JohnTeee Posted October 12, 2011 Report Posted October 12, 2011 So John, do you think the "white" LEDs will work for the front turn indicators? I think they would work well and be a huge improvement. That will be the next light upgrade. Right now, I'm more worried about the idiots behind me and those REALLY dim 6V lights. One of the choices in the SuperBrightLED, that was not a choice for these cars, was 'wide' or 'narrow' angle LEDs. If I remember, both the LED for the stop and the turn/tail, would be narrow angle, red, LEDs. Wide angle would have been really nice . . . I would think if you could find a 'wide angle' white, your front turns would REALLY stand out. But, you choose from what's available. And as mentioned in another post here, amber would be workable too. Not 'stock', but then, neither were LED's!!! Cheers! John Quote
Captain Neon Posted October 12, 2011 Report Posted October 12, 2011 From what I have read elsewhere , your ordinary flasher will work if you are using regular incandescent bulbs in your system someplace , like your front turn signals . I also have read that you can just put an incandescent bulb anywhere in the circuit to draw enough current to make your old flasher work . I kept my front bulbs regular incandescent and installed LEDs in the back. Regular flasher works great. Quote
JohnTeee Posted October 12, 2011 Report Posted October 12, 2011 You could probably also just put an appropriately sized resistor in the circuit. Then you wouldn't have to be annoyed by a light flashing under the dash or in the trunk. They (SuperBrightLED) sell an expensive looking "load resistor kit", with aluminum cooling fins, to solve that problem. What WOULD be an appropriate sized resistor? I just measured resistance across the two terminals of an 1154 and got .4 Ohm on one and 1 Ohm on the other . . . I guess there would be some more with wiring, depending on the gauge, length and condition . . . Ah, the "load resistor kits" come in 6Ohm/50W and 25Ohm/25W versions. One for each bulb, for $4.95. Then they also sell standard resistors . . . Cheers! John Quote
Drdialtone Posted October 13, 2011 Report Posted October 13, 2011 I think they would work well and be a huge improvement. That will be the next light upgrade. Right now, I'm more worried about the idiots behind me and those REALLY dim 6V lights.One of the choices in the SuperBrightLED, that was not a choice for these cars, was 'wide' or 'narrow' angle LEDs. If I remember, both the LED for the stop and the turn/tail, would be narrow angle, red, LEDs. Wide angle would have been really nice . . . I would think if you could find a 'wide angle' white, your front turns would REALLY stand out. But, you choose from what's available. And as mentioned in another post here, amber would be workable too. Not 'stock', but then, neither were LED's!!! Cheers! John John, Couldn't agree more about the whackos behind us! As for the front, white or amber would be fine with me. I'm looking for safety enhancements for my daily driver. I also ordered the solid state flasher. Might be a few more "foreign" items up under the dash, but that's OK by me. Cheers, Kirk Quote
TodFitch Posted October 13, 2011 Report Posted October 13, 2011 They (SuperBrightLED) sell an expensive looking "load resistor kit", with aluminum cooling fins, to solve that problem. What WOULD be an appropriate sized resistor? I just measured resistance across the two terminals of an 1154 and got .4 Ohm on one and 1 Ohm on the other . . . I guess there would be some more with wiring, depending on the gauge, length and condition . . . Ah, the "load resistor kits" come in 6Ohm/50W and 25Ohm/25W versions. One for each bulb, for $4.95. Then they also sell standard resistors . . . Cheers! John Incandescent light bulb filaments change their resistance based on temperature. So the resistance you measure cold with your volt-ohm meter is not the same resistance the electrical system on your car sees when the bulb is illuminated. See http://www.ply33.com/Backmatter/lightbulbs for some bulb ratings The brake/turn signal filament of a 1154 bulb is rated at 2.63 amps at 6.4 volts. So when on, it presents a load of 2.4 ohms. The front turn signal filament will have a similar output and similar resistance. They are in parallel, so the electrical load presented to the flasher unit by both lamps will be about 1.2 ohms. I believe that 1.2 ohms is one of the standard values available in electronic supplies. If you put a 1.2 ohm resistor across a car electrical system that might get up to 8 volts, you'll need it to be able to dissipate about 50 watts. Thats a big resistor that might have heat sink fins on it. In the old days, at least for 12v systems, you could get "heavy duty" flasher units. Basically those decoupled the external resistance relationship to the flashing speed by having a separate contact for power to the lights that was mechanically connected to a bi-metallic arm with its own contact and internal resistance that controlled the on/off rate. If there was a 6v version of this available, then it should work with LED lamps without needing external load resistors or an electronic flasher. Quote
