cbarge
World Famous Barge in a Budget
I figured it's time to do a proper thread after so many people asked about the common lighting issues that our Mopars are known to suffer from.
Headlights dimming or flickering, burned out foot dimmers and or headlight switches, or melted pigtails at the bulbs.
There is a couple reasons why our original headlights suck.
First reason is the lighting technology at the time had a lot of parasitic draw.
By the time juice flows through the car and finally gets to the headlight bulbs, they are not getting 12 full volts of power- especially with all accessories on, in gear at idle at traffic lights they dim. When accelerating, the voltage regulator increases alternator output thus lights brighten up.
Second reason was the lighting regulations imposed on car manufacturers.
The European car makers had far better advanced lighting. They had H4 and H1 bulbs and excellent housings made by Carello, Marchal, and others I cannot remember.
"City" lighting has been going on over there since the late 50/early 60's even the the VW Beetle.
But back in the day if you wanted better lighting you bought what was for "off road use only". The feds apparently considered European lighting too bright??
Cars imported into North America had to meet lighting standards starting in 1968.
E type Jaguars, Beetles or any other cars with headlamp covers had to be removed.
Incandescent headlights replaced the H1 or H4 housings.
Basically dumbing them down.
Back up to 1957/1958 when certain States had laws against 4 headlamp systems. The result is some GM, Chrysler and Ford offerings had cars built with either both 2 and 4 headlamps.
Everybody has their personal preferences for modern day lighting- HID, LED, Halo, and halogen bulbs or sealed beams.
All are an improvement from the factory incandescent headlamps which had no less than 20 watts of blinding light. GE did offer the 25 Plus upgrade in the late 60/ early 70's adding 5 more watts and a few more feet of dark viewing distance.
But I digress...
In order to make modern day lighting work in an old car, you need to do this upgrade to make the lights work properly as long as your wiring is up to snuff.
Why is modern lighting so bright?
Unlike our dim lit dinosaurs, modern cars use relays to power up almost everything.
Modern lighting does draw more juice, requiring more power to work properly.
Installing Halo's,LED,HID or H4 lighting on 50 plus year old wiring is asking for trouble down the road.
So...what to do??
Read on next post..
Headlights dimming or flickering, burned out foot dimmers and or headlight switches, or melted pigtails at the bulbs.
There is a couple reasons why our original headlights suck.
First reason is the lighting technology at the time had a lot of parasitic draw.
By the time juice flows through the car and finally gets to the headlight bulbs, they are not getting 12 full volts of power- especially with all accessories on, in gear at idle at traffic lights they dim. When accelerating, the voltage regulator increases alternator output thus lights brighten up.
Second reason was the lighting regulations imposed on car manufacturers.
The European car makers had far better advanced lighting. They had H4 and H1 bulbs and excellent housings made by Carello, Marchal, and others I cannot remember.
"City" lighting has been going on over there since the late 50/early 60's even the the VW Beetle.
But back in the day if you wanted better lighting you bought what was for "off road use only". The feds apparently considered European lighting too bright??
Cars imported into North America had to meet lighting standards starting in 1968.
E type Jaguars, Beetles or any other cars with headlamp covers had to be removed.
Incandescent headlights replaced the H1 or H4 housings.
Basically dumbing them down.
Back up to 1957/1958 when certain States had laws against 4 headlamp systems. The result is some GM, Chrysler and Ford offerings had cars built with either both 2 and 4 headlamps.
Everybody has their personal preferences for modern day lighting- HID, LED, Halo, and halogen bulbs or sealed beams.
All are an improvement from the factory incandescent headlamps which had no less than 20 watts of blinding light. GE did offer the 25 Plus upgrade in the late 60/ early 70's adding 5 more watts and a few more feet of dark viewing distance.
But I digress...
In order to make modern day lighting work in an old car, you need to do this upgrade to make the lights work properly as long as your wiring is up to snuff.
Why is modern lighting so bright?
Unlike our dim lit dinosaurs, modern cars use relays to power up almost everything.
Modern lighting does draw more juice, requiring more power to work properly.
Installing Halo's,LED,HID or H4 lighting on 50 plus year old wiring is asking for trouble down the road.
So...what to do??
Read on next post..
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