Metal Monkey Dial Faces

[Elanlover]

I've had no issues whatsoever with the LED's to date. The car hasn't really run at all though - just had the LED's tested but as Geoff said, i wouldn't think there'd be any affect on the rheostat. Just less load drwn but no other significant change.

However, since the LED's are "polarized" unlike the normal bulbs, I wonder if, given you may had some reversed meaning they wouldn't have shown any light at all, having some reversed for a longer period mught have done somethign to the rheostat???

[GeoffSmith]

Under reverse bias, they shouldn't pass any current, but even if they were to break down and go short circuit, the series resistor would limit the current.

[Elanlover]

Under reverse bias, they shouldn't pass any current, but even if they were to break down and go short circuit, the series resistor would limit the current.

I think that's electric wizard speak for "what he said ain't right".

[Monty]

Investigation of my lack of instrument lighting indicates that the problem is a lack of a feed to the instrument lights, being an S2 the instruments should be lit as long as the ignition is on. Looking at the circuit diagrams the feed is a red and purple wire which comes off the rheostat module (green relay type thing (A100M6059F) under the dash, same location as the intermittent wipe relay). The rheostat module is in turn fed by a red and white wire from the sidelights, my sidelights work ok, so logic points the finger at the Rheostat Module. Swapped the Rheostat Modules between Norma and S2 and S2 now has gloriously green instrument lighting and Norma has no instrument lighting. I've asked if anyone has one in the parts wanted sectionHere. I've just been hailed off but have managed a couple of pictures that I'll post as soon as I download them from the camera. I lost my lights when I fitted the first LED so I assume, for whatever reason the LED caused some damage in the Rheostat Module? I am reluctant to fit any LEDs at the moment in case I damage another Rheostat Module and any advice would be welcome

Nige,

Make sure were the wiring plugs go in to the back off the Instrument cluster that the copper tabs aren`t pushed back, which then wouldn`t make contact with the wiring connection. This what happened to me

[Nige]

Cheers Monty but it was a non functioning Rheostat Module that was the cause of my problem, just don't know what caused it to become non functional.

Photos are blurry (camera shake) but you get the overall impression. When I can persuade my daughter to lend me her camera again (it's much better than mine) I'll take some sharp ones.

[Monty]

Nige, glad you got it sorted.

They do look good

[Elanlover]

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. They look great!

[holty]

The dials look great! Just one question, on the site it asks colour of backing. Does this mean the colour of the main MPH? Cheers Holty.

[Elanlover]

The dials look great! Just one question, on the site it asks colour of backing. Does this mean the colour of the main MPH? Cheers Holty.

Colour of backing refers to the colour you want the numerals to appear in daylight I believe. You can have the main, outer ring of numerals one colour and the inner ring in another. Also, you can have the numerals one colour by day and another by night although you'd have to specify that in your order as they don't list that as an option to select on their site (even though its offered). Feel free to e-mail them directly if you have any quesiotns. They are great to deal with.

[Nige]

Some better pictures. I'm very pleased with the result.

[Elanlover]

Excellent pics. That green looks much better than I would have thought it'd look

[Doug]

looks nice!

also looks like your boost gauge transducer is not not fully grounded = needle is off the bottom stop at rest . . .

[Nige]

Good spot Doug, boost gauge is the one needle I need to reset, but that's for next weekend!

[Elanlover]

Hey Nige, I' couldn't help but notice that all you need now are some Ultimate Pedalsaluminum pedal covers, designed specifically for the Elan

[Nige]

They do look good and I like the idea that they are made to fit, might even be lighter than replacing the rubber pedal covers

............. by a gramme or 2 anyway.

[holty]

Nige what colour are the MPH are they aqua or just plain green? Cheers Holty.

[Nige]

Green.

[Elanlover]

They do offer an Aqua backing colour though if you are thinking about matching the exterior paint.

[CJ101KT]

I am very confused with the colour options. I was going to get one of the heater plates but am stuck on ordering the wrong colour I want. Can someone tell me what the difference is between the metal finish colour and the backing colour?

I have a red Elan with the cream seats and after having changed my car mats to the luxury cream set I am wanting to change the dials appearence from the dull black to match the interior spark with cream or in this case white.

The dials I need are to have a white plate and then the figures on them in red or whatever. So what metal finish do I need? Natural or white? and the background colour??

Please help ...

[Nige]

I'll try to keep this simple .

For the dial faces themselves (and the heater plate) you have 3 options. The dial faces are made of stainless steel whatever finish you choose so you have a choice, brushed stainless steel, white, or black.

The backing colours are the colour the dial markings appear on the metal, white or black dial face. You need a contrast to be able to read the markings so dark blue on black is probably not a good idea. With the backing colour you have a further choice. You can have one colour underneath another so the markings appear white (or silver) in daylight and coloured when lit this is what I have, black dial faces, markings that are white in daylight and green when lit under low light conditions. You can also have different colour backings on the same dial face, ie Tacho redline is red and KM/H markings are red on mine.

For a red car with a magnolia interior I'd go for black faced dials, numbers that are white in daylight (or silver) and red when lit and do exactly the same for the heaterplate. That however is a personal choice and you can do whatever you wish with your car. However I don't think anything other than a black heater plate is going to look right against the rest of the dash.