[Fot] Technical Question

[M&M Hado]

Jack,

 

I had a 55 TR3 with the lights as you described.  I put a separate small red LED (pretty bright, actually) inside the lens of each of the outer fixtures.  I got them from a local electronics store.  I epoxied it to the base and wired it in parallel with the existing center brake light.  It was pretty easy to do and the result was three brake lights that came on at the same time.  The regular dual filament bulb still worked as normal with the parking light and turn signal.

 

As a side note, some of the MGA’s (not all of them, but just a few years) had a special electrical box of some kind under the bonnet that allowed three functions using the two filaments in the rear outer lamp assemblies.  I first noticed this when I saw an MGA with just the outer assembly (no brake light in the center), similar to our TR2’s and 3’s, and it had the standard two filament bulb on each side.  I asked the owner how he got three functions with only two filaments and he shrugged his shoulders.  He had the wiring diagram with him so I looked it over and it’s a solid state (I think) or electro-mechanical black box device that allows a dual function for one of the filaments.  I’m guessing that it was the brakes and turn signals on the same filament, but not sure.  Still, it was pretty slick.  I was more curious than anything so I never looked into it further.  That was a few years ago.

 

Mike Hado

 

 

From: Fot [mailto:fot-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Jack Wheeler via Fot
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2020 9:03 AM
To: FOT List
Subject: [Fot] Technical Question

 

Has anyone with a street TR-2 or early TR-3 rewired the brake light so the outer lamp fixtures (tail lights) come on when the brake pedal is depressed?  Originally, these cars were wired so that the brake light was in the same fixture as the license plate lamp.  Only one lamp - a safety issue.  I have heard of people re-wiring it so that the outer lamps (tail lights) also come on when the brake pedal is depressed (like the later TR-3's).  Does anyone know how to wire it to make this happen?  Thanks for your help.

 

Jack

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