About old Volkswagens... A friend of my dad had one back in the day, a early 6V car. He wasn't happy about the lights and people kept telling him to put relays on it. Eventually he did, but not being completely convinced it was worth the cost he only put a relay on the low beam circuit. The result was what you can expect, high beam were never used again - low beam was so much stronger it worked better than high beam.
Playing with a fuse won't help the headlights on my old Chevys that don't use a fuse in the system. They have a circuit breaker built into the light switch, instead.
using the word obfuscate had me confused,........... i looked it up and have been elucidated.......twice.
I used a headlight aligner we had at the Ford dealership I worked at. After I aligned them I set the lights at night on the side of my garage and could see better. The newer cars have the dimmer switch inconveniently positioned on the blinker stalk. It makes it hard to use except on a straight road, but makes it easier for the new junk makers. People around here have a fix for that, just keep them on high beam on the interstate or a mountain road. Blame mostly younger people who can't steer and look at their phone and do something else at the same time.
I have attempted to elucidate people on the merits of eschewing obfuscation. Sadly, recalcitrance has remained the dominant paradigm.
Well I spent all day being a contortionist..not fun...checking the voltage through out the light system..With engine running and lights on: At Battery 14.1...At fuse block 14.1..At out put fuse block 14.1...Switch [toggle] in 14.1...Switch out 13.5..At Head Light [low or high beam] LH 12.5, RH 11.9..I can see a different brightness and I got no clue where that .6 volt is going as its only about a 3 ft length tops from the junction block to the light....With lights out of sockets its 14.1 all through to the sockets but the right is 13.6...Amp draw is just about 10 amps for just the headlights..Switch doesn't seem to get warm and I tried adding an additional grd [fiberglass hood/fenders] and didn't seem to help..I will allude to the fact that I can't find where I got the grd wire screwed down to metal..All wires are 14ga...
For fun, you can measure the voltage drop in each wire. Just connect one meter lead to one end, and the other lead to the other end of the same wire.
The street out front of mu house is long an flat,very low trafic,so its EZ to just park a car with the lights on,and adjust tell they light the road as they should. If you deone have it that EZ,here is a set up that can be used;
Do as squirrel says and measure the voltage drop across each wire and switch and connector you will soon find where the voltage has "gone missing" I spend a solid week every intake of first year apprentices trying to explain the merits of this way of testing.
Doesn't seem like fun..Set the meter at what to measure volt drop with out a battery involved? I can't understand where the problem could be, each light is only using about 5amps, a 14ga wire should handle 10 amps...Or so I would think there isn't that much milage on the system...
While we are on the topic of headlights, I want to let everyone know that the currently available "New" headlight switches are junk. My son's car has a generic 6 wire switch which is used on several different makes of cars. We have installed new switches from NAPA, O'Riley's, and Advanced, all of which would drop at least 1 light circuit every time the switch was turned on, then off, and back on again. I pulled one apart. The plastic plate inside the switch was warped and caused the poor connections with the pins if the warped plastic plate rocked the wrong way. The plate would have been too thin if I had filed it flat on just one side. Since all the switches reacted about the same, one would probably be correct in assuming all the switches had the same issue. The boxes the switches came in were all different, but the switches all appeared to be the same. The one that finally worked came from out local tractor supply store and was about 1/2 the price. It also looked to be the same switch manufacturer. Don't be too quick to throw old switches away, they may be better then any of the new stuff you can buy. Gene
If the wires are not connected to voltage, you can test the ohms (resistance) of the wires. That much of a voltage drop should show up as a pretty big ohm resistance between two wires the same length. If the wires are still connected to the power source, you should be able to see the voltage drop with a volt meter at each end of the wire. If the voltage is 14.1 on one end, and 13.6 on the other end, the problem is in that section of wire. Also, look at the condition of the connector. If its not real clean and nice, the connection might be your problem. I'd bet there are more bad connector ends then there are failed wires, but I have seen plenty of failed wires. Its not the mileage on the wires that cause the issues, its the time they have been around. Corrosion inside the wire will increase the resistance. That corrosion can be at the ends, just inside the ends of the insulation, or there may be a crack or pin hole in the insulation that allows moisture to get inside the wire and cause the problem. Also, the spade terminals that have been around in the elements for 60 years are also probably making the quality of connections they did 60 years ago. Gene
I'll offer a few comments... Seb, on your voltage losses the .6V lost through the switch probably means the switch needs replacing. I'd recommend at least a 20 amp rated switch, a 30 amp would be better. Higher ratings mean longer switch contact life, particularly for a switch that is operated a lot. The losses downstream from the switch will almost certainly be poor connections, whether it's a splice or a terminal. Bright shiny metal makes for good connections, any dull or corroded metal won't. Checking for resistance with ohms rather than the voltage drop method can be difficult. It only takes a tenth of an ohm or two to cause a serious drop in a 12 volt system and very few hand-held meters will resolve that low with accuracy. Plus add in the fact that the higher the circuit current, the more pronounced the effect will be. A one-amp load that drops .2 volts will drop 2 volts if the load is increased to 10 amps. Your 1.6V drop from the switch to the right headlight represents an 'extra' resistance of 3.125 ohms which is a LOT but it may be in multiple places. Wire length is important. You mention having glass fenders/hood, so you needed a ground wire out to the lights, so the ground wire length has to added to the total circuit length. All wire has resistance, and as length goes up, so does any inherent voltage drop. A wire rated for adequate amps in the circuit can quickly become too small if it gets too long. Moving the wire size up will correct this. At only 12 volts, adding 5-6 feet of length can make the difference between a circuit with adequate voltage and one that reads low. I'll also note that 'sharing' a ground wire with multiple circuits can also cause this problem.
