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I have no dash light indicating high beam on my '39 Six. Can someone clarify WHERE it should be?? I presumed it would be on top (at 12 O'clock) of the speedometer dial, but the light there APPEARS to be the back light for the gauge. Is the high beam indicator in some other location or do I have yet another wiring issue??? Thanks for time and knowledge shared....Chris.

According to the operators manual it should be on the speedo face and looking at the factory schematics which were usually drawn as a birds eye view if it is not at 12:00 then it would appear to be somewhere toward the left side of the speedo.

If your car has been converted from the original 4 position head light switch/dimmer switch operation with the hi-lo, right-left filament combinations that existed before sealed beams there could have been a wiring error or someone just forgot to hook up the indicator bulb.

Before the conversion the indicator was fed from the headlight switch via a spliced connection that also continued a feed to the dimmer switch and bulb filaments. That particular wire connection could have been abandoned after the conversion to sealed beams and another of the original connections from the headlight switch could have been used to provide the feed to the dimmer switch and bulbs. After conversion the indicator light was generally fed directly off the dimmer switch and was on the same terminal that fed the high beam filaments.

You can compare the two connection methods by checking the 1939 and 1940 wiring diagrams. The easiest to follow are the AEA diagrams at the PAC site.

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Howard - thank you for that! Killer info, as usual. I will print this and take it to my 'wiring guy' and see if we can't 'track 'er down'. I agree with you that, according to the diagram, the indicator light could be on the left at, say 9:00 o'clock. I didn't look there and it is both difficult to get stuffed into the floor space of the car on one's back, and, in the case of my car, it is hard to see due to the rat's nest of wires up under there. I don't THINK the circuit has been converted to the seal beam wiring you reference, but not sure. I'll dig into it and report back, just in case anybody else is messing with the same issue. Thanks again for your time. Chris

Well, now it just gets plain bizarre!!! I delved into the high beam indicator light, armed with Howard's wiring diagram and was able to track down what I thought was the issue, which was a bad ground on the light it self. (or so I thought) I pulled the light out and attached an alligator clip ground to it, turned on the lights, operated the floor dimmer switch and the light worked perfectly. I popped the socket right out and soldered an additional wire to the body to act as an additional ground and anchored the other end to a freshly drilled hole under dash, and thought, all I have to do is plug the light back in and I should have a high beam light. NOT!! I cannot see any indication whatsoever of the light from the dash side!!! I am PRESUMING it should be red and the only hole I can see on the speedo face (at 12:00) lines up perfectly with the socket hole in the back of the instrument, but zero light is getting through. Has anyone even HEARD of this before!?!?!? I put a Q-tip in the socket hole from behind and swabbed it all around, but nothing. What could possibly be blocking 100% of the light? Can anyone confirm if their '39 has the high beam indicator at 12:00? Is the colour supposed to be red?? Anyone ever HEAR of anything like this before?!?!?
I quit in frustration but am going back at it tomorrow - any help would SURE be appreciated before round 2!!! LOL Thanks.

I know the number of bulbs is different but other than that I have no idea if the 39 speedo construction is anything like the 42-47 Clipper. On the Clipper you can definitely see places where a light shines thru if you look at the front face. The metal face is punched and immediately behind the punched holes is a colored plastic lens. On the back side of the lens going to the rear of the case where the socket mounts there is a cardboard tube which surrounds the indicator bulbs. That tube confines the light directly to the lens and punched hole so no light spills out in the cavity around the speedo where the normal dial illumination bulb does its job.

If you find an opening on your speedo face, possibly the cardboard tube has come undone or moved out of place and paper or some other foreign object has covered the lens or opening. Possibly someone painted over the lens or heat and old age has taken a toll.

On my 47 the plastic lenses had warped and become opaque either due to heat from the bulbs or maybe the sun hitting them and were almost useless. To restore them I removed the original plastic and placed another small disc of clear plastic with a bit of colored celluloid behind that to remake the lens. Since the amber and red celluloid was very transparent and the holes fairly large, bulb filaments could be seen thru the plastic. On those two openings I also added a thin white celluloid which still was able to pass light to diffuse and hide the filament.

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Thanks Howard, I'll take a picture tomorrow of my speedo face and post it. The ONLY 'hole' or orifice I can see in the dial face is right at the very top, near the chrome ring and it looks (to me, anyway) too high on the dial and too small to be the indicator lens. It sure would be nice if someone with a '39 would weigh in with positive identification of the location and colour of the high beam indicator. What you are saying makes sense, and I can see there is a cylindrical 'collar' going from the inside of the bulb socket hole to the dial face, but I can't detect anything in there that is amiss or blocking the light. I have a small probe camera and I am going to see if that can shed any light on things tomorrow. Notwithstanding, I am looking at removing the speedometer from the car which is a fairly big job and, in as much as I don't intend on doing a lot of night driving with the car, I am not going to fight that fight right now. I must say I do find it very frustrating and maddening to spend all the time I did today supposedly 'getting to the bottom' of the problem, only to find out that it made zero difference. My money says the light was probably working all along! It just has no way of illuminating through the dial face, and I find that quite strange and totally unexpected!! Much blue air today.....

1937 may be different but the high beam indicator for a 115C is at the bottom of the speedometer face and the receptacle for the bulb has 3 prongs to hold the light socket

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Thank you Brian. '39 is definitely different and I can't help thinking something is really goofy here. The photo you attached has the 'port' for the light in plain view (even labelled as such!) and yet I can't see that on the face of my speedo. The only thing is a very small hole at dead-on 12:00 o'clock, no labeling and it is really close to the chrome ring on the outside of the gauge which leads me to believe that is not what it is - it should be more central to the driver's view. More exploration today and I will post a pic of my gauge. Anybody with a '39 that can shed any light on this?? (pun intended!!LOL) Chris

Turns out the probe camera was a great solution to be able to see inside the socket hole. Howard, you were right, something had gotten down inside the face and blocked the red lens off. It looked like a piece of fiber board insulation-type material and I was able to poke a hole in it with a piece of coat hanger. I kept checking it with the camera and switched from the wire to drill bits, increasing the size as I picked away at the material. Once I could see a hole about the size of a pencil, I put the light socket back in - switched the high beams on and badda-bing.... a nice bright, red light!!! Success, and one more thing off the list of rectifications. Much less blue air today!!!!! Thanks for your help, Howard & Brian.
Chris.

I experienced the same. Apparently there was some attempt at defusing the bulb light through the red lens. Softening the white material with a damp Q-tip and gently picking away a portion of the material will give you the brightness you desire.

A Question I have is the numbers on the back of the speedometer dial appear to be some material that once was activated by the lower bulb in the speedometer.

Was this some radioactive material??. My numbers do not seem to illuminate above a low glow?

While you are back there with the speedometer out, relace insulation on the rat's nest of wires back there. I see why these things burn up so often.