JohnTeee Posted October 13, 2011 Report Posted October 13, 2011 Incandescent light bulb filaments change their resistance based on temperature. (good stuff deleted)The brake/turn signal filament of a 1154 bulb is rated at 2.63 amps at 6.4 volts. (more good stuff deleted) If you put a 1.2 ohm resistor across a car electrical system that might get up to 8 volts, you'll need it to be able to dissipate about 50 watts. Thats a big resistor that might have heat sink fins on it. (even MORE good stuff!) If there was a 6v version of this available, then it should work with LED lamps without needing external load resistors or an electronic flasher. I suspected in use would change resistance; failed to remember heat. Good answers Tod! Did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night? Cheers! John Quote
busycoupe Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 My 6V led bulbs arrived from superbrightleds.com yesterday. They work great. I got the 1157-R19-6V red bulbs for the tail/stop lights and a 1156-R19-6V bulb for the center brake light. The bulbs plug right in and fit into the lens housing easily. The only difference is that the original 1158 bulbs in the tail lights had non-staggered pins. The 1157 led bulbs have staggered pins because the tail light circuit is a little dimmer than the stop light circuit. The bulbs will plug in, but I had to determine the correct orientation of the bulbs by trial and error. They make a big diffference in brightness. The pictures below were taken in daylight. The left is with the tail lights and brake lights on using the original bulbs, the right is with the led bulbs. My car has separate fixtures on the rear for directionals visible in the photos so the resistance of the bulbs was not an issue. I may try led's in those later. Dave:) Quote
Don Coatney Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Glad they work and they sure look good. Do these bulbs look like the one I pictured below? Interesting numbering system on your 6 volt bulbs. An 1157 bulb was a standard 12 volt tail/brake light bulb in the old days. Quote
busycoupe Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Yes the bulb is very similar to the one in your picture. I recognized the 1157 number as a 12V bulb also. Apparently superbrightled uses 1157 to indicate the base configuration and the dual "filament" capability. The second part of the number designates the voltage. These bulb were available in several different voltages. Quote
Plymouthy Adams Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 here is a distributor of genuine 6 volt LED replacements..pos or neg ground look closely at the number of LEDs and their placement within the bulb housing..these give you great lighting it seems..seems he has all angles covered in his application http://www.highspeedmotors.com/Webled.html Quote
Don Coatney Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Now you all got me to thinking. Back in the late 1950's when I was one of those snot nosed punk kids that hung around the gas station pumping gas, checking oil, washing windshields, fixing flats, and replaceing burned out bulbs (all without pay while the guy getting paid was looking at playboy pictures in the back room) I memorised 1034, and 1157, and other bulb numbers. If I recall both of these bulbs had staggered pins and were direct replacements. Now due to this thread I wonder if the pin placement was different on these bulbs? Now I wish I had memorised the playboy pictures as the pin placement was almost always the same. Quote
busycoupe Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Tim, the 6V bulbs I bought from superbrightled.com have 19 led's and work on positive or negative ground. They cost me $7.95 each. The High Speed corp. bulb #6P01 appears to be the same, and they are charging $20 for it. They do also offer 33 led bulbs, but they are even more pricey. I recommend superbrightled.com. Dave Quote
TodFitch Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Now you all got me to thinking. Back in the late 1950's when I was one of those snot nosed punk kids that hung around the gas station pumping gas, checking oil, washing windshields, fixing flats, and replaceing burned out bulbs (all without pay while the guy getting paid was looking at playboy pictures in the back room) I memorised 1034, and 1157, and other bulb numbers. If I recall both of these bulbs had staggered pins and were direct replacements. Now due to this thread I wonder if the pin placement was different on these bulbs? Now I wish I had memorised the playboy pictures as the pin placement was almost always the same. The miniature lamp guides that I have list the bases as "bayonet" if the pins are on the same line or "index" if the pins are staggered. The "signal lamp" (tail light) bulb for my 1933 is a 1158 which is listed as a 6v double contact bayonet (i.e. pins are not staggered). The staggered pin version is a 1154. Quote
TodFitch Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Tim, the 6V bulbs I bought from superbrightled.com have 19 led's and work on positive or negative ground. They cost me $7.95 each. The High Speed corp. bulb #6P01 appears to be the same, and they are charging $20 for it. They do also offer 33 led bulbs, but they are even more pricey. I recommend superbrightled.com.Dave Just looking over the two sites, High Speed has a version with white LEDs around the edge and red facing out. For an older car like mine where the license plate illumination is from the same bulb as the tail/brake this would work much better than any I see on the Super Bright LED site. One drawback to both: I check the functioning of my brake light while I'm driving by looking at the ammeter. I'd guess that an LED version would not draw enough current to show on the meter. Quote