I meant, with the battery involved, with the lights on, measure the voltage between two points in the circuit, you are looking for a low voltage, somewhere around half a volt approximately (which is a sizeable voltage drop). Fun....yeah, when I say something is fun, usually that means it's not really very fun. Why are we still messing with old cars, after all these years? you'd think we woulda learned long ago that it's a pain.
I always demonstrate the ohms testing vs voltage drops by measuring the resistance of 4" of 14 guage wire and then pull 1 strand out, with most meters there is very little difference in the resistance reading (ohms). Then using the same wire, I power up 4 bulbs with the same wire, the complete wire shows no voltage drop whereas the one strand usually shows somewhere around two volts. I tell students that voltage drops are live circuit resistance test, as Steve said with current flowing any unwanted resistance will be much more noticeable.
Yes, guess we like the feel? Problem for me is that what I did 25 years ago seems impossible now to get at to redo, back then I was tall, lanky and flexible..Now I'm tall, lanky and the flexibility has all gone to hell, joints just hurt too much! Can't give up though..
I am going to try to get at the switch to replace as that is the first drop..I will check out put at H/L switch as I missed doing that...Then on to the junction block up front which I am sure has gotten wet when caught in the rain; remove wires clean and reassemble with kopper Shield and see where that takes me volt-wise..If I can find where the hell I grounded the ground wire I'll clean that too..So where ever it gets me will have to be tolerated for the summer, replacing wires would be a winter project..I'll up date..Thanks to all..
Try an industrial electrical supplier or someplace that sells/repairs construction equipment like lifts and squirtbooms. If you don't mind waiting, McMaster-Carr has a good selection of quality switches but there's a shipping charge and about a 5 day wait. Try part numbers 8001K12 or 8001K13... about $28... Are you sure you need a double throw? These are usually used as reversing switches, if you're only trying to turn two circuits on/off, a DPST would work and be slightly cheaper. Try 8001K11...
I looked at the K12 & 13 but they are screw term and I have blade on current switch, I don't think I have the dexterity to change lugs..Need DPDT to be able to run park/tail lights with HL on and they are on their own circuit/fuse...Went to napa store as I thought they had some in the elctrical section but re doing store and everything moved out..So e bay, 30a, $14.95..[at the price I figure quality should be ok..maybe]
With relays and switches I try to find ones that are UL and/or CSA rated. One issue I have with the aftermarket automotive stuff is so much of it isn't rated and it can be a crapshoot as to whether or not the rating is accurate... Those ratings still don't absolutely guarantee quality, but usually removes the fire hazard out of the equation... LOL.
Switch made by GAMA and is UL and CSA rated..Would be nice to last another 20 years as by then I'll be 87 and may forget where I parked the car!
Up Date...Researched relays and installations I decided I didn't want to get to a re wire now..So I took the wires off the terminal block under the nose and wired brushed all the terminal blades and made sure the wire blade lugs would be tight and assembled with koppersheild [KS] but I really didn't find any corrosion..New dimmer switch with KS on the term and I replaced the headlight toggle switch with a new 30A with KS on the terminals and managed to do so with out knocking a bunch of other stuff apart..Even made sure the fuse in the fuse block was held tight and again with KS..Ended up with 13.5 volts at light, w/in 4% or so..Waited till dark at the D'shop and got to try the lights out on the way home..Holy cow what an improvement! Perfectly happy with the amount and spread of light now, big difference!..And just to answer original post title the headlights are at 89°, 1° down... Thanks to all..!
The Jalopy Journal
