Headlight wiring

[Lenny Bruce]

Hey gang! I’m fiddling with my headlights on ‘30 Tudor. The three prong set up is looking really old and weak. Prongs are touching things are worn out. Is their a kit or better wiring ideas available to do away with the old three prong set up?
I’d much rather go a better route…..6 Volt

[Planojc]

I cut those prongs off and spliced additional wires with bullet connectors and connect everything behind the radiator shell. I also soldered a ground wire to the socket and ran it to one of the shell bolts.

[TomInCologne]

i got a new set of 'three-prong-setups' but still i wasn't able to get a good flicker-free connection. At the end i just soldered the wires together, that was easy enough. At the same time i put a ground connection in, just for good measure...

[Joe K]

Ford's original light/socket/arrangement is certainly not the best.

For a while about 50 years ago the parts vendors were selling an aftermarket socket with a bakelite back and two screws one for each wire HI and LOW. It was fairly well made and had a large thin hex nut which held it into the reflector shell. The metal case of the socket took a ground on the reflector shell, much as Henry's original socket does on the shell and adjust screw.

The functional problem with this aftermarket socket is/was - there was no "Focus" adjustment. The screw on the back of the shell was not there (or simulated with a screw and nut on the inside) and you pretty much were stuck with whatever lighting pattern it happened to produce.

It also suffered from "Ford's Malaise" in that the ground being as it was through the reflector developed the same irregularities.

I used these for a while but found the performance MUCH improved with a separate ground wire which I soldered to the socket and laboriously fed back through the conduit to a place on the car frame.

Ford's version of the focus adjust socket has been reproduced - for a while people were suffering with sockets with "plastic" internals - internals which had a tendency to "melt" with the 35-21 bulbs most drivers favored. Nowadays these reproduction Ford sockets are better - I haven't heard of one melting now for possibly a decade. But even these can benefit from an actual ground wire. Some have complained about the "bullet ends" of the wiring harnesses now available which have to be exactly right for the socket to work.

The latest wrinkle in the headlight game is LED bulbs. These exist in a couple of variants, one pretty much a "replace your bayonet incandescent bulb" and developed to use the original reflector and relies on the Ford focus adjust socket. And another considered a "improved" version which is self contained and the reflector is not even actually required. See the latest version of the "Restorer" magazine for a head to head write up of various original and LED bulb options where the authors gave a thumb up enthusiastic approval of the new reflectorless LED bulb.

These new reflectorless LED bulbs are a little pricey - like $50 a bulb pricey - and I expect that most here would use a reflector simply to maintain the "usual" car appearance in daylight. Since these LED bulbs don't use or have need for the focus screw, it strikes me that they could be used easily with the earlier "aftermarket" socket I described.

I would be interested to hear of others experience with these new LED "reflectorless" bulbs.

Somewhere I have squirreled away those early "aftermarket" sockets. Maybe I should go find them?

Joe K

[Lenny Bruce]

Thanks guys I will take that advice!

[Synchro909]

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I've just finished replacing the globe holders and connectors in my A. The ones I am removing were terrible quality and the globe contacts shorted to earth, frying the wiring from the switch all the way to the light. The base was made of plastic which didn't handle the heat at all well so they distorted so much the "fingers" that were to hold them in place let go. That's when even more smoke came out - high and low beam were connected together.
The replacements I bought are of a much better quality and look like they will be fine. The plastic has been replaced by a red/brown fibre material that should be better. If you buy the later type, you should be OK. Fingers crossed!

[Lenny Bruce]

If you don’t mind me asking what vendor did you buy the replacements from and what exactly are they? Thanks

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by Lenny Bruce

If you don’t mind me asking what vendor did you buy the replacements from and what exactly are they? Thanks

I do not know where the ones I just removed came from. They were part of a deceased estate I bought which included many never used replacement parts. Some were quite old and these sockets might very well have been from a now superseded manufacturer. The ones I just fitted are from our local Model A part supplier but are just like the ones shown on Snyder's website.
I used their website for research but but local because we cannot get stuff from the US sellers.

[katy]

Originally Posted by Lenny Bruce

The three prong set up is looking really old and weak.

Is that 3 prong original style? Or is it on sealed beam headlights?

[Joe K]

I imagine the original style single bulb reflector. IIRC the three bullets are "captivated" Hi, Low, Park lights in one socket. The separate park would be the two bulb reflector.

My originals the bullet separating "plug" was made of some sort of "composite." (Henry was big on composites) which seems to have been wet for some time, swollen, and effectively "burst" the metal part of the socket - besides crumbling like particle board when you remove it.

The contact disk was similar - multiple thin layers of a micarta type composite which fell apart and were no longer held by the metal "fingers."

Joe K

[Bokrijder]

Joe K - I’m using the new $50 bulbs as tested in the magazine. Yes, they’re as good as they report in my experience. If you do much night driving, you’ll soon forget the price tag. Of course, yet to be discovered is their service life. If your current reflectors are In less than ideal condition, requiring an upgrade; the focused beam bulbs are a no brainer; a very cost effective solution.

[1931 flamingo]

The connections are inside the shells, where NO ONE can see them. Use modern connections. JMO
Paul in CT Only YOU will know.

[GeneBob]

The best addition to the headlights is to add a dedicated ground wire leading back to the frame. Grounding from the socket to the bucket then to the frame or from the socket to the frame ensures a good path.
When I first got my Tudor, the driver's side bulb was weak and would not light at all if I took out the passenger side bulb. I figured the ground path must be goofy and added a dedicated wire to both sides to fix it.