Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Dear All,

As many early Packard owners may notice there is a difficulty of vision at night with 6 volt headlights.

My concern is that if I happen to be caught out at night in my 1934 Packard the quality of the headlights is quite poor. This is understandable as I am still running the 6 volt system, which I wish to keep it as. I have changed the globes to 6 volt helogen globes which made a slight improvement but nothing drastic.

Basically does anyone else experience this problem, or is their any ideas/ways to improve it whilst still retaining the good old 6 volt system

Kind regards & many thanks,
Mathew Rattray

The headlights (Solar 3 filament 3003 bulbs) in my 1934 Eight are more than adequately bright for nighttime driving. If you haven't done it, first resilver plate the reflectors. Then you might consider adding a relay so the resistance of the old headlight switch is eliminated by just using that switch to activate the relay (just as a horn relay works). By the way, the problem isn't that it's a 6 volt system, it's that the bulbs are 32 candlepower.

I converted the seal beams in my to Bosch halogen H-4 with 6 volt halogen bulbs. While this may not be practical in a 34 the relay suggestion is a good one. I wired the headlights to be powered through a relay as Owen suggested using #10 guage wire to the relay. I have done this in the past to driving and fog lamps as well. This seems to help.

I will add to Owen's suggestion, in that if everything is really clean and well connected, the headlights should be fine. They will never be as good as a new model car, but for bopping around at 50 miles an hour, they should be more than sufficient.

I am not sure exactly what part of the restoration in my car led to having better headlights (as everything was taken apart, cleaned, replaced if shot) but the headlights definitely work fine now.

Tom

G'day Matthew, The relay suggestion is a good move to lessen the volts drop at the lights. You do not specify what wattage the Halogen inserts are, but if they are 45CP each then with relays you will be showing at least a 15 amp charge at the ammeter driving with the headlamps on, to maintain a fully charged battery. I would agree that Owen's suggestion to resilver the reflectors is a good way to go, although you may be able to polish them. We used to use "lamp Black" but I have not seen it for years. Under no circumstances should a wax type polish, such as a furniture polish be used. I understand that Silvo and Brasso are also not suitable. I have used jewellers rouge to polish them in the past. It is usually easily obtained from jewellers. There may be some advice available from forum members on other suitable products. best regards Peter Toet

I would try this: Purple Metal Polish

I used this stuff on my '25 Packard headlights, and it works great. I also have used it on my silver pocket watch cases, silver and copper coins, and chrome. It's the best stuff I've ever come across. One thing though, make sure you rinse off your part with water, as it will leave a film if you don't get it all off. It WILL turn whatever rag you use black as night, and that tells you it's working.

Tom,
New wiring and clean contacts will fix a lot of ailments.
As you said, if the headlights are working like new, there should be no problem unless you are going too fast.

Thanks to everyone for their help. I am away for a few days but when I get back home I'll give them a good clean and change th wiring to #10 gauge wiring and this should hopefully correct the issue.

I'll let you know how i go with it

Thank You,
Mathew