Re: 1954 Pacific / headlight out again / dash lights out /headlight circuit breaker / dimmer switch
Posted by HH56 On 2020/10/18 19:06:24
Check to see where the wire I have questioned is going. It would normally be a fairly small diameter short jumper wire to the side of the double terminal you have indicated in green. The tail light wire would be on the terminal next to it. If the wire for dash light power is the wire going to the double terminal then it is the tail light wire that is missing.
The headlight switch gets power all the time so no surprise you got sparks if the battery was still connected when you removed the switch. Not knowing the state of your overall wiring it is hard to guess where the problem might be but the old wire insulation could be brittle and cracked somewhere allowing a short. The old plastic and rubber insulations was not very stable and can dry or shrink. When that happens it can shrink back back and allow the bare wire to be exposed causing a short at a bulb socket or where it crosses metal. Under the hood the headlight wiring goes thru some narrow spots in fenders when reaching the headlight buckets so it could be cracked and able to short in several spots.
I have long been a fan of adding relays when installing halogen lights. Some of the halogens have low or the same current requirements as the original incandescents but other halogens do need more. With your breaker cutting off after a period of use it could be an aging breaker cutting off below its rating or it could be the lights are pulling current right at the threshold of what the breaker can carry. Even with the incandescents, all that current thru the old headlight and dimmer switches could cause problems if the switches are dirty or aged enough to not be making good contact.
An advantage of adding relays is you can usually get the brightest light possible because you eliminate headlight current going thru switches and a fairly long length of relatively small wiring. With relays you power the headlights with a larger wire and thru their own breaker directly from the battery connection at the starter solenoid. The original small wiring then only powers the relays on and off.
You can put together a couple of relays on a small chassis and mount the assy near the headlight terminal strip on the left fender like I did with my 47. The red and green colors shown in the factory loom coming from the dimmer switch are for the 47. 54 has light green and tan, 51-3 has green and brown for the headlight wires coming from the dimmer switch. The same setup can be used on a 12v car by changing the relays to a pair having 12v coils.
Attach file:
(91.23 KB)
(88.02 KB)
(93.32 KB)
The headlight switch gets power all the time so no surprise you got sparks if the battery was still connected when you removed the switch. Not knowing the state of your overall wiring it is hard to guess where the problem might be but the old wire insulation could be brittle and cracked somewhere allowing a short. The old plastic and rubber insulations was not very stable and can dry or shrink. When that happens it can shrink back back and allow the bare wire to be exposed causing a short at a bulb socket or where it crosses metal. Under the hood the headlight wiring goes thru some narrow spots in fenders when reaching the headlight buckets so it could be cracked and able to short in several spots.
I have long been a fan of adding relays when installing halogen lights. Some of the halogens have low or the same current requirements as the original incandescents but other halogens do need more. With your breaker cutting off after a period of use it could be an aging breaker cutting off below its rating or it could be the lights are pulling current right at the threshold of what the breaker can carry. Even with the incandescents, all that current thru the old headlight and dimmer switches could cause problems if the switches are dirty or aged enough to not be making good contact.
An advantage of adding relays is you can usually get the brightest light possible because you eliminate headlight current going thru switches and a fairly long length of relatively small wiring. With relays you power the headlights with a larger wire and thru their own breaker directly from the battery connection at the starter solenoid. The original small wiring then only powers the relays on and off.
You can put together a couple of relays on a small chassis and mount the assy near the headlight terminal strip on the left fender like I did with my 47. The red and green colors shown in the factory loom coming from the dimmer switch are for the 47. 54 has light green and tan, 51-3 has green and brown for the headlight wires coming from the dimmer switch. The same setup can be used on a 12v car by changing the relays to a pair having 12v coils.
Attach file:
(91.23 KB)
(88.02 KB)
(93.32 KB)
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=227334