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Hi Packard fans, I have a 51 Pack 250 and my headlights are dim ever since I bought the car. This is the 6V system and I do not want to convert to a 12V. I replaced the headlamps with Halogen bulbs but saw little difference. Is there a way to increase the light? I read through the forums and did not see anything that would answer my question. I have heard about replacing the wire relay. Does this work? or and advice would be great. Thanks

The dipper switch is probably shot. If it gets warm with the headlights on there is a bad connection thereof. Next thing you can do is check for resistance in the wiring. Connect a voltmeter in parallel from the battery to the power terminal at the bulb. If you have more than .4 volts you have a problem. Good wiring and switches will be around .2 volts. Great wiring will be near zero. Connect the voltmeter from the ground pin on the light to the negative on the battery. The voltage there should be near zero. Use a thin piece of wire or a pin to back probe the headlight terminal. All of these tests are done with the headlights on. You may want to invest in a decent battery charger for this kind of work as well.

Put a voltmeter across your battery posts while the engine is running at a fast idle. It would be good to see 7.2-7.4 volts. If not you will want to check/adjust your voltage regulator. Even a half volt low makes for very dim lights.

Also check the ground connections for the headlights. Those are provided by a wire from the headlight sockets fastened to one end of each headlight junction block under one of the mounting screws which holds the blocks to the fenders. Rust and corrosion making a poor connections are well known issues with grounds going to various lights.

Powering the headlights thru relays and a separate circuit breaker with power coming directly off the battery connection at the starter solenoid using a shorter run of heavier 10 gauge wire might possibly increase the brightness but without a light meter for some definitive numbers it would be hard to say by how much. Adding relays would also take about 8' of thinner 14 gauge wire, 2 switches, and several connections out of the circuit. At the same time it would take a considerable amount of current now going thru the old headlight and dimmer switches out of the switches which would prolong their life. Some of the older Halogen bulbs draw more current than the incandescents while newer ones are fairly comparable. Depending on how much current yours draw it could be a good move.

Here is a relay module I made for a 47. This one mounts right next to the 47's single junction block using original holes. Mounted next to the junction block the relay control wires can be connected to the old junction block and headlight wires can be moved and connected to the new terminal strip on the module very easily. While the diagram would work for a 51 the packaging might need to be changed to mount using a different location or holes.

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Thanks for the replies. Nice to have Packard friends who are willing to help and have the knowledge. Great to have a list of possible problems. I assumed that maybe I would be told that this is normal. Any more advise would be very appreciated.
Recently, I had to drive my Packard in a very rural area late at night and it was a little scary even at 5 or 10 mph.
Not something I can tackle myself, but I will print the info and provide it to my classic car mechanic and see what he can do.
Again thanks to all
David

G'day David(51Pack),
to PackardInfo.

I invite you to include your '51 250 in the Packard Vehicle Registry.

51Pack;

I would also start with ensuring the head light grounds are in good shape as HH56 mentioned, and then a quick check of the system voltage at the battery posts as Ross suggested . . . finally measuring the voltage at the terminal block would be worthwhile. If anything looks ‘crusty’ then disassemble, clean, and re-assemble . . . ultimately the terminals must be electrically clean, which starts with being physically clean.

While not plagued with ‘dull’ head lights, I did wire my ’48 headlights with a system quite similar to the circuit HH56 posted. The only exception was the use of two circuit breakers, with separated feeds to the #30 pole of the relays. The original problem was degradation of the headlight switch circuit breaker which resulted in me driving down the road with the lights coming on, followed by the lights going off, and then coming back on again . . . not good driving at night with no headlights. The OEM breaker was replaced prior to building the relay system, but I must admit I changed the toe switch, as Tim Cole suggested for good measure. Since I didn’t want to install another system that had the same single point of failure as the OEM circuit, my modification was to ‘double-up’ on the circuit breakers. If something runs amiss my bet is it won’t happen to both circuits at the same time, and I can ‘limp’ home . . . with some amount of lighting.

The circuit breakers are 30A, which is just about twice the current needed for the head lights (that’s quite normal for the circuit breaker to be twice the running load). The OEM breaker is mounted under the dash, and is therefore subject to temperature pretty much the same as the driver & passengers. The new under hood circuit breakers are subject to temperatures quite a bit higher. There will be a degradation of the ’trip current’ at the higher thermal environment, so the 30A rating might not be absolutely correct at the higher temperatures, and if the components are operating at typical thermostat settings the maximum current rating could be 50% of the rated value. Just be mindful of where the relays are mounted if you decide to install relays. Mine are located on the inner fender, just about the same location that HH56 selected. In my ’48 they’re mounted above the battery where the OEM wiring harness is routed . . . . that would be just aft of the OEM terminal strip, which also minimizes the total length of wire.

The attached file has further explanation.

By the way Halogen lights come in several different wattages, with some matching the OEM load rating (that’s a good thing). If the lights you installed have a larger wattage rating than the original head lights, then I would recommend a relay system . . . before the OEM light switch lets you down.

dp

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One kind of "dumb" thing you can do but that may have been overlooked is simply take the headlight out and see how bright it is when wired via alligator clips directly to the battery. That might tell you whether you have the wrong headlight bulbs. Who knows, it could be the ones the car came with were the wrong ones also.

I know one of the two turn signal/parking lamps in my car has a poor ground that I'm trying to track down, it's noticeably dimmer than the other one.

Very good point--have seen more than once that someone had installed 12v bulbs.

Curious as to why you would think unusable headlights would be "normal".

Forum Ambassador ok my Packard is registered. David