Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi can anyone help me with my 1960 2door saloon that I am restoring. are the side light bulb holders a 2 point contacts or do they have a single contact. I have been given a box of spare lights for the front and the rear. Are the front side lights a single white lens which also is the flasher as well. I have studied the potteries light lay out but it does not explain if the side light also acts as a indicator as well. Hope this lot makes sence.
Jimmy

Jimmy,

A 1960 car should have trafficators as signalling devices and NOT flashing indicators. The flashing indicators (as flashing tail & sidelights) came out in August 1961 and lasted until October 1963 where they were replaced by orange indicator units.

So originally (and according to the wiring diagrams), if your car was pre August 1961 and was fitted with trafficators then you will have had a single contact sidelight bulbholder fitted from the factory. If your car was made between August 1961 and October 1963 then it would have had a 2 point contact bulb holder fitted. Later than that and it had a completely different unit altogether

That is the original spec, but of course a lot of people now fit the 2 point bulbholder under the flat lens as you can't tell the difference externally and it allows you to have some sort of flashing indicator visible at the front of the car.

Hi Cam it was first reistered in June 1960 and the trafficator opening is filled in and there is a flasher unit screwed to the engine bay bulk head and it looks quite an old one. What are the rear lights, I do have stop lamps with the chrome base but what about flashers are they the red or the orange ones.
Jimmy

jtd.75 wrote:Hi Cam it was first reistered in June 1960 and the trafficator opening is filled in and there is a flasher unit screwed to the engine bay bulk head and it looks quite an old one.

It sounds like it's been messed around with then. Your guess is as good as mine with regard to what it has fitted now.

What are the rear lights, I do have stop lamps with the chrome base but what about flashers are they the red or the orange ones.
Jimmy

I don't fully understand your question. You SHOULD have red stop/tail lights and NO flashers at all, but if your car has a flasher unit then operate the indicators and you tell me what's flashing and what isn't. Then we might be able to narrow down what has been fitted.

at the moment nothing, when I got the car it was completely striped and in various carboard box's, wiring,lights,brakes,brake pipes,screens all windows, door fittings you name it and it was in a carboard box the old guy that I got the car from started to retore it in 1987 and he never got round to fitting it all back together. There is 2 & sometimes 3 of every thing in the box's and like I have said in the past nothing is labled and its like doing a jigsaw without a picture.

Yes, it's tricky. Especially if it has been modified from standard BEFORE it was taken apart!

The parts are quite cheap anyway but I think the question in your situation should be: What sidelamp arrangement do YOU want?

Good morning Cam, I have lamps L549 (fully chrome) for the rear, Lamps L488 for the front along with various red and amber lens for the L488 light holders dual ie indicator and side or will I have to fit seperate( 2 on the front white and amber) flashers and the same on the rear Lamps L488 with a amber lens.
Jimmy

Hi Jimmy, You should have L549s with the fully chrome base on your car but it came out of the factory with L489 sidelights and not L488s. Trouble is though that you can't use a twin filament bulb holder with the L489s so that's why a lot of people convert to the L488s to have flashing indicators at the front (albeit white) while still retaining a more or less original look.

You'll have to go with the clear lenses as otherwise your sidelghts will be red or amber and I don't THINK that's legal (but I could be wrong). It would certainly be confusing for other motorists.

Sounds like you are in a similar situation to me. I can't decide if I should have orange flashers on the rear or not (I'm sticking to the factory white flashers on the front). It's your decision, but personally I'm not too keen on extra orange blobs on the car.

Cam wrote:
You'll have to go with the clear lenses as otherwise your sidelghts will be red or amber and I don't THINK that's legal (but I could be wrong). It would certainly be confusing for other motorists.

It isn't legal - ALL red lights have to be rear facing, and as far as I remember, orange is only allowed for indicators - maybe the law's changed on that though, I seem to see an awful lot of lorries equipped with amber marker lights these days.

Thanks for the clarification BigG. I suspected as much.

I don't think the fronts are such a big issue though. Flashing clear front sidelights are fine. It's the rears that can be problematic.

Agreed - and if it's claear lenses at the front for the indicators, you could fit orange bulbs to be 100%

orange bulbs in front sidelights i was going for ,but decideed on the full monty flashers because i know after some plonker hits me ,there gonna say," didnt see your indicators"

bigginger wrote:Agreed - and if it's claear lenses at the front for the indicators, you could fit orange bulbs to be 100%

Thing is though that the front are a twin-filament bulb (same as the rear stop/tail) so you'd have the problem of finding an orange twin-filament bulb and also your sidelights would be orange. If you fitted Mini headlamps with the built in sidelights then you could change the sidelight bulbholders to a single contact type and fit orange bulbs as BigG says.

I think I will stick with the twin filliment bulbs on the front and put a set of orange lens on the rear, seeing as I already have them in the pandora box

Blimey - I didn't realise it was SO complicated

me neither, I would use hs only folks might not know what they mean

stripped down and cleaned all the wiring harness cleaned and resoldered the button connectors and rebound all the wiring in self-amalgamating tape ( rubber tape that seals on its self) and refitted harness all I have to do now is fit and connect the lights up. They all worked on the floor so know I am waiting for sods law

They all worked on the floor so know I am waiting for sods law

Shhh Lucas prince of Darkness might hear you


Oops too late

Orange lamps are allowed as side markers. As well as trucks, quite a few cars use them, Volvo for example. In the states, they are a legal requirement (at least on new cars) so Volvo fit them in Europe so they can have just one bumper. I think Jag do the same, now. Other manufacturers have two versions of the bumper, one with sidemarkers for North Americas, one without for the rest of the world.