Yet Another Headlight Thread

[iceman510]

I remember there was an issue with some headlights years ago where the rear case/body of the headlight was grounding to the chassis via the mounting; the 510 wiring is set up to switch the power on the high side and the beam selection on the ground side so if the bulbs ground out via the chassis, then that nulls the relay.

Yes, I remember the gist of that (if maybe not all the details). I think it was some H4 type conversions with metal reflectors/shells maybe? Where the original sealed beams are all glass so they are naturally insulated from the headlight buckets.

[Rush]

Thanks, guys! I’ll pop one out of the bucket & see if that does the trick. These definitely are some sort of metal.

[bertvorgon]

I concur with those lights that had the metallic edge where the lens edge grounded on the headlight bucket!

It was either Hella or Bosch when some came out like that.

It haunted a few people till that got figured out.

[Rush]

Well, no luck with removing the possibility of a chassis ground at the light. Drat.

To recap
• Appropriate power, resistance, etc., to all prongs at all sockets
• Stock relay cleaned, sanded and functions properly
• Stalk on the column works as it should (High beam indicator comes on on the dash)
• Stock light switch on the dash works properly
• Low beam LED headlights work great as do the directionals and running lights (also LED)
• Incandescent inner headlight works when stalk is flipped to high but the LED one doesn't.
• All 4 LED headlights bench tested and work properly off a 12v power box.

I think at this point all I can do is try a load equalizer. If that doesn't solve the problem, I really don't know where to go from here. At least I have headlights & they're nice and bright but it just bugs me that they're not functioning as they should. Everything else on the car works properly.

[Rush]

Load equalizer...nope. Rats!
I'm still fighting this. I think I might have to just create a whole new headlight relay circuit. I need to find a proper connector so I don't have to cut the original system up. Vintage Connections didn't have them last I checked. They didn't have much of anything really, unless I didn't search correctly.

I did, however, stumble upon the solution to the mystery relay.

Screenshot .jpg (82.34 KiB) Viewed 127 times

[iceman510]

Have a picture of the connector you need?

[Rush]

I don't but I'll grab a pic tomorrow when I head out to the garage.

[510rob]

I might have missed some of the dialogue on your headlight issues so bear with me. (side note - there were over 500 spam-bot posts from foreign sources so I've had my hands full with that endlessly annoying crap to deal with for the last while)

Out of thoroughness, have you powered up the headlights on the bench with a battery, independent of the stock wiring harness to prove that the low beams and high beams work as expected? (I would also throw an ammeter in line and measure what kind of draw they pull before building a new harness so you have some idea of the wiring you will or won't need)

[Rush]

Bummer about the bots, Rob! Yikes! I owned & operated a very busy outdoors forum for years & spammers were the bane of my existence on PHPBB! Ugh. Thanks for doing that, BTW!

Anyhow, yep, I did bench test all the lights with a power box but I've not done the ammeter thing. I'm just now starting the research into a new harness build so I'm not very familiar with the program yet. I do know I'd like to retain my stock system (not cut it up) & that's about as far as I've gotten.

[Downeaster]

compliments to your work and talents you car is taking shape nicely. A though on your lights! sealed high beams work as well as your indicator is my understanding? and the LED high beam bench tests OK. Something worth trying might be: the horizontal blade on the low beam should be your dipper switched high beam 12v (red with black tracer*) switched. don't use your high beam connections at all but run a jumper wire to your high beam LED 12v side to that bade and neg side direct to a chassis ground point. *If you do not see a on off 12v change with dipper at that horizontal blade problem exists in car.

[Rush]

Thanks, Downeaster, I appreciate it! I’ll give that a whirl!