you didn't get the latest issue of
this part. How long ago did you take delivery of these parts?
On 7/24 Moss Motors sent me a new production sample of this part for
my personal evaluation. They had been selling them "for a while",
only a few returns for non-quality reasons, no reported quality
issues, and indeed it looks pretty good. The one they sent me has
a nylon disk to carry the contacts, .060" thick with molded
projection tubes to carry the contacts, and very strong indexing ears
(probably better than the original phenolic plate). The bulb is a
"normal" loose fit with good mechanical security in the socket, good
electrical contacts all around, and good spring force behind the
contact plate. The wires are now the correct 18" length to reach
properly for the MGA, including the black ground wire, the two
colored wires in a vinyl tube which is nicely secured in the back of
the socket (good mechanical mount and nearly environmental tight by
itself), and the bullet connectors are soldered to the wires. The
lense with chrome rim twists on/off easily and nests securely in the
correct orientation with the chrome ring very close but not touching
the body paint (with the supplied rubber gasket in
place). Appearance and finish of the plastic lense and chrome ring
are generally good for a commercial production part. The base
appears to be zinc plated, bulb socket may be bright zinc or nickle
plated, and the plating looks good enough to be generally durable
(only time will tell).
There is still one design issue with the rear rubber boot which was
designed to seal two individual wires. They say they intend to
update design of this boot soon. Meanwhile you need to cut a slit
between the two holes to make one larger hole to pass the three wires
together. I think that Moss has hit the commercial production
quality target spot on for this part, a huge improvement over past
issue parts, and I think at least equal to original factory issue
(with possible exception of the chrome quality which was generally
very good on original parts). If you were so inclined, perhaps Moss
would be ammenable to exchanging your parts for the newer issue parts.
See here for follow up pictures of the newest part:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/faulty/ft002.htm
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an atttiude
http://MGAguru.com
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