I have been driving at night on the highway and found my lights are not aligned. On low beam the beam is about 15 ft from the car. High beam seems OK. It seems like I can either park it 25 ft from the wall and start adjusting but the lights had been ok and I have not changed the adjustments. I aam now thinking, maybe the lights are installed in the wrong order. I had tried to replace the lights with halogen lights, but they were causing the engine to shut down, so went back to the old ones. Something about the watts were too high. Is the low beams in the middle or the outside of the two light sets?
1970 300 headlights
- Thread starter Waggy
- Start date
Low beam is outside.
Unless you changed the connectors, the low beam has three terminals and the high beams only two.
Unless you changed the connectors, the low beam has three terminals and the high beams only two.
MrMoparCHP
Old Man with a Hat
The buckets are different, you cannot put the lights in the wrong spot or put the wrong bulb in.
Alan
Alan
1966newport
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2012
- Messages
- 903
- Reaction score
- 219
and halogens don't use more amps
Wildaugust
Senior Member
The Low Beams are on the outside. On Furys, Galaxies and Pontiacs with vertical headlights, the Low Beams go to the top.
On vehicles with four headlights, like our C-Bodies and most other full-size cars of that era, you could end up with a situation where the Halogen Sealed Beam replacements will be pulling too much current for the car's wiring and switches.
If you compare the original non-Halogen Sealed Beams to the Halogen replacement Sealed Beams, you'll notice that the total wattage on High beam is higher with the Halogens.
-With the original incandescent headlights, you had two 60 Watt Low beam lights for a total of 120 Watts.
-With the Halogen replacement Sealed Beams you have two 35 Watt Low Beam lights for a total of 70 Watts. So, on Low Beam, the wattage is actually lower with the Halogens.
The difference is in the High beam filaments. With the original incandescent Sealed Beams, there were four 37.5 Watt lights for a total wattage of 150 Watts on High Beam, but with Halogen Sealed Beams, there are two 35 Watt filaments and two 50 Watt filaments lit at the same time, for a total wattage of 170 Watts on High Beam. All four Halogen High Beam lamps are not the same wattage. The inside pair are higher, brighter.
It's only 20 Watts more, but it can cause the headlight switch to fail. That's what it did in my case and it also melted the connector at the dimmer switch on the floor. My solution was to make a Headlight Relay harness. The relays take the load off the headlight switch and the dimmer switch, so, the switches should last a lot longer.
I hope this helps.
On vehicles with four headlights, like our C-Bodies and most other full-size cars of that era, you could end up with a situation where the Halogen Sealed Beam replacements will be pulling too much current for the car's wiring and switches.
If you compare the original non-Halogen Sealed Beams to the Halogen replacement Sealed Beams, you'll notice that the total wattage on High beam is higher with the Halogens.
-With the original incandescent headlights, you had two 60 Watt Low beam lights for a total of 120 Watts.
-With the Halogen replacement Sealed Beams you have two 35 Watt Low Beam lights for a total of 70 Watts. So, on Low Beam, the wattage is actually lower with the Halogens.
The difference is in the High beam filaments. With the original incandescent Sealed Beams, there were four 37.5 Watt lights for a total wattage of 150 Watts on High Beam, but with Halogen Sealed Beams, there are two 35 Watt filaments and two 50 Watt filaments lit at the same time, for a total wattage of 170 Watts on High Beam. All four Halogen High Beam lamps are not the same wattage. The inside pair are higher, brighter.
It's only 20 Watts more, but it can cause the headlight switch to fail. That's what it did in my case and it also melted the connector at the dimmer switch on the floor. My solution was to make a Headlight Relay harness. The relays take the load off the headlight switch and the dimmer switch, so, the switches should last a lot longer.
I hope this helps.
Can anybody explain to me why every nite after dark no matter what the weather, every BUBBA on the planet thinkz it'z foggy or he'z huntin' coon er posum er shinin' bambi. I got one SOB runnin' around my new town that haz a whole row of hologens in the center of hiz grill of hiz bowtie pickup. AND I WENT SHOPPIN' FOR AND FOUND 'N BOUGHT 10 POUNDZ OF 1/4 TO 1/2 INCH STEAL BALLZ THAT I'M NOW CARRIN' IN MY SIDE DOOR POCKET SO THE NEXT TIME I SEE HIM COMIN' AT ME I'M GONNA DO MY BEST TO HELP HIM RUN IN COMPLETE DARKNESS. Sorry Waggy, don't mean to steal you thread. It'z gettin' daylite and I been huntin' Bubba all nite and I'm tired.
