Introduction
Even by modest standards, the factory-standard Triumph Toledo & Dolomite 13/1500, are poorly equipped with instrumentation; having only a speedometer, water-temperature indicator and fuel gauge plus warning lights for low oil pressure, generator (i.e. dynamo or alternator) supply voltage, direction indicators (i.e. turn signals or blinkers), headlamp main beam and parking lights; which experience has shown to be wholly inadequate.
Most vehicle instrumentation systems, comprise gauges and warning lights; the former of which gives precise information about prevailing conditions, whilst the latter warns if these conditions deviate beyond acceptable limits.
According to ergonomics research, pertaining to the aeronautical, chemical process and nuclear industries, humans are better at making decisions, once warned of a situation, than they are at continuously monitoring gauge readings. Hence, gauges should be regarded as complementary to warning lights, not as substitutes. However, unless observed at the moment of illumination, conventional warning lights might go unnoticed, so ideally these should be linked to a single flashing warning light and/or buzzer, which are more likely to attract one's attention.
According to various sources, there are sadly, a significant proportion of both men and women drivers, who do not properly understand the meaning or importance of the common warning-light colours and symbols, despite the fact that many have been Internationally standardised. This is something which must be properly addressed by owners and drivers, before retro-fitting supplementary instrumentation.
Ray Massey, "Dashboard Dunces", Daily Mail, Friday 3rd March 2006, Page 35.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/f ... ge_id=1879
Sally Pook, “Warning lights mystery”, UK News, Daily Telegraph, 3rd March 2006.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... stery.html
“Drivers ignore defects at their peril”, Motoring, Daily Telegraph, 12th May 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/275 ... peril.html
Britannia Rescue, “Dashboard warning lights confuse drivers”, 31st July 2013
http://britanniarescue.com/news/Dashboa ... e-drivers/
Ray Massey, “Warning ahead! 98 percent of drivers can’t understand their dashboard lights (well, do YOU know what these symbols mean?)”, Daily Mail, 31st July 2013, Page 24.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ights.html
“Warning Lights: What does that light on the dashboard Mean?”, The Automobile Association
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/br ... ights.html
“Car Dashboard Warning Lights - what do they mean?”, The Royal Automobile Club
http://www.rac.co.uk/breakdown-cover/ca ... ts-meaning
Jim Kerr, “Dashboard Lights”, CanadianDriver.com
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/jk/at_001017.htm
“Those Warning Lights and Buzzers”
http://autorepair.about.com/od/lightsbu ... uzzers.htm
Car Dashboard Warning Indicator Lights, Driving Test Success
http://www.driving-test-succcess.com/da ... lights.htm
Having previously substituted a Triumph Dolomite adjustable steering column into my 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300, during the winter of 1982/83, I later substituted in mid-March 1984, an early-model Dolomite 1850 dashboard, which provided the option of additional gauges (including clock) and greater number of warning lights.
Given that the Dolomite 1850 speedometer’s calibration, was probably incompatible with the Toledo’s transmission gearing, combined with my wish to maximise warning-light provision, I retained my Toledo speedometer with its three integral warning lights, for ignition (i.e. alternator voltage), low-oil-pressure and headlamp main beam.
Having already-fitted or planned to fit various electrical accessories, such as heated rear window, front & rear fog lamps, auxiliary driving lamps, electric radiator-cooling fan, trailer-towing bracket (requires a separate trailer direction-indicator warning light, in addition to the car’s L.H. & R.H. direction-indicator warning lights), for which a tell-tale warning light is either obligatory or highly desirable, I needed provision for more than eight warning lights.
The existing under-dashboard switch for the heated rear window, had an integral tell-tale warning light, but I wanted to substitute the later-pattern, square-knobbed Dolomite switch, which would match my original Toledo carburettor choke-control knob and dashboard switches (main light switch and windscreen wiper & washer switch; either of which I might later wish to reuse for other purposes), so a separate dashboard warning light would be needed.
I have since acquired some more Dolomite components, so at some time in the future, I shall probably wish to have warning-light provision for the following:
• Dual-circuit brake-circuit failure
• Hand brake on
• Carburettor choke on
• Low fuel level
To fit a large number of individual warning-light units, is often impractical, invariably untidy and might not be sited for optimum visibility. In many cases, these deficiencies may be overcome by fitting one or more warning-light clusters, such as that made by Lucas Industries Ltd., in Great Britain, which was original equipment for the Triumph Stag (a few exported to the USA), Triumph 1300, 1500, 1500TC, 2000 & 2500, Triumph Dolomite, Dolomite 1500HL & 1850HL and Dolomite Sprint.
Customising Warning-Light Clusters
The 60 mm diameter Lucas warning-light cluster, of which there are at least two significant variants I personally possess, (illustrated in the following pictures), comprises eight equal segments, with interchangeable, plastic coloured filters; available in red, orange, yellow, dark-green, dark-blue and magenta. Rimmer Brothers Ltd., a Triumph spare parts supplier, in Lincolnshire, England, list several different part numbers, for Lucas 8-segment, warning-light clusters, but do not illustrate each of the variants.
