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De-tango front lights

landwomble
New
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:50 pm

De-tango front lights

Postby landwomble » Mon Jul 08, 2013 3:53 pm

Been meaning to do this for a while - so thought I'd post a guide with pics.

Basic idea is to

1) Make the front lights look clear

2) Swap the indicator and sidelights so that the larger 21W bulb is the sidelight where the indicator used to be, and the old sidelight becomes the 5W indicator.

Tools needed: wirecutters, chocblock connectors, electrical tape, screwdriver, oven, orange 5W 501 bulb from Halfrauds.

OK, first off, remove the sidelight/indicator cluster - 2 screws, twist to remove the two bulb fittings, and it's out.

Looks like this:


Image
If you look inside, you'll see the orange filter for the indicator, which we're going to remove.

If you look here, you'll see the sticky mastic-like glue that holds the housing together:

Image

Next step, make sure the missus is out, and fire up your oven to 100-120 degrees. Place the whole fitting inside, and set the timer for 10 mins. Wine optional.

Image

When it's done, take it out and stick it on your workbench, or chopping board in my case.

Using a broad flat head screwdriver, carefully lever apart the lens from the grey plastic back. The glue should be a chewing-gum consistency: don't get it on the inside of the lens or you'll have to clean it off with isoprop or meths. Or in my case, alcohol-based handwash gel. Don't knock it, I was contemplating using gin.

This should happen:

Image

Inside, you can see the curved orange reflector, which has two screws to remove:

Image- the bit you're removing looks like this:

Image

When done, stick it all back together. If you've taken it slowly you might want to warm it up again first.

Result?

Image

Much better.

For the wiring, you want to swap the positive connection to sidelight and indicator, so that the old indicator lights up as the sidelight, and the old sidelight flashes as the indicator. You'll need to swap the old sidelight bulb for an orange one so that your indicator flashes orange - you're after a 5W 501 orange bulb, which cost me about ÂŁ4 from Halfrauds.

Alternately, if you want to retain the original light positions, swap the old indicator 21W bulb for an orange one, or for extra bonus points a chromed orange one which looks silver, but lights up orange.

What does the result look like at night? Surprisingly bright. Indicators clearly visible, sidelights actually useful:

Image

Make sure you wrap your wiring up in electrical tape once done.

Hope this is useful, it's about an hour's work and I think the result looks great.

Ric

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