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
I'm having head light issues with the Admiral. It came to me with four hew halogen seal beams. After driving around for about 4-5 days with the lights on, (low beams), the battery was going dead. Daylight driving, no problems. I checked battery voltage with the engine running and have 14.5 V.
Turn signals work great until the lights are switched on, then they slow, or stop working altogether.
I saw a reference to a harness fix for this somewhere, but I plan on switching the low beams back to conventional seal beams.
I try to be off the road before it turns dark, (hard to do this time of year).
Turn signals work great until the lights are switched on, then they slow, or stop working altogether.
I saw a reference to a harness fix for this somewhere, but I plan on switching the low beams back to conventional seal beams.
I try to be off the road before it turns dark, (hard to do this time of year).
Wildaugust
Senior Member
14.5 Volts is good, if that was at idle with no accessories turned on, I would try checking the charging voltage at the battery with the engine running with the headlights "on", and maybe the heater blower fan on too, just to see what kind of charge voltage is available at night driving conditions.
Other than checking basic stuff like battery terminal connections, cables and connections, alternator belt ,etc. , is the battery new or fairly old? An older battery may need a bit more from the alternator than what the alternator can give with all of the lights on. I have noticed that my headlights will dim a little and the turn signals will slow down a bit when I have my foot on the brakes. This was more noticeable with the old battery. Some of these alternators were pretty small when it came to amperage rating.
It could also be in the bulkhead connector, the wiring at the Alternator gauge, etc. If all of the basic stuff checks out.
For anyone considering relays, Headlight Relays will take the load off the headlight switch, dimmer switch and the car's original headlight circuit wiring, they may even make the headlights brighter, but they will not take the load off the charging system. The power for the lights still has to come from the car's electrical system.
I hope this helps.
The Philips sealed-beam headlights for a 1970 Polara at CarID seem to offer the option of either incandescent or halogen. I thought about the alternative of mixing halogen low-beams and incandescent high-beams, but it is not clear that would solve the issue.
@Big_John
I have been running plain old halogen sealed beams. From what I've read, they are the best bang for the buck. Better systems are out there, although the market is flooded with Amazon and eBay LED versions of headlights that are good for blinding oncoming traffic but not seeing Bambi jumping out of the woods.
If I wanted something better, I'd start looking at the high end headlight offerings and I have no idea what's out there. Cibie and Marchal used to be the top dogs in the business, but I'm not even sure if they are still around.
Thank you. With or without relay?
Indeed, and that is one thing I am trying hard to avoid.
At least Cibié (the French company) is not. Here is the story, as related by Daniel Stern: "Cibié H4 and H1 headlamps were in production for many years, and the tooling (for the large and small round H4 lamps, in particular) was allowed to grow decrepit. Once the tooling wore out so completely that a plausible proportion of these lamps couldn't be squeaked past conformity-of-production testing, they were discontinued."
With.
I will use relays as well, following similar recommendations by you, @Wildaugust, and @71Polara383's. Wyatt has had good experience with this kit, I am also considering a highly-rated kit made by a member.
While I make up my mind on which relay kit to buy, I went around looking for halogen headlights and got a real sticker shock. In March 2019, I ordered a couple of replacement low-beam Wagner H5006 halogen headlights for Poppy, my red Polara 'vert. I like them, because the result looks factory. I paid $5.99 per light from Summit at the time. They are now listed for $18.99, a tripling of the price in just two years
These much higher prices are comparable to what CarID charges for the Philips, yet the same sealed beam lights are still $6.43 at Rock Auto. I'll take a compound annual inflation rate of 3.5% over 78% any day
Even accounting for shipping ($19 for the four), the RA prices are much lower. So I bought two H5006, and also two Wagner H5001 high-beam, headlights for Regina -- and two spares of each to keep in stock (shipping went up a mere $2).PS: I considered getting Koito H4 headlights, but at $169 for a low & high beam pair, I passed.
Last edited:
1970FuryConv
Old Man with a Hat
How have the Wagner headlights held up?
H5006 on 72 Fury went out. Deciding what to buy.
H5006 on 72 Fury went out. Deciding what to buy.
I put GE Nighthawks in my Barracuda. They seem pretty good, but I don't do a lot of night driving.
1970FuryConv
Old Man with a Hat
Is there a part # for 5.7" diameter?
Or do you have a link?
This is what I bought, but now I'm wondering if they only offer round in 7". I can't find the 5006 type bulbs.
Amazon product ASIN B000H29WN2
Similar threads
