On Thu, 25 Feb 1999 08:03:09 -0800 (PST) Michael Dietsche
<mdietsche@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>Others will have better advice than I do about bulb substitution, but
>here's a trick you may want to consider no matter which bulbs you use.
> Headlights can be made brighter in most situations by adding a
>relayed power source to the lamps. Usually the lights on older cars
>suffer from low voltage, caused by creeping resistance in the
>harness/light switch and by degraded grounds. Sometimes the original
>harness was under-designed to begin with, without enough copper to
>handle the load without heating up and dropping voltage. All this
>stuff can add up to 2 or 3V drops and dim lights.
>
>The first thing to do no matter what is to clean up and check all
>grounds and connections. If you still have lowered voltage as
>measured at the lamps, you have a candidate for a relay circuit. With
>careful planning and some wiring skill you can usually wire the relay
>into existing connectors without chopping up the harness. Then add
>nice heavy wire through the power side of the relay to the lamps to
>bypass the resistance in the harness/switch. This setup also has the
>extra benefit of removing the lamp load from the switch (the switch
>now only operates the relay coil instead of the lamps themselves),
>which greatly increases the service life of the hard-to-replace dash
>switch. Fuse all circuits and do a careful job, and you have an
>improved setup that is fully reversible if originality later becomes
>an issue.
>
>MD
Good advice. At the same time you can get the added protection of a
circuit breaker added in line. Never fuse a headlamp circuit, breaker
it. Breakers stop the smoke from coming out of the wires. A useful
trick.
Paul
PAsgeirsson@juno.com
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