Brighter 6v bulbs for early fords

[fsacht]

fortyonerag, yes, they do work with positive earth (ground).

[uncle buck]

Originally Posted by fortyonerag

Do they work with positive earth?

Be careful , The 6 volt LED's I bought would only work with negative ground. The seller claimed they work either way and they didn't

[Kurt in NJ]

My friend bought a Packard, it came with several "bright" bulbs for the tail/ brake lights,halogen, led in several types,none were bright, I found there was only 4 volts at the tail/ brake lights, traced the loss to the ammeter, it had rusty nuts , changed the nuts and any of the bulbs were bright ---- the moral is check what voltage you have at the bulb with the bulb on --- with no load on the wire it can show full voltage

[JSeery]

An LED is a diode and should be directional. Worse case, reverse the wires on the socket.

Correction: This would be wrong, brain freeze!! You can NOT just reverse the wires on an LED bulb/socket.

[coolcoupe]

I trying to find around a 50/20 rear brake/tail light bulb. I had bought 2 a couple of years but now need 2 more and can't remember where I bought them
They were a lot brighter than the originals. Moe

[uncle buck]

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Originally Posted by JSeery

An LED is a diode and should be directional. Worse case, reverse the wires on the socket.

I went directly to the battery and put the bulbs in a new socket with just the 6" leads coming out of it to double check and see if they were bad bulbs. They only lit up with the socket grounded to the negative terminal. With the socket grounded to the positive and leads to the negative I got nothing.

[Jack E/NJ]

Yep. Reversing the LED wires won't do anything on a dual function bulb cuz one wire goes to the hot brake switch, the other to the hot light switch. If hot is the wrong polarity, LEDs won't work cuz the outside of the base is always to ground, not another wire and not isolated. The LED bulb itself must be internally set up for either positive or negative ground not both. Jack e/NJ

[JSeery]

Originally Posted by Jack E/NJ

Yep. Reversing the LED wires won't do anything on a dual function bulb cuz one wire goes to the hot brake switch, the other to the hot light switch. If hot is the wrong polarity, LEDs won't work cuz the outside of the base is always to ground, not another wire and not isolated. The LED bulb itself must be internally set up for either positive or negative ground not both. Jack e/NJ

Good point!! I was thinking a bit wrong there. The LED is a diode, but as you stated can't reverse the ground through the case!

[slowforty]

American Made 1154 Bulbs have Larger Filaments than the bulbs made in another country.

[corvette8n]

Originally Posted by Jack E/NJ

This seems to be a standard #1154 dual filament 6v bulb that is made by many name brand manufacturers like Sylvania. You can probably pick them up at NAPA or Amazon but I'm not sure they'll be any brighter. You can get much brighter 6V LED replacements that fit the standard 1154 base but I'm not sure you want to go that route. Jack E/NJ

The last time I was in my local NAPA buying a 6 volt bulb, the counter guy told me to stock up because NAPA was phasing out 6 volt stuff. The local Advanced Auto down the street said they didn't carry 6 volt bulbs, didn't question just walked out.

[oldskool]

what ever bulb is used paint the inside of the taillight white every little bit helps

[uncle buck]

Originally Posted by corvette8n

The last time I was in my local NAPA buying a 6 volt bulb, the counter guy told me to stock up because NAPA was phasing out 6 volt stuff.

That is not true. That particular store might phase them out but not all of the NAPA stores.

[fortyonerag]

Originally Posted by uncle buck

Be careful , The 6 volt LED's I bought would only work with negative ground. The seller claimed they work either way and they didn't

Yes, diodes (even light emitters - LED) are supposed to be directional and won't work on +ve ground unless specifically designed for it.

[flatheadmurre]

The universal LED´s have a bridge rectifier built into them allowing you to use either Pos. or Neg. Ground.
I used to gut a lightbuld socket and solder in what i needed myself...but its a lot of work.

[fortyonerag]

^^^^Thanks

[dumb person]

There is a way of building the LED bulbs to be duel polarity using 6 diodes. But most bulbs on the market only have a resistor or crude regulator.

[fortyonerag]

Bottom line is there are LEDS that will work with +ve earth and ones that won't. It all depends on how they are constructed.

[Merc Cruzer]

Originally Posted by coolcoupe

I trying to find around a 50/20 rear brake/tail light bulb. I had bought 2 a couple of years but now need 2 more and can't remember where I bought them
They were a lot brighter than the originals. Moe

https://www.octanelighting.com/produ...6v-box-of-10-1

I have these in my 53' Merc for turn signal/brake lights and they work great. I also have plastic lenses and no issues after 5 years. No they haven't melted the lenses!

Octane Lighting
675 Cochran St. Simi Valley,
CA 93065

Toll Free855) 962-8263
International: (818) 932-9522
Email: [email protected]
Open: 24hrs

As to LED positive ground bulbs:

https://www.ledlight.com/g18-s25-2_6...-polarity.aspx

Go into the web site, then click on automotive, then scroll down to 6 volt positive ground - three pages of bulbs.

"1154 led bulb for 6 Volt. The led bulb works for both positive ground chassis or negative ground chassis. 1154 LED bulb is a 6v led bulb. Up to 320 Lumen for brake light and up to 240 Lumen for tail light. This bulb is same as 1157 bulb that has two brightness levels or two filaments one is for the tail light and the other is for the brake light. This bulb works great for non polarity 6 volt positive or negative ground."

"After installation of these led bulbs your flasher circuit may hyper flash. Please order part number 84787 which is a 6 volt positive chassis flasher will fix the fast flashing. Please see recommend items for a 6 ohm load equalizer for more information to fix the hyper flashing using load equalizer. This 6 volt led bulb works great for brake lights, tail lights and turn signals."