Re: Mike's 53 Caribbean

Posted by Tobs On 2023/10/3 15:00:10

I was talking about this with a friend of mine who is an electrical engineer, and he reminded me that the H4 headlights that I have are 60 Watts each, compared to the sealed beams, which are 45 Watts each.
I estimate 20 Watts for 4 taillights and license plate light, plus 10 Watts for the Instrument panel.
That totals 120 Watts with sealed beams, and 150 Watts with the h4 lights... at 6volts that makes 19.3 amps for the original lighting, and 25 amps with my H4 bulbs.
The 30 amp circuit breaker is well chosen for a 20 amp nominal circuit, but does not have much safety margin when I am pulling 25 amps because of my "modern" headlights.
First I will clean the switch, replace the circuit breaker, and likely swap in a new high beam switch, but in the long run, (in the next few months) I think relays may get installed. I already noted the plans that were posted in some other threads....I just would like something that looks original-ish.
Plastic relays are a fashion faux-pas, I guess horn relays could work and look original, or I just hide modern relays someplace.

Correction: horn relays won't work. Maybe I can find metal housed modern relays at least.