STARTER BUTTON

In pic from parts book , 30 is ignition red , 32 is oil pressure green and 34 is choke warning amber,

I remember this warning light colour coding from series 2 Land Rovers, and the selection of green for the oil pressure warning light always felt strange, given the significance of such a failure!
 
Its interesting how this has changed over the years . I am 75 and always associate green with oil pressure as that's what it was when I started taking an interest in cars. The colour meant the function not the status . Red was dynamo etc. If the light was out things were OK & if they came on it meant a problem. Of course, now the warning lights on modern cars generally show status. coded Green = OK, Amber = fault but not major , Red = Major problem, stop & investigate. , and the warnings can change colour for status which was impossible with simple single filament bulbs
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the explanation. Like this, it does indeed make sense. If you have just a few warning lights, you can relate colours to seperate functions. But as manufacturers started to fit more and more warning lights, it was obvious that this system was not going to work. I am 49 and although our family Austin 1100 had amber for oil pressure and red for charging, i am more used to the later system, hence my surprise. Also it is interesting to note that it was the P6 the car that marked the change to the later system for the Rover company.
 
Out of curiosity I looked at some old brochures: the very first P6s had OIL and IGN both now shown in red, with BRAKE in amber, shown as letters above the strip speedo, but that had changed by 1966 to both OIL and BRAKE now being in red and having a red box highlighted around the letters, ie drawing more attention to them.

P5s and P5Bs carried on as previously, with what was in effect the older P4 set- up but with the three-lights 'triangle' inverted at the bottom of the instrument panel.
 
Thanks for the photo My late friend said the brakes were binding badly .So I had the car brought to my garage . I jacked the car up and the rear off side brake was really binding .I managed to remove the drum ,by slacking the adjuster off I didnt really find much wrong with the brake adjuster ,I stripped and cleaned the handbrake mechanism,which again was OK .The shoes look quite new and I noticed ,there is no chamfer on the shoes,so Ive now filed a decent chamfer on them and replacing the wheel and running the car while on the axle stands it seems to be fine Ive run the car in forward and reverse applying the hand brake when stopped and so far no problems I noticed also,the handbrake cable was nice and free So crossing fingers Len
 
Back
Top