Headlamp Repair

[chetbrz]

My headlamps haven't worked properly since I purchased the car.   All it took was a few parts and a day's work.   The main problems were a short, deteriorated wiring, and faulty socket connections.  I had rewired the lighting system and installed a fuse block but the fuse for the headlamps blows whenever I drive the car.  So something is shorting out from the vibrations caused from driving.  All that's left is the sockets.

I purchased two headlamp socket sets for a 1928-31 Ford.  Although the rear headlamp assembly plug is slightly different then the original hardware, if you change the rear incoming wire connector you can use the complete set.   For my application I just needed new headlamp sockets.  After I disassembled the headlamps the light reflectors were in poor shape.  I sprayed the reflector cones with chrome paint to help provide a brighter light.

I installed the new lamp sockets and put shrink rap around any wiring that appeared frayed.  The result was excellent. 



Chet...

PS... I saved the old lamp sockets so that I could refurbish them at some point in the future, but for the time being I have lights again.

[1930]

The old lamp sockets are easy enough to repair, just heat up the soldered end until the tiny washer comes off the bakelite wire housing and then pull wire through. After that its just a matter of going in reverse with the new wire, cloth covered wire is of course easy enough to find.

[Gary 30U]

I tried to rewire my headlights and just got flustered at the fine work. Sent them to YnZ's (where I got my wiring harness) in California and they did them for me. I also installed a separate ground wire from the headlight bucket to the frame.

Now I find that my 30 was supposed to have metal covered wires from the light bucket to the fenders. Just have to do it all over again.

Oh, about the reflectors. If you really want a nice, permanent coating, try Uvira Laser Optics,Inc. at 310 Pleasant Valley Road, P.O. Box 1137 in Merlin, Oregon 97532. Ph #541-956-6880. www.uvira@terragon.com

They flash coat them under a vacumn with powdered aluminum and glass. I demo'd mine for the club and they couldn't tell them from a sealed beam.

Can't remember the cost, but they are really nice.

Gary

[chetbrz]

Thanks, these are all great suggestions.  When I finally take this car off the road for a restoration I will already have 99% of the information & parts.  For the time being and until my 48 gets on the road, the 29 is my weekend fun car.   The 48P15 is in the paint shop.  The plan is to spend the winter getting the interior, glass, and chrome back on the car.   I am looking forward to driving at 55 – 60 again.  Once the 48 is back on the road, then the 29 goes into the garage for a tare down.

Tks, Chet...

[1930]

The metal cover is readily avail aftermarket and although its kinda a stinky way to do it I suppose it would be easy enough to cut and resplice the wires back together once you got the sheathing back on them. If it were me and I made that mistake and was not so anal I would make a quick disconnect plug and hide it down in the frame rail so that it was easy to take apart later if I had to and it looked somewhat professional.
I have diagrams of the original sheathing if you are interested, technically one end had a taper if I remember right, the new stuff is not identical to original but real close.