Ever Wished You'd Never Started Something?

Today I set about fitting the new stalks, though I’ve already lost one of the switches & had to order TWO more, the screenwash stalk went on just fine, the hooter stalk – less so.

 

It was the usual story, I got impatient & in spite of not having the hooter button I ploughed on, then thought I’d look at the hazard warning switch. It’s always been a pain, the red bit popping off with the least provocation, so I took off the left stalk switch – into which the hazard switch is totally integrated. “how complicated can it be?” I thought, well, once I'd broken it apart, really quite complicated is the answer, with the switch turning out to have four separate poles switching between seven contacts. More to the point, the indicators were now dead as they rely on one of the poles to power them.

 

I took the Haynes-book-of-lies upstairs along with the switch & a multi-meter & started working out which contacts did what. Having more-or-less understood the workings, I reasoned that a jumper wire between two of the terminals should see the indicators working again – and indeed they did. So I’ve now worked out what I need to buy to have the hazards worked by a single conventional toggle switch & will put that order in tomorrow.

 

Also on the order books is a 1963 registration, so the car will lose "G 789 BBK" & become

"AFW 817 A". I may fit black & white No. Plates – strictly for shows of course.

 

Did I mention I also fitted another four USB ports, two at the back to charge the phone & drive the I-pod & one hidden under the dash to drive the SatNav. This means the charger point in the middle of the dash is redundant & will be replaced by a switch panel for the screen heater & rear fogs, their place to the right of the steering wheel being taken by the new hazard switch & a mute for the indicator buzzer.

Keeping up?