Upgrading your lighting system

So, you say your headlamps aren't bright enough, and you want to do something about it? The very first thing you should do is aim them. It's amazing how much better even old tungsten sealed beams are when they're pointed where they're supposed to be! Best of all, it's free.

The next thing to do is check the electrical connections. Most importantly, make sure you have a good ground coming off each headlamp. The Lucas bullet connectors are usually pretty good, but the wire going into them isn't strain relieved and some strands may have broken over time. Check for corrosion on the spade lug connectors; if you have any doubts, replace them. Use a good crimping tool *and* solder - most "automotive" crimping tools won't make a gas-tight seal, and if gas can get in, moisture can get in, which leads to corrosion. Throw away the plastic collar on the connector (if you buy that kind) and make your own strain relief with multiple layers of heat shrink. This is another area where the economies of the automotive industry did not have long liftimes in mind, and we can learn from the technology used by aircraft engineers.

OK, that's not bright enough? Time to start spending some money. They cheapest upgrade you can do is to replace your headlamps with new versions of what's in there. If you're in the US, that means buying new sealed beams with tungsten filaments - something like US$5/side. If you're anywhere else, replace the bulb unit - it can't cost much. (But keep reading before you head out to the store!)

Just for grins, check the aim again after you've made the swap. (Have you detected a theme here?) The theory is that you don't alter the alignment when changing bulbs, but manufacturing tolerances are not that tight.

The reason this can make a difference is that tungsten filaments get dimmer over time - while the lamp is on, a microscopic amount of the filament gets boiled off and deposited on the glass. This forms a barrier to the light, so the light gets dimmer! In a quartz halogen light, the bulb globe is made of quarts (to withstand the higher temperature). The bulb itself is filled with one of the inert halogen gasses (iodine or bromine), which acts to redeposit the tungsten particles emitted from the filament at incandescence back onto it instead of on the inside of the globe, which causes the characteristic glass blackening - one of the reasons, along with corrosion resistance, that we in the US got saddled with sealed beams in the 1930s.

But if you're going to go to the effort of taking your headlamp apart, I suggest that you at least spend a bit more and move to slightly newer technology: buy a halogen sealed beam (in the US), or put in a halogen capsule that's rated at approximately the same wattage as your stock capsule (that probably means 60/55 watts instead of 45/40).

This gets you an improvement in light output with relatively low expense and doesn't run you afoul of any laws (in the US, the separate bulb/reflector units that I'm about to go into aren't legal, but no one pays much attention). You also won't toast your wiring.

Speaking of wiring, you may be able to get an improvement in light output by upgrading your wiring harness and continuing to use the stock headlamps. Most British cars run the headlamp circuit unfused, and use fairly thin leads in the wiring harness to the switch, if not out to the headlamps.

If you're running "classic" separate bulb units (like the Lucas PL700 "tripods" or Le Mans, or Marchal Equilux), you'll need to get a special bulb - you can't just go out and buy an H4 bulb and plug it in. PL700s take what's known as a P45 or type A base. Halogen capsules on a P45 base are commonly available (see vendors, below, or the Monster Vendors list ). The LeMans lamps are on a P36 base - also adaptable, but more rare these days; they need a different bulb and a special adaptor to fit the modern three prong lighting plug.

If you have British PreFocus headlamps, you may be out of luck. I've never run a car with BPF, so I have never tried to upgrade the lamps; I'd love to hear from someone who has. I believe that the solution for the Le Mans headlights is what's needed for BPF bulbs, but I'm not sure.

Now, if you want to go to the expense of getting better lamps than your car left the factory left with, it will take some work - read on.

Get a better headlamp

Please note - I'm writing about 7" round headlight because they are what I know - all my cars are fitted with them. The same theories apply to smaller round or rectangular, but I have never dealt with them so I can't make specific recommendations. Call David at OJ Rallye and discuss your needs - he'll set you up right.

