Fuse Blows with Headlights On

E

ejgloss

Junior Member
Hello,
I have an original 6V + ground with a Starter Switch Safety Fuse Assembly Kit
installed. Car starts, runs fine, and generator charges well. If I turn the headlights on the fuse blows (and engine stops). Any thoughts on where I should look for the short?
 
If you're using repro light sockets and focus screws in your headlights, your focus screw may be shorting out from being screwed in too far. Back it off and see what happens.
 
disonnect the conduit from the back of the headlight buckets and see if the short goes away. very common for a wire to be touching ground there or the focus screws
 
The repo sockets frequenty cause shorts. Also, many of the wire sets have a pointed "bullet" connector to make the contact within the socket. The contact end is supposed to be "flat". Gar Williams
 
I did something similar to what Jeff/Illinois did. I made a connection inside the headlight bucket while leaving all the outside parts stock. Looks original, but it solved the shorting problem.
 
Went through this myself with repro stuff... focus screws were too long (by at least 1/2" ), and the bayonet quick-connect at the bottom of the headlight shell were always giving trouble: either shorting-out or losing contact.

Part of the problem was the modern "soft" thermoplastic insulator bushing, the other was poorly-formed / fitted metal parts.

I soldered Bratton's blunt-end bullet terms on the ends of the harness wires and the socket wires, and joined them inside the headlight shell with female bullet connectors, and rigged an insulating "bushing" from a piece of rubber hose to get through the repro bayonet fitting at the base of the headlights, thus being able to use the stock conduits.

That was over a year ago, and since then, no blown fuses or blown headlight bulbs ( and I drive with my lights on day or night )...

Someday I hope to have real Ford headlights and stock connectors or A&L repros... in the meantime, this is working for my driver A .
 
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