36 halogen 12 volts still dim

Tom,

I had similar issues in my wife's '32 Vicky. Tried Francis Bright bulbs, stockers and Halogens, and I just had yellow lights at night. I finally replaced the reflectors with Drakes re-designed reflectors/halogen kit and the difference was dramatic. We can now drive the car at night!!! They work!!
 
Hi Tom, I see you wish to keep your "bug-eyes". I've been a bit naughty with my coupe & fitted headlamps from a 164 Volvo sedan. They are larger than a typical 7" round lamp & fit the '36 headlamp rims perfectly. The downside is they are somewhat "flat" compared to original, the upside is that they provide exceptional visibility for night driving. I'm using 60/55 W globes with relays. Be careful running super-high wattage globes as the current draw can cause repercussions to switches or relays if all is not in really good shape. Does anyone have any experience with Xenon globes???
 
I had the same problems with my T bucket and asked the guys on the Bucketeer site. Just like stated here the problem was with the 3 prong headlight plug was not wired correctly. The ground terminal was riveted to the housing from the factory, but it was not the ground terminal on the sealed beam light. I cut the wires, swapped, spliced and bingo, bright lights. Since the plug was factory installed in the buckets, it never dawned on me, it was wired wrong. The previous owner had run extra ground wires to the buckets and heavy wires to the lights and dimmer switch, but never foound the problem.
As I did, I am sure some of you are not verifying the terminal match up from the plug to the lamp. I hope this helps someone, as it did me. Made my day.
 
Another alternative is to use Halogen bulbs from the Little British Car Co. Ltd., Farmington Hills, MI. They are 12 V and 65/55 Watt (fit cars from 1935 to 1938) and can be used with stock reflector and sockets. They are super bright but a little diffused--maybe due to the original lens? The problem is the price. They want $43 each! So with two bulbs you are about at the same price as Macs and Drakes bulb/reflector/socket and wiring.
 
Railroad, are you saying the kits that are furnished for conveting to halogen bulbs and using std sealed beam headlight harness have the ground in the harness on the wrong prong? If that is the case, it would explain the dim situation. Hope someone chimes in here that has a kit not installed that can check this out.
 
jimTN said:
Railroad, are you saying the kits that are furnished for conveting to halogen bulbs and using std sealed beam headlight harness have the ground in the harness on the wrong prong? If that is the case, it would explain the dim situation. Hope someone chimes in here that has a kit not installed that can check this out.
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I cannot speak for the kits you mentioned, just the lightbuckets that were on my T. Most people like myself, figure if the plug is a match to the bulb, it was made to fit and the polarity is right. But it was not. I would have blamed the person that built the T, but the gound had the eye rivited to the housing.
 
Brian said:
There are available, quartz halogen bulbs that are a direct replacement for the original bulbs; they fit directly into the stock Ford reflectors, and work properly. No need to fit aftermarket reflectors to take different style bulbs with the wrong focal points and have crap lights! Brian
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X2 do it the easy way:)
 
Update: got the 100/90 watt halogens bulbs and intalled one as a test. Low beam is still too dim but high beam is really BRIGHT.

I remember little of my high school years but, (Heck I can't even remember if I had lunch yesterday) I think geometry class taught me something about parabolas and focal points.

My guess is that the H4 halogen low beam filament is to far forward and gets difused by the reflector. The hi beam filament, being about 3/4" behind the low beam one puts it close to the focal point so it "works" OK.

I think going to the 140/100 bulbs would not do anything for the low beam problem. But, I could blind folks with the 140 watt high beam.

I searched the threads but could not find the reference to retro converting back to standard sockets and finding a extra-bright 12 standard incandescent bulb.

I'm giving up on halogens.

Anybody done this and where do you get the higher watt bulbs.
 
Tom, I used a Drake halogen kit in my 35 roadster (used 36 rings and lenses) They functioned just fine.I now have a 36 5W and decided to stay with the bulbs.Speedway has 50-32 candle power 12 bulbs and they work great.
 
Here is a pic of the lights on the 35 roadster I built.These have the Drake kits.On that bulb plug one of the wires is the ground wire and I went directly to the frame with it.The Drake reflector is plastic so cannot ground.I sold the car a couple years ago.
 

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Sounds like you have the wires mixed.I think low beam is one filment and high uses 2.I have mine mixed and have to fix it.
 
Looking at back of the blub.
The vertical on left is Ground,the horz top is LowBeam ,and right vert is high beam .Got this from Speedway
 
A lot of halogen bulbs use the 3 prong sealed beam sockets. If high amperage along with the heat generated by the halogen bulb is present the plastic socket melts. These don't hold up under the heat. I found it nessesary to find ceramic sockets used on older cars and had no problems after installing them. G.M.
 
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