Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Analogue clock light

I think we would likely all agree that the light on the analogue dashboard clock is pretty poor. With the other instruments at my preferred night-time setting for lighting, the clock face and hands are invisible. However when the lighting is turned to maximum, the clock is OK; of course the other instruments are now too bright. So is there any reason why I could not provide a separate "full power" feed to the clock, perhaps splicing into the input feed to the dashboard rheostat? In that way the clock would always be at it's maximum lighting setting, near ideal for me, whilst the other instrument lighting is still adjustable.

Thoughts?

Sounds logic. I am afraid I cannot do such a thing by myself (in a CX-Morgan)!

Sounds like a typical MMC mismatch as found on my Roadster's generic Smith's clock illumination cured when replacing the blown LED with one of better colour match to main instrument illumination.

Your findings with CX suggest the clock illumination is dimmed by instrument rheostat (unlike my Roadster) which means that if clock illumination is via LED it would need to be a dimmable one. If so a similar one of greater intensity better matching main instruments may be an answer, avoiding the need to alter wiring.

When I had my Morgan, I fitted the Smiths clock and found the instrument lighting perfectly adequate. It might simply be a case of needing a replacement bulb

I did the same as Richard and flipped to LED, a nice blue one to match the Mustang main cluster - no issue with dimming but that may be just lucky

I did mention the issue to MMC and they said "they are all like that". It needs a fix, either a replacement 'bulb' (perhaps a conversation with Smiths), a permanent full fat live feed, or replacing with something more useful like the Beeline Moto II navigation (which, I would imagine, Krazy Horse would be happy to help with).

My car had LED clock illumination from new although the purple colour was ill matched to that of Mustang instrument illumination. Ironically it packed up giving me the opportunity to find an ice blue LED replacement. In typical MMC afterthought fashion clock illumination is wired direct to side light circuit rather than the rheostat/BCU control when any lights selected, hence dimming concerns not relevant. Chosing a low intensity LED replacement meant it was not overbright when other instruments are turned down for night driving.

A temporary bridge across the rheostat dimmer is easy to rig up just for a quick test

See my post above Jon.

I was probably typing as you posted, and my ISP uses damp string or if you upgrade it's salt water for broadband speeds