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Swapping the indicator and lighting stalks to be on the same side that your 'modern' has them.


Reg Smeeton

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A recent post raised the idea of swapping the positions of the indicator and lighting stalks, so that they match the locations on a modern car you might also drive. My wife's Saab has the indicator stalk on the left and I wanted my Triumph to have the same arrangement. On the early cars this is simply a matter of swapping round the stalks and the cowls and possibly the metal nib that does the self cancelling of the indicators. As somebody on the other post pointed out, this does mean that the decals are now upside down too. If you are thinking of doing this, or have done it already, you might find the attached file useful? I have redrawn the decals so that they are right for the new arrangement. You will need to print them out onto 'waterslide transfer paper', the white variety not the transparent type. If you have access to a laser printer then it is all very easy, but if you only have an inkjet then you will need to varnish the decals before you apply them. Application is just like how you used to apply the decals to your Airfix models (or still do).

I hope that this is useful to somebody.

Reg

Upside down column decals.jpg

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10 hours ago, Reg Smeeton said:

As somebody on the other post pointed out

That was ME! :)

I got my decals from a man in China, had to wait 2 weeks and I was sent a sheet of every car decal known to man, but as it only cost £2.50 with free postage I was happy.

Good work with yours, I'll take a copy.

Thanks!

Doug

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just bought a LHD decal for the indicators and a RHD one for the lights - I had to keep the RH cowl on the right as I have an overdrive switch on the column. Cost more than £2.50 though.

What I would like to do is to put a two axis switch on the left side, up and down for turn lights; forward and back for mains and dip; and a spring biased pull for flash. But I can't even work out how to put a standard column light switch on the left in a spare overdrive cowl I have. If I could to that, I would then modify the original column light switch so mains gave normal wipers, dip gave intermittent and the biased pull powered an electric wash pump. The old wash switch then could be replaced with a control pot for the intermittent wipe speed.

Graham

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  • 3 weeks later...
10 hours ago, p7rider said:

But our cars are the correct way. For instance you can turn on the indicator whilst changing gear. It's the new cars our designed for left hand drive

You are of course correct. It was a change "forced" on us by the Foreign Manufacturers (Not the EU for once) who wanted not to have to change sides just for a "minority" of countries who drove on the right.  Speaking only for the Herald (13/60). I can see it would not be hard to accomplish in order not to have the embarrassment of putting the wrong switch on in the wrong situation?.

Pete

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On 28/09/2021 at 23:43, Reg Smeeton said:

Saab has the indicator stalk on the left and I wanted my Triumph to have the same arrangement

Think of it as worthwhile exercise for our ageing brains!

Also on my GT6 with the overdrive on a column stalk, I can change into third and knock it out of overdrive simultaneously, which is great for roundabouts.

Ian

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1 hour ago, PeteH said:

You are of course correct. It was a change "forced" on us by the Foreign Manufacturers (Not the EU for once) who wanted not to have to change sides just for a "minority" of countries who drove on the right.  Speaking only for the Herald (13/60). I can see it would not be hard to accomplish in order not to have the embarrassment of putting the wrong switch on in the wrong situation?.

Pete

Yeah doing something that saves time and cost is never a thing a company would do on their own. 😄
In my experience regulations are about 50/50 of actually helping the customer or helping companies margins...

 

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I have absolutely no problem swapping between cars and indicator stalks, it maybe because I'm a massive user of indicators, I indicate when leaving my driveway. I indicate when joining roundabouts and again when leaving them. I indicate when there's no other vehicle to see me. Unless you do this you wind up like my daughters who are apparently excused indicators. 

 On the other hand I have found my self braking to a stall in the GT6, wondering why the gearbox hasn't changed down. 

Doug

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Failing to Dipp??. Hereabouts, it has always seemed confined to BMW`s/Audi`s OR small SUV`s driven by? Errrrrr Young "ladies"?. I sat alongside my oldest graddaughter one time, she said the cars are flashing at me?. Errrr? Yes? might have to do with you being on Main beam?.

Thinking about swapping sides, It`s usually more a question of the heat of battle where the wrong decision is made?. Over the years I have managed to drive just about anything on wheels, or tracks, for that matter. Manual/Auto, LH/RH drive swapping from one to the other with no issues.

Pete

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