head lights

[Bill M.]

My friend has a 63 coupe with modern reproduction T 3 head lights. When we put on the bright's all lights will stay on for a few minutes and then go off for a minute then come back on and do this over and over. This happens only with the bright's on. Are the brigh'ts to powerful or is there something else we need to repair? Thanks Bill

[Ed S.]

Re: head lights

When you say, "all lights will stay on for a few minutes and then go off for a minute.......", do you mean "all" lights on the circuit including front parking lights, tail lights and license plate light as well or is it just the T3s behaving abnormally meaning the "on-off-on" issue is isolated to just the headlamps? Not sure I will be able to provide a possible solution to the problem after you answer my question but I suspect that the answer will help to shed light on the problem (no pun intended there) and help others with more experience identify the problem.

[Bill M.]

Re: head lights

Sorry I mean just the headlights

[Ed S.]

Re: head lights

Thanks - that should help to isolate the problem. Again, I don't profess to be an expert but, have you (or your friend) tried some variations to determine what might be causing the problem. Suggestion - remove the two inner "high beam" lamps then turn on the lights in high beam mode to see if the two outer units stay on normally or oscillate on and off. The point being, determine if the problem is with the lights or with your wiring.

[Bob H.]

Re: head lights

Isn't there an in line circuit breaker that resets to protect from an overload? It could be weak or you are drawing too much current.

[Ed S.]

Re: head lights

Bob might have hit on the solution. The Paragon catalog lists a "headlight and power window" circuit breaker on page 84 of their on line catalog. Not terribly expensive - looks like a horn relay device. What puzzles me is why new headlamps would cause this problem - what is the difference between the old and new bulbs in terms of current demand that would cause the circuit breaker to engage (if that is the problem)? Again, it might be worth determining if the problem is the new T3 bulbs or it is a timing coincidence and the problem really is in the car's wiring / circuitry.

[Tom G.]

Re: head lights

My friend has a 63 coupe with modern reproduction T 3 head lights. When we put on the bright's all will stay on for a few minutes and then go off for a minute then come back on and do this over and over. This happens only with the bright's on. Are the brigh'ts to powerful or is there something else we need to repair? Thanks Bill

Bill, I just fixed this problem on my 65 yesterday. High beams on will cause all headlights to blink out for a few seconds. There is another sympton with this issue. At least on mine it was. With the low beams on only, cup one of the high beams and see if the filament is slightly glowing. The ground prong on my right hand lowbeam was pushed back causing no ground to the lowbeam. The circuit did the next best thing and found a ground after passing through all four headlight filaments until it found a ground(black wire) on the left lowbeam. When the issued was fixed, my low beams were brighter,,all headlghts stayed on when using high beams. In addition to the headlight connectors, there is a connector to each headlight bucket. Possible point of failure. Sorry for being winded., Hope this resolves your issue. Tom G

[Dan D.]

Re: head lights

Bill,

New T3s are brighter in order to comply with safety requirements. Because of this they draw more current to the originals did. Inside the headlight switch is a re-setting circuit breaker. Your problem is the higher current is causing the breaker to interrupt.

Did you replace the headlight switch? I say this because the repop switches are notorious for doing this with original T3s.

Look in the archives. There are several threads about this issue.

-Dan-

[Bill M.]

Re: head lights

Thanks all will look into further this weekend will let you know how we make out

[Francis F.]

Re: head lights

Bill I had a headlite problem like yours on my "66",just after replacing the pull switch (on the dash).if you look closely on a wiring diagram of the chevy service manual you will see a cir.breaker symbol inside of the switch where the power lead enters on terminal #1.I do not remember tha amp.rating,but for a time the suppliers were sending out replacement switches what were rated lower and were not proper capacity for our quad "t3" lamps.I went round and round with C/C about this and got nowhere (needless to say that was my last purchase from them.) I earlier bought a switch for my 1960 corvette from zip. the 60 had the same symptoms after installing the new switch.I called Zip with the problem,they listened to me,I verified the purchase invoice,and they sent me a replacement switch NO further CHARGE .told me to discard the 1st switch,problem solved.(thats probably why all my business goes to them. hope this helps you, FRANCIS

[Bill M.]

Re: head lights

Thanks all. we went back to original T 3 high beams and the lights stay on with no interruption. We do have a replacement headlight switch in car and suspect that the switch is junk. I put the repop high beams in my 67 and they stay on. we are going to see if we can repair the orig 63 switch.