Electrical / headlight problem and a new degree of driving excitement!

[crazycasey]

First off, this question is specifically about my '53 Meadowbrook, but I am sure that it pertains to all old Mopars.

So while driving home from my favorite watering hole last night, all the lights in the car suddenly turned off (headlights, dash, and taillights). Luckily the moon was pretty bright, so no panic situation. I instantly started jiggling the headlight switch, wires, etc, but to no avail. Then, after I had more or less accepted my fate, everything turned back on just as suddenly as it had turned off. Fast forward another couple of miles down the road, and they did it again, and then back on about 45 seconds later.

Do these cars have a circuit breaker instead of a fuse? All my wiring looks ok...old, but ok. I'm not sure where to start, aside from rewiring the entire car, which it probably needs, but I like the 6volt electrics!

[Plymouthy Adams]

yes some models are equipped with a circuit breaker and by the description of your problem I would say it was cycling how it should..You have for some reason an excess drain on the headlight circuit..could very well be a shorted wire..short in a socket where you are powering up both elements at the same time..do not overlook the dimmer switch as these are notorious for corrosion that does indeed lead to excess amperage draw..clean all grounds and inspect for good bright light when on..poor grounds will also cause excessive draw..as will a loose connection..check behind the headlight switch and feed wire for good insulation and tight clean connections...

IF you have an dependable amp guage and can read the exact draw of the headlight circuit..you may find that you have in fact a weak circuit breaker..these are available at most parts stores and if not go to a RV center..these are very commmon there for wiring assessories for the RV's..

Edited September 24, 2009 by Tim Adams

[woodie49]

You didn't notice any saucer-shaped objects in the sky and a significant lapse of time you couldn't account for, did you?

[Young Ed]

Yes by then the headlights have an auto resetting circuit breaker. After this many years even though your wiring looks good its probably full of poor connections and causing the headlight switch to overheat.

[Plymouthy Adams]

You didn't notice any saucer-shaped objects in the sky and a significant lapse of time you couldn't account for, did you?

should not have been..I have had the entire fleet grounded due to inclimate weather here in Georgia...the grays are getting restless however..

[Jim Saraceno]

Is this a new development or is this a new (to you) car?

I'm thinking you either have too many devices on one circuit breaker, the breaker is too small, or the breaker is going bad.

Your symptom (as others said) sounds like a self resetting type. What trips these is too much current. If you had bad grounds it would actually decrease the current. A short would increase the current.

I would start by turning on one thing at a time until it starts happening. That might give you an idea of where the problem is.

[crazycasey]

This car never had this problem before. The lights are very bright, which is why I never questioned their wiring, but when this problem started I did look at the wiring, and it looks ok. I have added an electric fuel pump, but it is on a different circuit. Where is the circuit breaker located?

[RobertKB]

Likely the circuit breaker. My '53 Plymouth has a circuit breaker so I imagine your Meadowbrook does as well. I have not experienced that problem yet, however.

[greg g]

The breaker is bolted up under the dash somewhere. Might be on the rear of the gauge cluster over the speedo. I had a similar experience the other evening. Mine has the fuse attached to the rear of the headlamp switch. I have run into the same thing twice now and probably need to address it. I would thing its self inflicted as I have wired my three tail lamps to work as brake lights and I am running 55 watt halogen bulbs for brake lights. So if I leave my foot on the brake for a while, the circuit will over heat. The last time the actual fuse strip did not burn through, so at first glance the fuse looks good, just won't pass current. The last fuse had a blob of solder coming out from the lower end cap. Looks like it gets hot enough to melt the solder but not quick enough to fry the fuse. So I guess I will go back to my old fixtures and the incandescent lamps of a higher candle power than OEM cause OEM is just to dim.

Lights are nice and bright but apparently drawing to much.

[Oldguy48]

Sounds like the problem you are having may be that the connection between the fuse, and the fuse holder has a bit of tarnish or corrosion causing some resistance. Current flowing through a resistance produces heat. The actual current flowing through the fuse may not be enough to blow it, but if there is a poor connection , that fuse will get hot enough to melt the fuse link where it attaches to the metal cap on the end of the fuse. That same resistance will creat a voltage drop, so the load on the circuit will see less than normal voltage.

[Joe Flanagan]

should not have been..I have had the entire fleet grounded due to inclimate weather here in Georgia...the grays are getting restless however..

You think you're the only guy with a fleet of UFOs? There's a bunch of people here in DC who claim the same thing. Of course, they live on grates and camp outside the White House, but I'm just saying.

[TodFitch]

Sounds like the problem you are having may be that the connection between the fuse, and the fuse holder has a bit of tarnish or corrosion causing some resistance. Current flowing through a resistance produces heat. The actual current flowing through the fuse may not be enough to blow it, but if there is a poor connection , that fuse will get hot enough to melt the fuse link where it attaches to the metal cap on the end of the fuse. That same resistance will creat a voltage drop, so the load on the circuit will see less than normal voltage.

Boy did it take me a long time to figure this out on my 1933: The fuse would never blow but it would fail by de-soldering the ends. Only at night with the lights on.

I finally took out the ammeter (on the back of which is the only fuse in the car) and clean up the rivets holding things together. Once cleaned, I soldered those joints. That was back in 1977 or so and I haven't had that problem since.

When you put in new wiring you also want to clean up all connections, like those on the back of the ammeter, and all switches too. Fortunately the high/low beam switch is still available new. And I was able to find a replacement headlight switch that fit perfectly in my dash that, once I re-threaded the pull rod, I was able to put my original knob. Makes a big difference! Not sure that a new headlight switch is available for P15 cars though...

[greg g]

I had the problem again the other night in the rain. Luckily my signals are wired and lamped independently, as we were able to pull to the shoulder and get the fuse changed

As I know that my stop lamps are drawing a big load, I am going to wire them from a seperate power source with a seperate fuse. There is also a guy on the Studebaker forum that is selling 6 v pos led bulbs. Probably will not work with old style flasher as they don't pull enough amps to load the flasher but in my system they will work fine and lighten the load over my 55 watt halogens.

http://www.highspeedmotors.com/

[Don Coatney]

As I know that my stop lamps are drawing a big load, [/url]

Another advantage of using LED lights on the rear of my car. When I stomp my brake pedal the amp gauge does not budge as the LED's do not draw much current even though they are brighter than standard lamps. I have converted to 12 volt negative ground and am using Technostolgia light fixtures. Click on the picture to see them in action.