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I've been fiddling with the backlight for my mini-tach, and the bulb holder is working my nerves.
The bulb is a very small No. 74 wedge base that is held in place within the rubber plug by little copper shovels at the ends of the two wires. No pics at hand, but here is the layout looking down on the lamp:
({
})
( = rubber plug wall which goes around to cup the entire light base.
{ = copper "shovel" wire ends
= diabolical No. 74 bulb
My problem is that the rubber plug and "shovels" are pretty fidgety and allow the bulb to jiggle out from time to time.
Worse than that, the lamp design relies on the bulb to keep the two "shovels" separate. If the bulb jiggles too much or pops out, the lamp fitting has no structural means to keep them apart and prevent a short.
This is not ideal. I can think of three ways to skin this cat.
1. Has anyone found a better bulb fitting for these tiny 74s? Something that won't necessarily collapse into a short without the bulb in place?
2. Is there some way to secure the two shovels against the walls of the plug so they won't short if the bulb is loose? Maybe a dab of rubber cement against the plug interiors to keep the "shovels" in place?
3. Should I just put a small fuse in line with the tach light? That would at least prevent the bike from shutting down should a healthy bump jostle the tach light into shorting out. If so, what size fuse would be best to isolate that potential short to only the tach light? The main fuse for the bike is 15 amps, but that little light pulls only a small fraction of that.
Any ideas?
The bulb is a very small No. 74 wedge base that is held in place within the rubber plug by little copper shovels at the ends of the two wires. No pics at hand, but here is the layout looking down on the lamp:
({
})( = rubber plug wall which goes around to cup the entire light base.
{ = copper "shovel" wire ends
= diabolical No. 74 bulbMy problem is that the rubber plug and "shovels" are pretty fidgety and allow the bulb to jiggle out from time to time.
Worse than that, the lamp design relies on the bulb to keep the two "shovels" separate. If the bulb jiggles too much or pops out, the lamp fitting has no structural means to keep them apart and prevent a short.
This is not ideal. I can think of three ways to skin this cat.
1. Has anyone found a better bulb fitting for these tiny 74s? Something that won't necessarily collapse into a short without the bulb in place?
2. Is there some way to secure the two shovels against the walls of the plug so they won't short if the bulb is loose? Maybe a dab of rubber cement against the plug interiors to keep the "shovels" in place?
3. Should I just put a small fuse in line with the tach light? That would at least prevent the bike from shutting down should a healthy bump jostle the tach light into shorting out. If so, what size fuse would be best to isolate that potential short to only the tach light? The main fuse for the bike is 15 amps, but that little light pulls only a small fraction of that.
Any ideas?