Lucas Toggle Switches

[Iyarno]

Pretty simple question, but I not sure which way up to install the 2-way Lucas toggle switches on my early Elan +2. There's one for the interior lights and another for the dashboard lighting. The ON position is 'straight', but should the OFF position be UP or DOWN?

I'm hoping to avoid a dumb mistake so any help would be appreciated.

[theelanman]

mine are all OFF in the UP position

to use flick down.......

not all the switches are 3 position and 'straight' should mean its doing something...
the 2 position switch is either up or down....no straight

[Iyarno]

Strange to hear about the 2 position switches. I have seen a few (all genuine), and all are STRAIGHT when ON. Interesting to to find that UP is OFF too. I would have thought DOWN would be a more natural OFF position.

[andyhodg]

Hi

All my toggle switches are up when off. I can't remember whether the two position ones are down or straight when on. As far as I am aware up is the usual off position for any toggle switches I have seen. Even household light switches are normally turned on with a downward movement of the hand / fingers.

Regards. Andy

[Iyarno]

Thanks for confirming Andy. I have an angle lamp too, and OFF is UP. It just seems wrong to me, so I wanted to check before assembling my new dash.

[msd1107]

I do not know about the rest of the world, but every house I have lived in has the light turned on by an upward flick of the switch, whether I press the upper part of a rocking switch or lift the switch up.

If course, the switch can be mounted the other way so that it is turned on by a downward flick, but that would confuse all visitors.

I have rewired several houses over the last 60 years, and they all work the same way.

As I remember, my Jaguar MK II had toggle switches that were up when on also. Maybe Lotus and Lucas use left handed electronics to conduct smoke.

David
1968 36/7988

[holywood3645]

As an ex-pat electrical on-off switch positions was one of the first things you noticed as being the opposite to what you have been used too. That and you drive on the wrong side of the road.....
It could be fatal as a pedestrian, as you would look the wrong way for cars.


James

[types26/36]

As Lotus fitted the switches (and every other UK car with Lucas switches that I know of) were fitted off at the top and on down.
This applied to the Toggle switch and Rocker switch as the handbook and manual reflect. (see below)
As for USA I do not know how the motor industry or domestic market fitted them but I do recall seeing American movies where when electrocuting the bad guy they "throw the switch" which was downward as they fried him!

[ericbushby]

Hello All,
It is the custom in the UK for domestic and most industrial switches to be off in the UP position. Their are exceptions to this rule for special purposes including circuit breakers.
In my Elan the Lucas switches are off in the Up position and the two position switches are on when straight.
This is how I think it should be.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC ( on the road again)

[billwill]

Strange to hear about the 2 position switches. I have seen a few (all genuine), and all are STRAIGHT when ON. Interesting to to find that UP is OFF too. I would have thought DOWN would be a more natural OFF position.

Think of electric switches in the house. In the UK they are almost always: Up = off, Down = on.

In the USA they tend to be the other way.

[Quart Meg Miles]

In the aircraft industry (it used to be) DOWN is OFF as it is easier to cut all the electrics off by sweeping the hands downwards over the switches in an emergency. Pity Lotus didn't have that foresight.

[Morangles]

My 1967 S3 has toggle switches which are all up when off and down when on. But two are only off when placed in the middle position. One is the windscreen wipers which have a manuel intermittent wipe facility, with one flick upwards for one wipe across the windscreen, and downwards to put them on permanently.
The other is the side/headlight switch with the sidelights on in the up position and the headlights on in the bottom position. Of course, I still have to pull the headlight lift switch separately.

I suspect reading the above comments that these may have been later alterations, but my car is a LHD non-UK Elan, so maybe changes were made for exported cars.