6 volt hallogen bulbs

[Den41Buick]

I am attempting to replace my rear stop light/parking lights for my 6 volt electrical system. I have purchased one set of 6 volt hallogen bulbs each from Hirsch and LeBarron-Bonney. The bulbs are dual watt 5/20. My current 6 volt standard bulbs work perfectly. I am just trying to get a brighter light for safety.

I just tried my second set of bulbs from LeBaron-Bonney and they do not give any discernable light difference between parking light and stop light when the driving lights are on. Any suggestions? I have checked my wires and as I had said, the 6 volt standard bulbs work perfectly. Has anyone run into a similar issue? Is there an additional modification needed? Thanks.:confused:

[61polara]

Your 6 volt bulbs should do the job. Check to see that you actually have full battery voltage reaching the bulbs. Then check the ground curcit for excessive resistance. Both will reduce the brightness of the bulbs. Next look at the reflectors in the tail light to see that they are clean and not tarnished.

[jbbuick22]

Try LED light they draw a lot less current than the halogen bulbs and might be brighter.

Your tail light wiring was designed for incandescent bulbs and may not be able to handle

the extra current of halogen bulbs.

JB

[ply33]

Try LED light they draw a lot less current than the halogen bulbs and might be brighter.

Your tail light wiring was designed for incandescent bulbs and may not be able to handle

the extra current of halogen bulbs.

JB

I haven't checked on the tail/brake light replacements, but for head lights you can get quartz-halogen bulbs that draw the same power as the old incandescent bulbs so the load on the electrical system will be no different. In general a quartz-halogen bulb will put out about 40% more light than an incandescent of the same wattage so it is a reasonable upgrade. You might have to worry about heat in the lamp housing though. That is one reason I have quartz-halogen headlight bulbs (large housing in strong airflow position) but not quartz-halogen tail/brake light (small housing with hard to get glass lens very close to bulb).

Of course fixing the corroded wires, connectors, switches and bad grounds will actually be the biggest improvement you can make.

[Guest 36chev]

I am attempting to replace my rear stop light/parking lights for my 6 volt electrical system. I have purchased one set of 6 volt hallogen bulbs each from Hirsch and LeBarron-Bonney. The bulbs are dual watt 5/20. My current 6 volt standard bulbs work perfectly. I am just trying to get a brighter light for safety.

I've been very pleased with the halogen 6 volt stop/brake lights from Hirsch for the 36 Chevy. Immensely brighter than the 5-6 candle power bulbs. Of course I'm now using a later (1948) Chevrolet generator that has a regulator and puts out 35 amps. But the halogen bulbs had worked fine with the original 20 amp non-regulated generator. The reason I changed was that I could never find a charging rate with the 3rd brush that wouldn't either overcharge or keep up with the headlights. When I first got the car, it had the later 48 generator on it, but I put on an original 36 standard generator for originality. But since the 48 generator is only slightly larger, bolts right up without modification, and the only really visible difference is the regulator, I put it back on for better lights and battery life.

Edited February 14, 2012 by 36chev (see edit history)

[Grandpa]

I would like to offer a comment on the LeBaron-Bonney (L- 6 Volt halogen replacement bulbs. The stop light bulb in the L-B bulb is a 50 Watt bulb. A car with two stop lights would have 16 Amperes through the stop light switch and the wire to the rear of the car.

Grandpa