Jerry Roberts Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 An easy way to check your brake lights at night is to back up next to your garage door and step on the brakes and look out the rear window . Quote
Don Coatney Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 I'd guess that an LED version would not draw enough current to show on the meter. Tod; When I first bought my car the prior owner had done a half fast 12 volt conversion. Some of the bulbs were 12 volt such as the tail brake bulbs but the rest were still 6 volt such as the dash light bulbs. My car had a 12 volt generator that did not generate. I drove the car for a couple of weeks charging the battery daily using my charger. In this mode everytime I hit the brake pedal the amp gauge would move to the discharge side of the gauge. After the engine finally quit I completed the 12 volt conversion along with all other modifications. Once I had my car back in driving condition with the 12 volt upgrade and the LED bulbs I pictured below my amp gauge no longer moved when I hit the brake pedal. I soon converted to the Technostilgia LED new fixtures and with this upgrade the current draw is not enough to move the amp gauge. So your guess is correct. Quote
TodFitch Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 An easy way to check your brake lights at night is to back up next to your garage door and step on the brakes and look out the rear window . I do that, but with only one tail lamp on the car I do like to check it as I drive. After all, it could burn out at any time. If there were two tail/brake lights on the car then it would not be as big a deal as it would be unlikely that both would burn out at the same time. Quote
Jerry Roberts Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 (edited) I also received new 6 volt LED s from Superbright . During installation I discovered a wire in my system that was attached to the wrong spot . After about 3 days of head scratching I connected the wire in the correct spot and I now have bright tail - brake - and turn signal lights using the original incandescent bulbs . The brake lights are shown in the photo but they look brighter in real life .http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u30/spotty_bucket/P1010129-1.jpg[/img]" Edited October 21, 2011 by Jerry Roberts Quote
Drdialtone Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 My 6V led bulbs arrived from superbrightleds.com yesterday. They work great. I got the 1157-R19-6V red bulbs for the tail/stop lights and a 1156-R19-6V bulb for the center brake light. The bulbs plug right in and fit into the lens housing easily. The only difference is that the original 1158 bulbs in the tail lights had non-staggered pins. The 1157 led bulbs have staggered pins because the tail light circuit is a little dimmer than the stop light circuit. The bulbs will plug in, but I had to determine the correct orientation of the bulbs by trial and error. They make a big diffference in brightness. The pictures below were taken in daylight. The left is with the tail lights and brake lights on using the original bulbs, the right is with the led bulbs. My car has separate fixtures on the rear for directionals visible in the photos so the resistance of the bulbs was not an issue. I may try led's in those later. Dave:) Did you use a different flasher with your installation? Quote
busycoupe Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 On my car the directionals are separate from the tail lights. I did noy change the directional bulbs so the flasher was not an issue. Dave Quote
Plymouthy Adams Posted October 19, 2011 Report Posted October 19, 2011 Tim, the 6V bulbs I bought from superbrightled.com have 19 led's and work on positive or negative ground. They cost me $7.95 each. The High Speed corp. bulb #6P01 appears to be the same, and they are charging $20 for it. They do also offer 33 led bulbs, but they are even more pricey. I recommend superbrightled.com.Dave for the money..I am inclined to agree...I have but one car running original 6 volt and have nice new plastic lenses with blue dots and they are very easy to see..I have folks pulling up beside me at night saying they just love the rear lights.. Quote
White Spyder Posted October 23, 2011 Report Posted October 23, 2011 Got mine in. My running and directional are one bulb and the indexed fit right in and are much brighter. I will have to get the electronic flasher unit even though the front directionals are still regular bulbs I now do not get a flash for turns. Quote
White Spyder Posted October 25, 2011 Report Posted October 25, 2011 Oh, yeah. THAT'S the other thing they told me! How does this look?:http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Turn-Signal-Flasher-Relay/dp/B000VTTDYY/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1318445175&sr=1-1 Cheers! John (edited to change link to link, instead of image) Just spoke with these guys and they said this one is NOT for a 6V system. Any one have one that is? Quote
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