There is no reason to tolerate 1930's headlights in the 1990's, be it a fine vintage car or your modern sedan. Installed responsibly, toady's quartz halogen lights provide efficient lighting to the dirver and are inoffensive to opposing traffic. Several car manufacturers and tuners have now engineered through loopholes in the 1930 US lighting laws and provide QH lamps as standard equipment. Few communities enforce these old laws, and most of the lights aren't even that expensive. (Most H4 lamps seem to fail to meet the letter of the law only because they don't have aiming bumps.) I don't believe that there is any reason not to have these superior and safer lights.

Usually the term "quartz halogen" is used broadly to refer to any light system using a QH bulb, because lens, reflector and shielding all work hand in hand with the improved bulbs. Lenses, for instance, are lead crystal, the clearest glass man can make. Reflectors in the quality lights are precisely shaped stainless steel with highly polished, aluminized coating (even more reflective than chrome), not silvered plastic. Bulb location, shielding and lens fluting are all closely controlled dimensionally to give sharp upper cutoff for better vision in weather conditions and to keep from blinding oncoming traffic.

QH headlights are usually built to European (E-code) specs, which feature a distinct horizontal cutoff low beam that gives an amazing amount of light without blinding an approaching driver. High beam range is generally twice that supplied by US Federal sealed beam.

The best, bar none, 7" round headlights in the world right now are the Marchal H4 "flat face" lamps. Unfortunately, they are no longer manufactured, and are getting rare and expensive (the only source I know is charging more than $200 each).

What makes these lamps so very good is that they have a razor sharp low-beam cutoff; unless the fog is *very* thick, you don't need any auxiliary lamps (assuming that you've aimed the headlights correctly, of course).

After that, I would choose a Cibie Z beam, and then a Cibie "E Code". These can be had in the US for about $90/pair. These also have a great low-beam cutoff.

Either of these lamps should get you through the worst weather without the need for an auxiliary lamp - provided you drive slowly enough for the conditions. The low-beam cutoff is critical to not letting the light reflect back into your eyes.

Hella has a good reputation and a large market presence. Unfortunately, I don't have any direct experience with them. They are not the first name that comes up with rallyists get together and talk lighting. Unfortunately, Valeo, which is now the parent company of both Marchal and Cibie, does not seem to care much about the US market any more, nor much about the lighting aftermarket in general.

There are cheaper lamps. I don't have any experience with them. I look at lighting the way I look at brakes: it's not worth skimping a few dollars.

*Any* 7" H4 will be an improvement over the stock sealed beams. Even the sealed halogens (Sylvania makes them, among others) will be an improvement, but they suffer from many of the same problems that tungsten sealed beams do - in particular, they typically have a very poor reflector design.

One thing to note is that H4 lamps are *not* legal in the US; the ancient DOT laws against separate bulb headlamps apply, so H4 lamps are marked "for off road use only". Most jurisdictions don't care any more; maybe one day the law will get changed. If you care that much, use the sealed beam halogens and accept the results.

Hella has recently come on the market with an H4-derived lamp that they somehow claim is DOT legal. I don't have experience with these, either, but they might be worth checking out if you're in the habit of attracting cops who are looking for an excuse to write you a ticket.

Again, whatever lamp you choose, AIM IT PROPERLY!

Now, back the H4 lamps. Upgrade the stock 60/55 bulb - for courteous street driving, I recommend a 100/55. If you're careful about aiming, trust your wiring and don't think you'll attract the attention of cops, go for the 100/80 or 130/90 or higher ... but don't come back to me when your stock wiring melts. Even if you install relays, the wiring out to the headlamps in our cars is woefully small. I ran 100/80s for a while and the resistance out to the buckets was high enough that they weren't appreciably brighter than the 60/55s. (Note that most European countries have declared lamps brighter than 60/55 illegal. If people would learn to aim their lamps properly, we wouldn't have such ridiculous laws on the books.)

Upgrading your wiring harness

If you make any of these upgrades, add relays, and fuses. The stock harness in most of our cars runs all the headlight current through that teeny-tiny headlamp switch, which often comes from the factory with 18 gauge leads! If the contacts don't burn, and the wires don't melt, you'll be getting a lot of voltage drop. Not to mention that the headlamp circuit is typically unfused - a ground fault/short here will cause serious harness damage. (If your switch isn't the weak point, someplace else will be - our Morris Minor has a great harness all the way out to the fenders, but the subharness that goes through the fenders to the lamp is made up of 18 gauge wire...)

