Fleetwood Meadow Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 Well I think I did pretty good this weekend. I was hustled I to helping empty a hoarders house so they could sell it and I was told that my payment was to take whatever I wanted. So an old clock, a lamp with a broken wire, and a box with a little duct tape on it was mine at the end of the day. The box said Guide Autronic Eye. In my ‘52 Cadillac Shop Manual there is a section talking about that but my car doesn’t have it. When I got home I opened the box, figuring I would see a broken unit. But to my delight I found a brand new unit that was never installed. I’m not sure if I’m going to actually install it in my car but the feature is pretty cool. Based on my very quick research, the serial number starts with 153 which means it went in a ‘53 Chevrolet. I’m not very familiar with the electrical history of Chevy but I know in ‘53 Cadillac went to 12V. I don’t know if all of GM did that or not and I’m not sure if it matters for this technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted December 10, 2018 Author Share Posted December 10, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhigdog Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 Nice find but they were kind of dumb. I had one in a 56 Caddy. It would react to reflected high beams and switch to low beams whereupon the reflected light would diminish so it would switch to high beams etc etc etc..........bob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 53 Chevrolet is six volt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lump Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 The Autronic Eye used to be a very popular accessory for collectors. Back when I did quite a bit of vending car parts at swap meets, I enjoyed finding them, as they were good sellers. I assume they still are. You could look at "Completed Sales" on eBay, and get a very accurate picture of the current value and level of demand for the item. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer09 Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 i SOLD ONE SEVERAL YRS BACK IN THE SAME CONDITION. nos AND FULLY COMPLETE WITH BOX. iT WAS A VERY LATE 58 AND FOR A bUICK. It brought very good money and paid me back for a cleanout I did, where I would have lost a good bit of money- but the autronic eye popped up and saved the day! fella who bought it, wtd it to make a run of them as reproductions. dont know if that ever happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Coon Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 I remember a customer telling about following a snowplow truck with a revolving yellow light. Said the headlight were going from high to low with every "flash" of the yellow light. Pretty funny story, But I guess at the moment the plow driver and the Cadi. driver were not that amused Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
61polara Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 They work relatively well on two lane roads, but mostly useless on Interstate highways. The floor dimmer switch controls the system. In the low beam setting you get only low beam. When you click the switch to high beam, it turns the system on and it automatically chooses high or low beam. The sensitivity could be adjusted for different lighting situations. These were all vacuum tube units until the end because vacuum tube reacted slower than transistors. Yes, you can get into interesting situations with them. One night I was driving a 1967 Lincoln in the city with the system on. A police car was in front of me and all the system started flashing the lights from the street lights. The officer was not amused. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John348 Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 36 minutes ago, 61polara said: The floor dimmer switch controls the system. Make sure that the dimmer switch is in the box. The few I found over the years it seems like someone borrowed the switch. They do work pretty well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketraider Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Bhigdog- your AE was absolutely out of adjustment. It took some effort but the things can be tuned to where they don't flash like a carnival ride. Moving the eye from the dash top to the grille eliminated a lot of the flashing problems. The later GuideMatic was an improvement as it was easier to aim and tune sensitivity. Olds finally dropped it in 1970 but Cadillac uses it to this day. What gets me are NEW vehicles that have automatic headlight dimming. Nissan/Toyota with it are especially annoying because they don't seem to be set to account for four-lane divided highways. They simply won't dim for approaching traffic. BMW versions get right up on another vehicle before they dim. And I'm told Jeeps that have it take about a 20-step process in the vehicle's computer to override or adjust it. Progress? I think not. My folks had a 66 Ninety Eight that had it and it did fine until reflective hiway signs appeared. We were returning from Lynchburg VA on US29 one night around 1970, about time bypasses around the small towns appeared, and my dad had the cruise set on 75 (US29 was a 70mph road back then) and GuideMatic turned on. We got on one of those bypasses and the new reflective signs sent the thing into orbit, to where after a few miles Mama said "Frank, turn that damn thing OFF!" 😸 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PONTIAC1953 Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 (edited) i have a 1953 pontiac chieftain custom catalina that was six volt, i'm converting it to twelve volts, among other options and accessories, i added a autronic eye set up from a 1954 olds (12 volts) is your 1952 cadillac still six volts ? Edited December 21, 2018 by pontiac1953 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhigdog Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 1 hour ago, rocketraider said: Bhigdog- your AE was absolutely out of adjustment. That may be. I would see it especially when I pulled up to the garage door. Poor thing didn't know WHAT to do. That and following a car on a lightly traveled road. It wasn't smart enough to dim the hi's. All in all just another un-necessary complication.........Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted December 21, 2018 Author Share Posted December 21, 2018 My Cadillac is a ‘52. It is 6 volts. The ‘53s were 12 volt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike36 Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 I can still hear Dad cussing those things . It happened several times when I was a kid. We would be meeting a car at night and their headlights would rapidly cycle from low beam to high beam to low beam and not stop until we were past them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PONTIAC1953 Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 4 hours ago, Fleet Meadow said: My Cadillac is a ‘52. It is 6 volts. The ‘53s were 12 volt. i know, it was a typo error that i corrected, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GK1918 Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Buyer beware! one on ebay last summer $1200 Totally worthless without the control box and dimmer switch. My 59 Continental has it and is possessed!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted December 25, 2018 Author Share Posted December 25, 2018 Well based on what I see in here it’s all here. I don’t plan on putting it in the car because I like manually controlling my car, in an age where everything is done for you. It has the eye, the control box, the switch, that grey relay thing, and instructions. It doesn’t appear to have ever been in a car. Are these systems based on voltage (6 or 12 volts) or is it just a switch for a system that is already in the car like a battery disconnect switch? What i mean is can this work in both 6 and 12 volts or is it volt specific? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now