front indicator mounting

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Hi , the indicator mounting is proving a bit of a head scratcher - or am i missing something . I am about to order new headlight shell , brackets and indicators . If all headlight shells have captive nuts inside then how does that work with lucas indicators that have a stem shoulder and large washer on outside , tightening indicator up could leave it facing any direction . I could get the cheaper non lucas ones , no shoulder and put a nut on outside to tighten it all up ( like the old rusty stuff i am replacing ) but that doesnt look as good . Are headlight shells available without the captive nut ? would be easy to tighten up inside the shell . Advice and experience appreciated

Lucas type

My Lucas type indicators didn’t have a fixed shoulder on the stem. In this case you have two possibilities. The stem screws into the headlamp shell and the external locknut is used to tighten and set the indicator position. Or, the indicator can be opened and the locknut inside can be loosened to adjust the indicator position. When fitting mine I did both. Setting the headlamp locknut at the end of the stem thread so that no thread was visible and then adjusting the nut inside the indicators to set the angle. In my opinion this is more aesthetically pleasing than seeing stem thread.

Agreed but there is still a…

Agreed but there is still a nut on outside , i presume yours are the aftermarket lucas 'style' , the 'genuine' lucas ones have the shoulder and large washer - much neater , anyway i think i have sussed it , AN sell lucas indicators with longer thread so my guess is that you can drill the thread out of the captive nuts in shell and still have enough thread on stem to fit an extra nut . I dont think buggering about inside the indicators to get everything lined up and straight and tight is the way i want to go

My indicators from a 72 and…

My indicators from a 72 and a 74 are the ones that left the factory on both bikes, they have no shoulders. None of the Lucas replacements bought on the 80's when Lucas parts were still made in Bham have shoulders either. So the ones with shoulders you have are not OEM.

interesting , lets see what…

interesting , lets see what turns up and try to makke a nice job of it

It is very straightforward

Laurence,

it seems this is being over-complicated. The threaded stem simply screws into the headlamp bowl and the outer locknut nips up against a washer, mounting ear and spacer. The angle you set the indicator at is infinitely variable and easily set.

Andy

Further

Certainly the original Lucas had another interesting issue, the chromed plastic shell is the earth return for the lamp-holder. So I attempted to add an earth wire! Soldered to the lamp holder. The chrome stem is too narrow inside for another standard piece of wire. So had to run thinner wires. Not an issue these days as we have thin wall cables.

By a happy accident, my…

By a happy accident, my among my Fastback's souvenirs from a career on the Continent is a headlamp shell with captive nuts that proved to have the exact same metric thread as MZ indicators, hence the set-up shown in the attached pictures. (The stems for the rear indicators are cut down from bent front indicator stems — and the brackets from the carrier are off-cuts from un-needed portions of the Craven carrier stays.)

For my money these are much nicer, because less obtrusive, than the flashy (sorry!) Lucas ones. They are also have convenient tell-tales moulded into the front lenses (which means you are legally exempted from having an indicator warning light, since they can be seen from the saddle), and have proper wired earths.

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