At the very least, you want a relay and fuse on the high beam circuit. The best (and easiest!) way to do this is to buy a fused Marchal 514 relay. They're bulletproof, and can easily be spliced into the high beam circuit. Find some source of unswitched 12V (brown wire, you want a heavy one). Find the blue/white wire leaving the dip switch (usually there's a connector that connects the switch, the lead out to the lamps, and the indicator - this is a good spot). Connect the brown wire to the source terminal on the relay. Connect the U/W wire coming from the switch to the coil. Connect the U/W wire going to the headlamps to the load. Make a good coil ground. Voila! You now have brighter high beams, even if you didn't change the lamps. (If you're particularly anal, wire the new harness with appropriate colors - I would use blue/slate for the lead that splices from relay to the headlamp wire). Use heavy wire for the load connections - 14 gauge.

If you think about it for a little while, you can make up a neat two- or three-wire harness and mount the relay where it's out of the way but accessible (so you can change the fuse if it blows). In the GT6+, I mounted it on the firewall with all the other relays; there's a good source of hot at the overdrive relay, and it was easy to pass the two-wire harness through one of the existing grommets.

Now, if you're having fun, you can rig a parallel relay for the low beams. If you're going to do this, then consider not using two Marchal relays, but two unfused relays, sharing a single source, which you fuse. Lucas makes a very nice metal relay with a separable plastic base (it's called a 28RA) - you can snap the bases together to make up a multi-unit block, and there is available a fuse holder that snaps to the end (holds a modern blade-style fuse). These are all available from British Wiring.

Sometimes this isn't good enough, because the harness out to the lamps is not up to the task. One fellow with a TR3 measured more than a volt voltage drop from the switch to the lamps. In this situation, you want to mount the relays out at the lamp end of the harness; there's usually a spot near the grille where one wire becomes two, and this is the place to splice in to minimize that sort of voltage drop.

Auxiliary lamps

Use relays and fuses. If you're clever and careful, you can put it all together without cutting the original harness. My TR4A has a set of four relays and a Lucas two-fuse box in the driver's footwell: the low and high beams are on individual relay circuits, the driving lamps on another, and the fourth relay is a changeover - I can select just the high beams, just the driving lamps, or both together, when the dipswitch is in the "main" position. It took a weekend to figure out exactly how to splice into the original harness, but the result looks as if the factory intended it that way.

Aiming your headlamps

If you haven't figured it out yet, I think that aiming is important. Your lights are dangerous and ineffective when improperly aimed. There are specialized machines that aim headlamps very accurately - but these tend to be in the hands of "official, certified" shops who will either call the light cops or charge you for aiming and even give you a certificate saying they're aimed, but not do anything. So it's best to just learn to aim them yourself.

The basic goal is to get the beams parallel to your direction of travel, low enough that they don't blind oncoming traffic, and the same height. You should see the low beam cutoff on the cars in front of you.

First, find a level stretch of driveway that is adjacent to a wall or garage door (to act as the aiming screen). Prepare the car in normal travel trim (i.e., luggage, fuel and passenger load simulated). Roll the car up to the wall. Mark the headlight centers both vertically and horizontally with a heavy felt tip on the screen. (You might want to use a large piece of cardboard and save it to be re-used on the same car; these days I tend to stick a couple of Post-Its on the wall and be done with it.) Mark the center of any auxiliary light as well. Now, roll the car straight back, 25 feet. Scribe a straight line between the headlight centers (line B). Measure down 3" and draw another horizontal line (D). Do the same for your auxiliary lights. One at a time, aim the lights as follows (turn off or cover the lights not being aimed):

Low Beams. The correct visual aim for low beams is with the top edge of the beam at horizontal D. The point at which the cutoff begins to rise to the right should be located straight ahead of the lamp at the intersection of D and C.

