Whilst I like the idea of brighter external lights, a quick look through the web shows a re-invention of the wheel with a remarkable range of styles and types of replacement LED ‘bulbs’. As I didn’t know which type actually worked I’ve resisted using LED ‘bulbs’ as replacements to the indicator, stop and tail lights of my car
I then came across replacement complete ‘plug and play’ lighting units for Landrover Defenders, LEDs with their own reflectors, casing, e-marked and fully sealed [IP67]. They are easily available; on the net, e-Bay and from Land Rover specialists, made by Wipac and at about £15 a complete lamp.
The downside for use on a Morgan [Classics from about 1970 to date] is that the Landcover lighting unit is about 72mm in diameter and the Lucas lens MMC uses are about 82mm in diameter – however – with a small amount of work, the LED units will fit inside the Lucas lens. That's the short version.
Below is a record of how I changed my lights over, it is not an incitement for anyone else to do the same, etc, etc.
1- Remove the OEM lenses.
Unscrew the two retaining screws that hold the lens in place.
Remove and discard the internal reflective bowl [indicators only].
2 - Prepare the replacement LED unit
Slot out the mounting holes in the units with two radial cuts and reseal any compromise to the waterproofing of the units with epoxy resin glue.
Cut off the ‘AMP Econoseal’ plug as close to the plug as possible.
Discard the circular backing foam
3 – Modify the OEM lenses.
The OEM lenses have an internal ribbing; for the indicators, once these ribs are ground off to about a depth of 5mm, the units will fit inside and flush with the back edge of the lens. The stop and tail lenses are far shallower, on these the ribbing needs to be tapered to allow the unit to go in as far as it can, the base of the unit will remain proud of the back of the lens.
4 – Prepare the OEM back plates
Remove the two retaining screws that hold the chrome back plate to the car. For the rear lights these screw into retained fixings, for the front indicators these bolt through the wing to a nut on the inside.
Pull the wiring forward and cut the wires as close to the lamp unit and to the earth terminal as is possible.
Pull back and remove the rubber sheathing the bulb holder base, prise out the base terminal for the bulb together with its spring. To ensure that nothing could foul the LED units the redundant 4BA bolts that held the earth terminals were removed.
5 – Re-assembly
Push the flying leads from the LED unit through the bulb holder and reinstate the rubber sheath. Join the new leads to the old; the black wire on the new unit to the black OEM earth, the remaining wire to the remaining wire for the indicators. For the tail and stop; join the black wires [earths] together, then switch on the vehicle side/tail lights to establish which feed wire is live and which unit wire is the taillight. The brake light is the brighter of the two. Solder the wires together and seal with heat shrink tubing [the heat shrink tubing needs to go on before soldering] . Re-screw the back plate to the car, align the extended slots in the LED units with the captive nuts that hold the lens into place. Place the lens over the unit and use the retaining screws to pull every thing into place. The indicators lens will fully seat, whilst the tail/brake lens will remain slightly proud so don’t over tighten.
6 – Electrics – Flasher relays
A consequence of using LEDs is that they don’t draw enough current to allow the OEM flasher to work. The OEM flasher relay needs changing for one that is LED compatible. Early cars have two identical relays. One relay for the indicators and the other for the hazard lights, both need to be changed.
7 – Electrics – tell-tale light
Early cars have only one indicator tell-tale, this works by connecting the left hand indicators to the right hand ones through the tell-tale bulb.
i.e. the tell-tale earths through the opposite side. This crime against electric goes un-noticed with incandescent bulbs but when LEDs are used it will cause all four corners to flash.
Remove the tell-tale bulb holder from the dashboard, if the bulb is temporarily removed the indicators should then work properly.
To cure the problem; cut both the wires to the bulb leaving suitable lengths of flying leads. Use a strip of choc-block to attach the non-banded ends of two suitable diodes to each of the flying leads from the wiring loom. Join the white-banded ends of both diodes together with and then to one of the flying leads to the bulb holder [it doesn’t matter which one]. The other flying lead from the bulb holder needs to be extended and connected to earth.
Diodes with a 3-amp rating [type 1N5400] are more than adequate, they can be bought from an automotive electrical factor for about £1 each, from Maplins for about half that, or 10 of them from e-Bay for about £1.50.
Other Morgans, other years, the physical lenses and lens holders/back plates are common, replacements and spares easily available. Replacement LED compatible flasher relay[s] are generic, easily available and are plug in/plug out, but are dependent on your own OEM fitting. If you have separate left and right tell tale lights on your dash board then you shouldn’t need to faff about as above.
The Wipac units I used for my indicators and for my tail/brakes were both clear. Versions are available that are coloured orange and coloured red; whether these would be brighter I don’t know.
Do the lights work, are they brighter – YES
