I have a 1966, Thought I would upgrade the head lamps to a set of halogen lamps. The problem is after they have been on for about 15 minutes they suddenly go off. I can turn the head light switch off and then back on and they will turn on. Has anyone else had this problem? Do they new lamps draw more amps?

 

Yes they do and it has accelerated your headlight switch failure. The headlight switch has the fuse/circuit breaker built in so it is what trips when your headlights overload the circuit. Even if you switch back to normal lamps they will start going on/off now. What is happening is that the HL switch is overheating so the lights go off, it cools and they come back on, if you feel the HL switch post that the **** is on it will be hot.

You need to replace your headlight switch and install relays to take the load off of the headlight switch. Even with the stock headlights the relay install will make them much brighter as it takes the load off of the switch. Here's a diagram and instructions. This is a great safety upgrade for these classics.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html

Jon

 

My 67 did this too after halogens.Mine waited till I was in the twisties going too fast.Only happened on high beam.Replaced dimmer switch and didnt have anymore problems.Jonk67 has the right idea to do it up right.

 

Thanks guys. This forum is the greatest place to get answers to your problems.

 

Yep the relays are the way to go.

 

Sorry for the rookie question here, but how do you remove the headlight switch? I took a brief look at mine (68) and nothing jumped out at me as a simple way to remove it. Any tips?

 

Un screw the face so that the light switch is loose. And then reach up into your dash. I like to unscrew my heater/ac **** panel so that I can get in from the side. There will be a screw that you depress that will allow you to pull the light **** all the way out and then the whole thing should just come out.

James

 

Thanks for the reply. That all sounds very doable but my problem is the "unscrew the face" part. I don't see any notching or anything on the face of the switch that would allow for it to be unscrewed. How do you go about unscrewing the face of it?

 

Pull the light switch **** out to "lights on" and there should be four slits in the 'face', I can angle a flat head to hit two of the slits, like the north and west facing slit.

Something I thought of last night, buy your new switch. Mine was 40 or 50 bucks I think, and play with that before you take the old one out. It will also let you play with the light **** release so that you can blindly remove it from your car after you play around with the replacement one.

James