Short in headlight ckt

J

James G.

Senior Member
In my '31 Tudor, both my horn and headlight ckts are fused with inliine mini blade fule holders. The headlight fuse blew and burned the holder. The sockets in the buckets are replaced with inline bullet male/female single line connectors. Where is the next place to look for the short ckt.? I think my fuse was too high to allow the socket to burn. What amps should stock headlights draw for fusing?
Thanks for any trouble shooting adivse.
Jim G.
 
I hand to insulate the bulb sockets with liquid tape due to the bulb receptacle contacts shorting on the inside of the socket. I read that some guys use a Drumel tool to grind off a little of the sides of the contacts to avoid shorts. (I use a 7amp fuse on each headlight lead - so far so good.) Steve J.
 
What burned out??? The fuse holder?? Loose connection there caused that.
If just the fuse blew then the problem is downstream, probably in the socket area.
 
I isolated the headlight that was shorting and changed to a new bulb. The contacts on the old bulb were uneven causing a short. Repro sockets have pins that wobble more than originals causing shorts.
 
I corrected the wobbly pin problem on both of my cars by cutting short pieces of plastic tubing (a McD's straw worked for me) and placed them over the pins before reinserting the bulbs. Stopped the shorting problem for me.
 
There is a possibility that poor grounding of the headlights/bar could be the issue if all of the above posts seem ok. A poor ground can result in extra resistance when the lights are turned on, and, if strong enough can cause fuse blowing. Clean, real good, the light bucket to light bar and also where the 4 bolts connect the bar to the fenders.
 
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