Headlight Ground

T

txmike

Senior Member
I searched the forum and could not find anything on this so here goes....

I was talking to someone and told him my right headlight worked, so i checked the left one and had a bulb out, then my right one quit working - but the bulb is ok. I changed it anyway in case there was something i could not see and it still did not work.

He told me it was probably due to the headlight ground. I understand the ground of the head light but he mentioned something about adding a wire behind the light socket. Cant get ahold of him now and was curious if anyone knew what he as talking about and can walk me thru adding this ground method - or should i?

thanks
:confused:
 
In order to prevent headlight problems when I rebuilt my A, I removed the connections from the conduits to the headlight buckets. I then put bullet connectors on the wires from the headlight socket and used the insulated connectors Bratton's #20540 to reattach the headlight wires from the wiring harness and placed a small label on each wire so when if ever had to work on again would be easy to reattach correctly. Then I added a ground wire the same gage as the headlight wire attaching to one of the headlight bucket screws inside the bucket and ran the wire through the conduit to a bolt that was on the frame using a star washer under the terminal lug and the frame for a good electrical connection.
 
I used to have headlight ground problems---then i put new lockwashers in for headlight nuts and headlight bar nuts---no more problems, the rest of the connections are original, had some problems with the harness connection till I replaced repro parts with originals ---been good ever since---over 40 years
 
I did essentially the same thing as jrelliott in post #2 Separate ground wire and soldered connections for best results. This was really needed when I had the headlight bar powder coated. Separate dedicated grounds all throughout the car is the way to go.
 
What I did:
I removed the headlights from the bar and cleaned the cup where the headlight bracket sits in with sandpaper and that solved my problem.
 
One other problem area is the rubber piece many use between the headlight bar and the fender. They didn’t have them when the car was new. Less metal to metal contact for the ground path.
 
A dedicated ground back to the source (battery) is the best and surest way to alleviate these problems. There is plenty of room in the conduit for an extra wire.
 
I used a hose clamp and #10 ring lug to attach a #16 wire between the conduit end and the forward hood latch screw on each side. Easier to disconnect the headlamp if necessary.
 
The mess in the headlights is not one of Henrys better ideas. Folks have their ways of trying to fix this. Mine was to get rid of those 'problematic' connectors and just install a trailer plug and along with that I used the larger size conduit and ran a dedicated ground to the frame.
 
Many times the headlight cup has heavy paint and crud in it.

I have had very good results in taking a round 2" wire wheel on a drill and bringing the cup down to bare metal. Then I coat the cup with dielectric grease, and reinstall the headlight.

Also, as Patrick said get rid of those problematic original connectors.
 
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