Twin Cam Special headlights

[jbcollier]

Signal and brake lights are on the green wire fuse.  Park, tail, marker, dash, etc are on the red wire fuse.  Headlights are not fused.  The loose bulb under the dash is supposed to illuminate the ignition switch so you can find it in the dark.

[rjbaren]

Ok thanks I will try to plug in the ignition light bulb.  Today I will get a headlamp.  I would assume the 6014, same as the front headlight, would be a good choice?

[BDA]

So where do I get the British fuses.  I mostly use rdenterprises.

rd should have them. Any Brit car place like Moss Motors, Victoria British, etc. would have them too.

[jbcollier]

Any 45w to 60w headlight or headlight bulb will do.  You want something that has low enough impedance that normal loads will just cause it to lightly glow but will prevent a complete short to ground.

[rjbaren]

I made a connector wire between the red wire that fed the panel dimmer and the red/white wire going to the instrument lights and the panel lights came on with the headlights.  The side marker lights all came on including the tail lights and license plate lamps and front turn signal lamps.  The brake lights work and the reverse lights too.

So I have isolated the problem to be the tunnel lamp which must be somewhere under the console.

The store I went to only had Halogen headlights so I bought an H6024.  Can I use this for testing?  Can I use these bulbs for headlights or do they draw too much current?

I also noticed my turn signals have stopped working so I will a new thread on that.

 

[jbcollier]

Yes, they will work for testing.  The stock bulb for the Europa is 45w-ish.  Most people are running at least halogen lights now.  If you go this way, it would be not a bad idea to fit a relays to reduce the load on 50 year old switches and connectors.  Another option is to fit LED/LCD 7" headlights.  They typically draw only 35w as well as providing much better light than stock and most halogens.

[jbcollier]

Federal car?  Must be if it has markers.  Clean the connections at the fuse box green wire fuse.  Then, using the wiring diagram check that the power is going through the 4-way flasher switch to the signal flasher.

[rjbaren]

I looked at some LED and Halogen headlights. There are so many.  Can anyone recommend one they have fitted without problems?   I may even consider running them in daylight to make sure I am seen.

[SilverBeast]

I've always run my cars with dipped headlights since owning my first mini in the '80s. I feel it also makes you look closer and people less likely to pull out of a side road in fron of you/across your path.

[jbcollier]

All my lights come on with oil pressure.

[SilverBeast]

All my lights come on with oil pressure.

Do they dip when it's low and go full beam if it's too high? 

[rjbaren]

I found a 7" round LED headlight by Trux Accessories from Northern Tool,  The price is $159.00 each.   This seems rather expensive.  Has anyone else found a less expensive alternative or recommendation?  So far the only reasonably priced normal looking headlights have been Halogen, except for these at Northern Tool.   

[BDA]

There are LOTS of them on Amazon!

[gideon]

From what I've read, it seems that good LED headlights are still expensive, and if you want something more affordable that works well then you may be better off with H4 halogen headlights.  This article has some more detail

https://jalopnik.com/why-most-led-headlight-upgrades-dont-really-work-an-ex-1843070472

If you’re replacing the bulb and housing, I asked Stern, wouldn’t you be able to get a good LED retrofit with today’s tech? His response:

“The concept is correct—this is the right way to do it, an LED headlamp engineered, designed, constructed, tested, and certified/approved as such. There are excellent ones on the market, and of course also a great deal of junk. The king daddy of them all [at the time of publication] is the JW Speaker 8700 Evolution-J3, which brings almost Star Trek-level technology to the old seven-inch round headlamp format.”

Stern also shouted out the “JWS 8700 Evo 2” as a good option one step down, and “another step or two down from there, [is] the Peterson Manufacturing 701C (in Peterson or Sylvania Zevo packaging — same lamp) and the Truck-Lite units are reasonably good with or without heated lens.”

The cheapest of the LED units mentioned, the Peterson 701c, sell for about $200 each.

And, if you don't mind spending a bit more then the JW Speaker 8700 EVO 2 Classic wouldn't look totally out of place

https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/model-8700-evo2-classic-led-light/

And, here's one place you can get a pair of European spec Hella 7" round units for $80.  Apparently the European spec headlights are better than American spec.  Go figure.

https://www.busdepot.com/0301600118

[BDA]

Those busdepot lights appear to be a 7" lenses which take H4 hologen bulbs that they point you to. There are LED H4 bulbs available (possibly mentioned in the other links you posted, I haven't had a chance to check them out). From what I have read, the idea is to replicate the geometry of the H4 bulb for use with halogen lenses. I'm not sure about how well they project. One of the problems with LED bulbs in other lenses is they may not have good cut off and thus blin oncoming drivers.