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MG TD TF 1500 - Auxillary brake light on TF

Here is what my finished product looks like. Thanks for the help with wiring. My TF already had a Lucas 494 reverse light. They look period correct, so I bought a 494 with red lens. It came from a regular ebay vender and I think the quality if very good.
I attached it to my luggage rack with the fog lamp bracket moss sells. It can come off easily for an "original look". Single fillament bulb is braking only, nice and bright.

Tom
'54 TF


T Norby

Gee, Tom. Imagine getting a second one and spread the two out a bit on the bar. You could have turn signals as well as brake lights.

Your incandescent lamp is going to add an additional amount of current through you brake light switch. That's not a good idea. I'd strongly suggest that you follow Dave DuBois' idea about adding a relay to handle the brake light current. See http://www.ttalk.info/Tech/BrakeLightRelay.htm a bit on the topic with a link to Dave's excellent treatment of the subject. Bud
Bud Krueger

Yes Bud. I plan to do that. Thanks for the reminder to others.

Tom
T Norby

Tom, here's a page about installing a pair of incandescent lights: http://www.ttalk.info/Tech/HighMountLights.htm and then I found some LEDs:
http://www.ttalk.info/led_high_mounts.htm Bud
Bud Krueger

Bud, thanks again for the good references.
Now is a good time to ask a good question. What would be preferable. Adding the Dave DuBois style relay or switching my new light and existing tail lights to LED's??
Or, perhaps just switching my single filament brake bulb to a LED?

Tom
T Norby

Let's see --- my option was to do both. I have installed a relay for the brake lights/turn signals and I converted from incandescent to LEDs. Incandescent bulbs have a wonderful feature in that they radiate into a very large solid angle. LEDs are very directional. It may be quite difficult to find an LED device packaged so as to emulate the light bulb in your light. I would definitely install the relay. Bud
Bud Krueger

Or you could fit a Ron Francis heavy duty stop lamp switch which has the additional advantage of activating at a low pressure. I've fit them to some of my cars with good success.
John Quilter (TD8986)

Where do I find that John??

Tom
T Norby

Here's the link to the Ron Francis website:
http://www.ronfrancis.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SW%2D32
Are the 1/8 inch pipe threads compatible with the fitting on the car?
Joe
Joe Olson

The 1/8 pipe thread is standard threads for all the hydraulic switches. The Ron Francis switch is a heavy duty switch (and the only one on the market that might hold up for more than a few weeks). It is quite expensive and I have see a couple of reports recently of the switches failing. Unfortunately, unless one goes entirely to LED brake lights, today's brake light switches, whether hydraulic or mechanical are pieces of junk. Most modern cars either have LED brake lights or they have relays in the circuit so they don't need a heavy duty switches that were produced years ago. I installed a relay/arc suppressor circuit on both our MGs better than 10 years ago and have not had a single switch failure in that time. Cheers - Dave
D W DuBois

Tom,
So you must move it to the back when you put luggage on the rack?? Why not just mount the light under the rear bar of the rack??

SPW
Steve Wincze

Steve, I could move it to the rear of the luggage rack. But, to be honest, there is never luggage on the rack.
Dave D....do you still make up relays with a diode like you did a decade ago? I saw a post to that effect in T Talk. Please get back to me by email if you do.
My switch is Lucas and is old. Not "new junk". Lights up with only slight foot pressure on the pedal.

tom
T Norby

Tom - you have e-mail. Hang onto that old stock brake light switch - they are the only ones that seem to be made to last.

" I could move it to the rear of the luggage rack. But, to be honest, there is never luggage on the rack."
I have a high mount luggage rack on our TD and used it for luggage once - couldn't see a thing behind me. It has not become a convenient mounting for a high mount third brake light ;-) (same thing o nour MGB) Cheers - Dave

D W DuBois

This thread was discussed between 30/09/2014 and 01/10/2014

MG TD TF 1500 index

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