Unlike the other coloured filters, which are made from translucent plastic, the orange filter, is made from transparent plastic. It is only found in the early model-year cars, whilst the magenta filter is exclusive to late model-year cars. I made my own orange, light-green and light-blue filters, from off-cuts of translucent coloured acrylic sheet (i.e. ICI Perspex®).
Although the external, circular, clear-plastic lens, features painted symbols representing specific warning-light functions, these can be readily removed if desired, using strong organic solvents, such as paint thinner. Custom designed symbols for the warning-light cluster, could be easily substituted for the originals, by printing them on a circular mask of thin, transparent sheet material, which would fit behind the external, circular, clear-plastic lens.
Home-made transparent mask orientations, for customising the warning-light symbols of a Lucas, 60 mm diameter, 8-segment, warning-light cluster.
The types of material (some of which are compatible with photocopiers and computer laser printers) used for overhead projection transparencies, would be suitable for this purpose. Symbols could be printed onto the transparent sheet, either by hand printing with a fine-nibbed, permanent marker pen, photocopying a paper master copy, or laser printing directly from a computer-generated design. Sometime during 1997/98, using Adobe Illustrator, on an Apple Macintosh computer, I produced the specimen, custom warning-function symbols, for the following:
Right-Hand Direction Indicators
Left-Hand Direction Indicators
Trailer Direction Indicators
Headlamp Main Beam
Headlamp Dipped Beam
Front Fog Lamps
Rear Fog Lamps
Auxiliary Reversing Lamps
Flood Light or Roof-Mounted Auxiliary Driving Lights
Battery Charging
Oil Temperature
Coolant Temperature
Since the late-1990s, the number of warning-light & switch-function symbols has increased dramatically, examples of which are illustrated at the following Internet links:
http://www.hella.com/switchshop/pdf/sym ... ols_en.pdf
http://www.kramp.com/shop-gb/en/815525/ ... tch+symbol
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Hel ... &FORM=IGRE
If the colour filters must be made thinner, to accommodate the transparent mask, this may be done by rubbing against wet, fine-to-medium grit, silicon carbide (aka "wet & dry") abrasive paper, backed by a solid surface (e.g. on the bottom of a basin, partially filled with water). Incidentally, I used this method, when making some substitute orange, yellow, light-green & light-blue, illuminated-switch lenses, for the VW Type 3 & 4 pattern heated rear-window switches, utilised in my 1973 VW Type 2, for auxiliary front driving lamps, front fog lamps, rear fog lamps and auxiliary reversing lamps.
Electrical connection is made via a multi-way, thermoset-plastic connector block, with captive, latched, female, push-on, copper connectors, which fit onto riveted brass pins, on the back of the warning-light cluster's printed circuit board. Although replacement push-on connectors, are probably unavailable, they are relatively easy to salvage and re-use; having myself successfully done this in 1984, when I retro-fitted such a warning-light cluster, to my 1974 Triumph Toledo. The warning-light cluster, is held in place within the dashboard instrument panel, by means of a large-diameter (i.e. > 60 mm) helical spring and retaining ring.
Fully-assembled, early & late-pattern, warning-light cluster units, with helical spring, retaining ring and multi-way connector blocks
Early pattern, warning-light cluster lens with separate right & left-hand direction-indicator warning lights
Late pattern, warning-light cluster lens, with single direction-indicator warning light and heated rear-window warning light.
Early-pattern (dark-brown PCB on left) and late-pattern (light-brown PCB on right) printed circuit boards with bulb holders & bulbs
Early-pattern (dark-brown PCB on left, with 8+3 rivetted brass connection pins) and late-pattern (light-brown PCB on right with 12 rivetted brass connection pins) showing the connection pins and associated push-on connector blocks.
Both early & late-pattern circuit boards, with bulbs, coloured filter segments and reclaimed, captive, latched female copper connectors.
The factory-stock, coloured plastic filter segments, for the early model warning-light cluster, are:
red,
orange, yellow, green & blue.
The factory-stock, coloured plastic filter segments, for the late model warning-light cluster, are:
red, yellow, green, blue &
magenta.
For my own purposes, I have made additional coloured filter segments, in the following colours:
orange, yellow, light-green & light-blue
If salvaging and customising second-hand warning-light clusters, is beyond one's scope, there are various accessory warning-light clusters available, of which the following are two examples, but one is likely to pay dearly for the privilege!
Shown on page 81, of the 1997 Europa Specialist Spares catalogue, is an SWF, 2-position, rectangular warning-light module, with what appears to be a choice of 31 different, coloured (red, orange, yellow, green, blue & white) warning-light lenses, with or without symbols. These warning-light modules, illuminated rocker switches and/or blanking plates, can in turn be mounted, into a 3 or 6-position, in-dash or under-dash, switch & warning-light panel.
http://www.europaspares.co.uk
Circa 1997 etc, SWF modular warning lights & lenses.
Circa 1997 etc, SWF modular warning lights & lenses.
Shown on page 22, of the 1992 VDO Automotive & Industrial Product Catalogue, is a VDO "Modular Cockpit", 8-position, rectangular warning-light module, with what appears to be a choice of 20 or more, different, coloured (red, orange, yellow, green & blue) warning-light lenses, with or without symbols.
Circa 1992 etc, VDO modular warning lights & lenses.
Circa 1992 etc, VDO modular warning-light lenses.