Thread: The Prince of Darkness Strikes Yet Again!

Do you have sealed beams in it? With a good set of sealed beams in an ex Army Series 2 i have found them more than adequate, to the point of being flashed on low beam. The army ones have the light switch in the center of the dash with the ign with a big knob and good contacts, not sure what the 2a is like. Maybe you a losing some in the switch. The short of it is if you are getting good voltage to the lights they should be good. If they are not sealed beam have a look in the front of the light and see what the reflector is like, if it is corroded or tarnished that will really reduce the light output.
Maybe a set of relays for the lights are in order to boost the available power to the lights? It certainly works on a 110. Also what voltage is it running at the battery? Maybe the generator/regulator are up to keeping the voltage up at low rpm.
Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by wovenrovings

Do you have sealed beams in it? With a good set of sealed beams in an ex Army Series 2 i have found them more than adequate, to the point of being flashed on low beam. The army ones have the light switch in the center of the dash with the ign with a big knob and good contacts, not sure what the 2a is like. Maybe you a losing some in the switch. The short of it is if you are getting good voltage to the lights they should be good. If they are not sealed beam have a look in the front of the light and see what the reflector is like, if it is corroded or tarnished that will really reduce the light output.

The lights, as I said, are the standard Lucas 700 non-sealed beams. The reflectors are in perfect condition (one light is only a couple of years old, the other about ten) and as I said, the problem has been identified as being at the bulb holder. The only question is what to do about it.

Maybe a set of relays for the lights are in order to boost the available power to the lights? It certainly works on a 110. Also what voltage is it running at the battery? Maybe the generator/regulator are up to keeping the voltage up at low rpm.
Hope that helps.

Battery voltage is 14+ under charge, although of course, with the idle set at the correct 500rpm, the alternator will not charge significantly.

I would not use sealed beams in any bush vehicle, as any stone damage (inevitable sooner or later) means no light at all.

As mentioned in my original post, I am considering adding a relay, but the problem at present is right at the light, and a relay would not help.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

John

I'm probably wrong, but is a relay going to help unless you upgrade the size of the wire as well?

I had a look here- All About Relays and they're talking about switching and facilitating shorter fat cable runs, but no intrinsic improvement.

My understanding, and experience, is that fatter wire makes the lights brighter, a relay saves the load on the switch at the steering wheel, which really isn't up to the job. And also means you don't have to rewire all the way to the main switch.

It made an almost unbelievable difference to the Defender headlights when I rewired them.

Cheers
Simon

John

Yes I do understand the issues with the BPF fittings on the early SIIa's although I thought by the late SIIa they had changed to the sealed beam type. At least on my 1967 & 1968 SIIB they have sealed beams although I am replacing them with QH inserts and globes.

A lot of the BPF fittings have a ground lead that is prone to corrosion, some don't even have a proper bullet end, just the bare wires running through a brass ferrule and soldering the earth lead to the fitting is part of the solution.

You should also check the other end of the black ground wire. This is grounded on the inside of the radiator support/grill panel or onto the mounting bolts between the grill panel and the aluminium guards. The result is that most of the paths back to an actual ground on the chassis or battery lead is through a number of often corroded bolts. It is a good additional solution to replace the ground wire right back to the battery ground or a good chassis ground. (The battery ground is often direct to the battery box, although frequently in service modifications move this to the engine.)

At the same time clean any corrosion on the ground straps between the chassis and the and the engine, this may actually improve a number of electrical problems, particularly with lighting.

I have put is headlamp relays to ease the load through the switch system. what I did was run 4mm copper core wire to the back of the lights with individual headlamp relays to each "beam" on both globes (4 relays) using the original headlamp connector. Although because I had the sealed beam connectors it was merely a matter of using blade connectors and replacement globe connectors.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

John

Yes I do understand the issues with the BPF fittings on the early SIIa's although I thought by the late SIIa they had changed to the sealed beam type. At least on my 1967 & 1968 SIIB they have sealed beams abthough I am replacing them with QH inserts and globes.

A lot of the BPF fittings have a ground lead that is prone to corrosion, some don't even have a proper bullet end, just the bare wires running through a brass ferrule and soldering the earth lead to the fitting is part of the solution.

You should also check the other end of the black ground wire. This is grounded on the inside of the radiator support/grill panel or onto the mounting bolts between the grill panel and the aluminium guards. The result is that most of the paths back to an actual ground on the chassis or battery lead is through a number of often corroded bolts. It is a good additional solution to replace the ground wire right back to the battery ground or a good chassis ground. (The battery ground is often direct to the battery box, although frequently in service modifications move this to the engine.)

At the same time clean any corrosion on the ground straps between the chassis and the and the engine, this may actually improve a number of electrical problems, particularly with lighting.

I have put is headlamp relays to ease the load through the switch system. what I did was run 4mm copper core wire to the back of the lights with individual headlamp relays to each "beam" on both globes (4 relays) using the original headlamp connector. Although because I had the sealed beam connectors it was merely a matter of using blade connectors and replacement globe connectors.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the help. I actually already have an earth strap direct from the battery negative to the radiator support, and a wire from that bolt to the one you refer to with the headlight earth.

I spent another hour or so on it and soldered up the BPF earth tag, and have now removed all bar about 0.1v drop in the earth return. However, there is still a significant drop in the live lead, and I will get a relay when I go into town tomorrow. Apart from removing the effect of any drop in the switch and the dip switch, using a relay will reduce the lead from the battery to about 60cm + 4 connections rather than about two and a half metres + 7 connections (battery - dashboard - dip switch - dashboard - headlights) quite apart from any advantage of heavier wire. In fact, by taking the power from the alternator, I can gain another slight voltage increase, since in normal running the voltage there will always be higher than at the battery.

My main battery earth goes to the engine block, and there is a similar size cable from the engine block to the bulkhead.

My 1970 2a came from the army with BPF lights, and all the 2as I have seen that I am sure were original had them, but at this stage it is hard to tell what is original.

John

We have put halogen inserts and 2 relays with 2 fused suplys in all our series and rangies. End of problem for ever.. I just made a neat simple harness up and used existing hi lo off the back of the light rather than cutting harness up or runing more wires.
I also put new earth straps from engine to chassis and body.
Tony

I am using 50/55watt halogen bulbs in my SIIA while still using the original wiring. They are plenty bright enough. I was going to suggest that you solder the connections, but it looks like you have already done that. Vintage Bulbs sell a modern halogen bulb with a BPF base on it. These are available in different power outputs. That way you can have modern bulbs in your original lenses.

Aaron.

Originally Posted by Aaron IIA

I am using 50/55watt halogen bulbs in my SIIA while still using the original wiring. They are plenty bright enough. I was going to suggest that you solder the connections, but it looks like you have already done that. Vintage Bulbs sell a modern halogen bulb with a BPF base on it. These are available in different power outputs. That way you can have modern bulbs in your original lenses.

Aaron.

The original wiring will handle that wattage with no problems, but increasing the wattage is a bit problematical, although the switch, particularly on the post 67 ones, is not as likely to melt as is the 90/110/Defender ones, and the foot dip switch is markedly more robust than than the column one on the S3 and later.

I think the problem is mainly the number of connections and the fact that they are all nearly forty years old. What it really needs, of course, is a new wiring harness, but the relays will sidestep that. Eventually I will have to completely rewire it. I know about Vintage Bulbs, and I am probably going to get QH bulbs, but I'll see how the lights are after I fit the relays (which I bought yesterday).

John