What exactly is this option?

Each front "pod" in my '63 has a yellow upper, white in the middle, and a yellow lower light.

If that's the "cornering light" option, what would be different without the option?

The cornering light option has a fourt bulb in it. It's a large clear bulb that sits at an angle in the lowest section of the housing. There could be a silver painted rubber plug in the housing if you don't have the cornering light option.

Here's a link to a Sylvania site that show all the bulb numbers for your '63.

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/LampReplacementGuide/AutoLRG-Results.htm

I'm going to check on something and let you know if there's a difference between the '63 and '64 wiring harness. In '64, there was a headlight relay that turned on one of the ambers light when the low beams were used and turned them off during high beam use. I don't think the '63 was wired this way.


Ed

You are correct, Ed. The parking lights are wired differently between '63 and '64. In '63 they are only on when the headlight switch is in Parking Lights position. When you pull the knob out to the Headlights position, the parking lights go off.

In '64, due to changes to federal law, the parking lights stay on with the headlights low beam. This is to show other drivers the full width of the car when one of the headlights is burned out. Otherwise they just see a single headlight bulb coming at them.

This change results in there being a different number of bulbs between the 2 years (3 bulbs, including cornering lamps, in '63 and 4 bulbs in '64). The front parking light and turn signal unit (the pod) is actually different between '63 and '64. They will physically interchange but the wiring and number of bulbs are different.

Jim,
Thanks for your information! I knew that the head lamp switches were different from 63 to 64, but I didn't know why! If the switch is internally different but has the same connector, I wonder if a guy could "upgrade" to the 64 switch?
Thanks,
Tim

Tim,

It's not just the switch on the '64, there's a high beam relay that sits on either the inner fender or the header panel on the passengers side. When the high beams are turned on, the relay turns off the parking lamp in the fender housing. This would also mean that the wiring harnesses are not the same.

Ed

Ed,
Or it could just mean the parking lights won't turn off when the high beams are on if you retrofit a 63 with a 64 switch?! Might be worth checking into further!
Thanks,
Tim

Tim,

I'll scan the wiring diagrams from the '63 and '64 chassis manuals I have and show you where the difference in is the harness.

I've had my '63 for a number of years and always errored on the side of caution when approaching another car at night because of how close together the headlights are on the '63.

When I got my '64, one of the first things I did was play around with the wiring to overcome this (not knowing what I know now.) It was driving me nuts because sometimes I'd have the lights I wanted and other times I wouldn't. I finally figured out, after studying the wiring diagram for the '64, that the factory already did what I was trying to do. What I didn't realize was that sometimes I was trying to do something with the low beams on, and other times I was trying to do the same thing with the high beams on. I kept getting different outcomes each time. Frustrating to say the least. After I figured out the wiring diagram, I put it all back to OEM specs and had what I was after in the first place.

Ed

Ed,
I have the 63 manual but not a 64, so if you could scan that one, I would appreciate it! I know that I've found it is very hard to fix a normal, designed-in condition!
One of the reasons that I'm interested in this is that the 64 Riviera headlamp switch is still available new from AC Delco and are less than 1/2 the price of a 63 switch if you can even find one.
Thanks,
Tim

One neat thing about the cornering lights. they make the lower half of the upper section of the parking light pod WHITE while the upper half stays AMBER as a turn signal.
this change from the white pale parking lamp before turning the signal lever.

Tim et al;

Here's the page from the '64 chassis manual that shows how the 'PARKING LAMP RELAY' is wired into the high beams and the parking lamps (2 on the '64, only 1 on the '63).

Hope you can figure out how to make something work. I thought that I'd read an article in the Riview once that told how to put a jumper wire in the '63 switch so that the parking lamps would stay on when the headligts were on, but I couldn't find it in the index of articles. Maybe someone else remembers it and can find it.

Ed