Just a quick point of interest: Civilian Series III Land Rovers don’t have reverse lamps!

I spent a few hours last night comparing the military circuit diagram to the civilian one in the Haynes manual. Managed to combine the two to make a plan for wiring The Duke. It was mainly an exercise in deletion; most of the switches and relays in the military system are not needed, in fact no relays are needed at all. I guess I’ll leave them hanging about behind the dashboard, disconnected.

New wiring diagram for The Duke (note disconnected reverse lights!)

I buzzed out the new dash with a multimeter too. Everything seems OK except the dashboard illumination switch, which is broken. It’s about a fiver for a new one (eBay), but I’m not sure what the point of turning the dashboard lights on and off independently is, so I may just link them in with the head/side lights.

The only unknown left with the electrics is the flasher relay, which I need to investigate next. The civilian one has two pins, a constant voltage input and a pulsing output, as you might expect. The military one has six pins and is connected to several relays and switches. If I can replicate the civilian behaviour with the military part I’ll be very happy!

Have ordered some 24v bulbs from L R Series to finish their Christmas holidays so I can get hold of a new ignition switch, indicator stalk and some other 24v bulbs. Once I have all those I can get out in the cold and start wiring!

The last thing on the shopping list for the electrics is a pair of batteries (not attaching radio batteries just yet). Along with the two huge radio batteries, there were three batteries in The Duke when we picked it up - an 063, 065 and an 071. Not sure which I need, but the cheaper the better!