So up at the crack of dawn this morning to go to the Bicester Scramble.. Usual prep rigmarole whenever we go out, dog, house locking up, moving cars ( I have a single garage) etc etc..
Get a mile up the road and I find all my dash gauges not working..pull over and check fuses, firstly the diagram on the cover says block A and block B.. Good old MMC, they are the other way round! So finally discover the instrument fuse blown.. A quick change and 2 fuses later reveals I have a dead short.
So nothing to be done but back home and check it out.. Half an hour later I've found the culprit. The dash dimmer! The body of same offending article has 2 flats on it.. Ideally the hole ought to have the same so prevent it from turning.. No.. Again good old MMC in their wisdom just drill a hole. Consequently the whole body of it turns and with it the wiring. So one of the wires(typically the live one) had come off and gone to earth..hence the blown fuses and my lack of any instruments.
So, quickly removed the dimmer and all is well for now.
The dimmer is the nastiest bit of cheap Chinese rubbish available.. Just a look at it and the connectors fall off.. Also clearly the spindle has been hacksawsed off to fit the knob ..just left ragged , not good workmanship I would say on a car that's £40k+.
Anyway, an hour late starting I went off to Bicester, the day wasn't a right off. Got back home and wired in a switch for now so that I have panel lights..
I have an old Lucas potentiometer from a TR somewhere, that'll be better quality for sure ( and that's saying something!) so might use that. I can't be bothered to do anything under warranty, it'll cost more going to and from the dealer and the last thing I need is another rubbish dimmer switch fitted.
Hey ho..