High Beams. The correct visual aim for high beams is with the center of the high intensity zone at horizontal, straight ahead of the lamp as indicated by circles C1 and C2. When aiming high beams on a four headlamp system, cover the adjacent headlights.

Auxiliary Lamps. To aim your lamps, turn the lamp to be aimed on and cover or turn off all other lamps. Loosen the nuts on the mounting bolts and move the lamps until the light falls into the place recommended by the aiming diagram.

For Fog Lamps: light should fall between lines B and D as indicated by shaded rectangles.

For Driving Lamps: light should fall straight ahead of the lamps at the intersection of lines B and C1 and C2 as indicated by circles.

Tighten the nuts on the mounting bolts securely when aiming is completed.

Future technologies

The future promises new and wondrous lighting technologies. One, projector bulbs, is on the road already. This is a variant of the kind of bulbs you find in a slide or movie projector: a very small QH light capsule with a small but precise reflector attached to it. PIAA pioneered this in their line of compact auxiliary lamps, and a number of OEM manufacturers have adopted it for their cars. Porsche and BMW have gone so far as to package small projector units in a traditional-looking round headlamp. It provides a very tightly controlled beam, without much upward splash. It can also be put into a small package, which is good for modern cars that are concerned with front end aerodynamics to meet CAFE standards.

The other, ion discharge, may be here in a few years. It's unlikely that you'll be putting it on your British car - it's basically a small-scale carbon arc lamp, which requires a very high (400V) starting voltage and about 60V to keep the arc going. It promises very efficient, very white light, but requires a completely new kind of wiring harness.

And manufacturers are still talking about light pipes - a system where there is a single, very bright source of lighting (probably something like the ion discharge unit) and a collection of fiber optics that directs the light to the right place in the car. But no one has road tested such a system yet, as far as I know.

... and be seen

Now that you can see what's in front of you, it's time to wonder if the people behind can see you! You can do many of the same things to check out your brake and tail lamps - clean up the wiring harness, polish the reflector, clean the lenses - but most of our cars have small bulbs and poorly designed reflectors, leaving them all but invisible from the rear. (I started worrying about this one night when I was driving behind my GT6+.)

QH technology comes to the rescue again, but with a catch. You can buy QH light capsules fitted to traditional bulb bases, but rated at higher wattages. They draw a bit more current, provide a lot more light, and put out a lot more heat . This latter is of concern to those of us whose cars have small taillights with plastic lenses, because these bulbs have been known to melt them. You can buy them from the usual suspects, but be careful; you might want to test them with a scrap lens first.

And if you've significantly increased your wattage with upgraded headlamps and QH taillamps, it's time to start wondering if your generator is up to the task of running all this stuff...

Lighting Vendors

I have dealt with the following vendors for lighting and have been quite happy with their service; I recommend them to your attention.

OJ Rallye

N 6808 Highway OJ

Plymouth, WI 53073

(414) 893-2531

For some time now, David Heupchen has been the sole importer of Marchal aftermarket headlamps. His rallye weapon of choice runs towards Volvos, but he knows lighting, both current and vintage. He's got flat face H4 lamps, and he knows what they're worth. But at least he has them! He also carries Cibie and other brands, as well as parts, spares, quality bulbs and accessories, and is fun to chat with on the phone.

Dave Bean Engineering, Inc.

636 E. St. Charles Street, Star Route 3

San Andreas, CA 95249-9564

(209) 754-5802

These folks cater to Lotus, Jensen and British specials that use the Ford "Kent" engine - but that means that they have Lucas supplies, and care about performance lighting. They have variable stocks of Marchal gear, some of which is old stock and some of which is purchased from OJ Rallye and marked up.

Mini City, Ltd

205 Summit Point Drive

Henrietta, NY 14467

(800) 933-MINI

(716) 359-1400

The owners, Doug and Laurie Scribner, are dedicated Mini owner/enthusiasts, and also have very deep stocks of Morris Minor parts. More to the point of this article, they have Cibie Z beams in stock for around $90/pair, which is the cheapest price I've seen.