Thread: Another stupid question.....headlights

Since it's not immediately obvious, I will assume your headlights are mounted in the grille panel and fitted with chrome trim rings. There is a screw underneath which holds the chrome ring on, and everything inside is quite straight forward.

The only other mounting type is three screws around the light in the grille panel, and would be too obvious for your question.

Dan.
69 2A 88" pet4, 74 3 109" pet4, 68 2B FC pet4.

Problem is....the chrome ring isn't coming off.

Assuming that it is the same as most of them :- remove the headlight rim - this is done by undoing a screw at the bottom, then pull the bottom out and lift off. This will reveal three small screws retaining a chrome rim that holds the light. Do not confuse these with the two screws that adjust it! The ones you remove should have Philips heads and the adjustment ones slots. With the headlight removed the connector on the back can be removed by pushing it and turning it anticlockwise, then pull the bulb out.

Be careful not to drop any of the screws - they are unusual sizes - or the light, or the bulb. As with any headlight bulb, do not touch the glass with your bare skin or get any oil on it.

It is possible that it has been converted to sealed beams - procedure is the same except that the connector just pulls off. Except for the type of plug a standard sealed beam fits, as do H4 lights the same as the Defender. But avoid increasing the wattage without fitting relays - the switch will not stand it for long.

To refit, reverse the procedure - there is only one way everything will go. The outer dress rim should have a tab on it that goes into a slot in the housing at the top, but this is often broken off. The only purpose of it is to make sure the hole for the screw at the bottom lines up, and without it you need to line it up carefully.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

But avoid increasing the wattage without fitting relays - the switch will not stand it for long.

I bought some Narva 100/55s for the IIa with the aim of having low wattage around town but decent power while on the highway or spotlighting.
Are these still going to kill the switch?
How hard is it to fit relays?

fitting a relay is pretty much the same as wiring up a set of spotlights, except you have high and low beam to be wired up

Originally Posted by kombi1976

I bought some Narva 100/55s for the IIa with the aim of having low wattage around town but decent power while on the highway or spotlighting.
Are these still going to kill the switch?
How hard is it to fit relays?

Yes. Fitting relays is easy, and on the Series the wiring is easily accessible. you just break the wire to the headlights (as close as possible to the headlights, the connectors next to the battery is probably a good spot) connect the wire going to the lights to the battery through the normally open contact of the relay, and connect the coil of the relay to the wire from the dip switch (the other end of the wire you broke) and to earth. Repeat for the other beam. Fusing the wire to each beam is recommended (preferably separately on the battery side of each relay), even though Joseph Lucas did not fuse the original lights. For 100w it is worth replacing the original wire to the lights with heavier wire, and of course use heavier wire for the one from the battery.

The "battery" supply can be the battery itself, or preferably the generator or alternator battery terminal, or as a third choice the starter relay. But the idea is to keep the lead as short as possible (bearing in mind that in normal running the generator or alternator will be supplying the power, not the battery), which means if your battery is under the seat, that is not a good choice.

If you really want to gild the lily, you could use separate relays for each side, but this is not really necessary.

P.S. If you are using the original generator rather than have converted it to alternator, I'd forget the 100w bulbs unless you have a good battery charger and are experienced at hand starting.

John

Well, just pulled the old bulb out and there is NO way a H4 will fit the plug back there.
I don't know if it needs some sort of convertor but as I need to take it spotlighting tomorrow night I'll just have to get another bulb like the 12V 50/40W LAMP No 414 I just pulled from it.

Originally Posted by kombi1976

Well, just pulled the old bulb out and there is NO way a H4 will fit the plug back there.
I don't know if it needs some sort of convertor but as I need to take it spotlighting tomorrow night I'll just have to get another bulb like the 12V 50/40W LAMP No 414 I just pulled from it.

I assumed when you said you had the bulb you had got the right ones! There are lots of different bulbs around, particularly if you go back a bit in time!

You will probably find a marked improvement just by fitting relays, and probably also by running an additional earth wire direct to the battery earth connection.

John