With the lights on, should the speedo light up also..? Mine doesnt light up at the moment and I cant find anything in the Gregorys manual that would suggest it does light up to know whether I need to fix this or not.

Second question is going to be, if it should go on and its not, where do I start the investigation of getting it to light up..?

Yes, it should.

Start with the globe, then the wiring, then the switch.

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I find every so often that my instrument lights dont come on with my headlights. Flicking the switch usually sorts it out.

Follow Poeee's advice there, but one other thing. if you take the instrument panel out to check it all, take extra time examining the printed circuit on tha back of the instrument panel. It's not uncommon to find tracks broken on it. I dont bother trying to solder the tracks. I just replace em with new wiring, and tape it all down.

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"He's always been a dickhead, He always is a dickhead, He will always be a dickhead. So stop complaining when he acts like one."

Greeting Mate and thanks for leting My wife and I look over your other Mini today.

Yes your speedo should light up while you are driving in the dark and you will unsrew the centre panel. On the speedo thier should be three lights for the speedo. Thet are connected with Red wires but thier will also be a black (Negative) which I think may be the problem. You will have to have a good look around and find whats not connected.

Sorry Phildo its not a printed Circt, it a 60's model

gafmo
in the Hills

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

hehehehehe. Logic beats technology. A loose wire oughta be easier to find that those stupid PC films LOL.

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"He's always been a dickhead, He always is a dickhead, He will always be a dickhead. So stop complaining when he acts like one."

For the centre speedo there is a single black wire grounding the whole speedo assembly. Looking from behind the speedo --> It connects to the screw at the top of the speedo. There are four lights in the speedo but space for 6 lights (only 3 are used in the mini or if you want 4) each is the spring push smiths type and is connected to + (or maybe - if its a dynamo model) with a single red\white wire on an unfused circuit which I think it shares with the parking lights. Two of the bulbs supply the speedo lighting, one is the ign/alternator (red lense) and one is the handbrake (blue lense). The easiest cause could be a short or the lack of ground, then your other gauges (if you have any) wont light up either. Otherwise the bulb springs couldve pushed out the hole and just have to be pressed back in or the buld might have burned/coroded. It could be that you only had one working to begin with and now its gone.

The lights get a closed circuit when the metal clips contact the speedo housing. Check them with a tester. If the bulbs are dead you can get new ones from Jaycar/Dick Smith etc -They are usualy a bit longer but still fit. Also check that the wires at the back of your light switch are connected

gafmo I just realised thay you gave the same answer as me but earlier and in far fewer words. Sorry.

i might be crazy, but what about the little switch on the side of the speedo? The 850 has one that cuts the speedo illumination (Thanks Mr Lucas, where would we be without it??!!)

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

look on the bright side. At least Lucas put a SWITCH there to MAKE the instrument lights fail instead of making it automatically happen...!!!

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You're only supposed to blow WHAT off?

Yeah that switch is great. According to the handbook it is the earlier version of the dimmer switch fitted to Clubmans. If the dash lights are too bright you just switch them off, so you can't see them at all. Pure logic. Back when I had dash lights installed I never, ever had a problem with them being TOO bright!

LOL! as if anything on a mini could EVER be too bright...

That's too funny. Ah Lucas, the Prince of Darkness, where would be without you?

HAHA

I went to a swap meet at Mudgeeraba on sunday and there was a bloke there who was selling a shite load of Lucas gear. He told me he worked for Lucas all his life till they finished in the 80s... I thought to myself that I wouldn't telling people that.

I did buy something off him though. hehehe

I'll give him a plug:

Kevin Baker
07 5494 4221 tuesday/wednesday/thursday 9am-5pm

He seemed to have loads of stuff at the swap and said he had sheds full of Lucas gear at home. In fact come to think of it he could have swindled Lucas out of business... or maybe he just scored all their stock when the shut up shop. Decent bloke though, I'll stop putting crap on him now.

dewey

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dwightgunning.com