Sealed beam conversion

Posted by Jim on September 10, 1998 at 09:33:16

I have a 31 which has what appears to be an older conversion (40's or 50's) to sealed beam headlights. Basically the wiring for the low beams are off the steering column switch like the original, but for the high beams, the wires from the steering column switch were modified to activate a fused relay.This relay has 3 terminals -- one for the switch wire, one for a heavy wire directly from the hot site of the starter switch (battery), and one for the headlights.So the way this operates is that when the high beams are switched on, the current from the steering column switch closes the fused relay which makes the direct connection between the battery and the highbeams.Also, there is a wire from highbeam terminal of the relay which is connected to a Highbeam indicator light mounted on the dash.
I am currently involved with replacing the wiring harness and reconditioning all the lighting hardware.If I use the relay system, I will have to cut modify the new wiring harness, which I perfer not to do.My main question is, "Do I need to include the relay in the circuit?"The printing on the backs of sealed beam bulbs indicate that they are 40/50 Watts.It seems that switching from low to high beam would change the current draw from 13.3 amps to 16.7 amps.Would the 3.5 amp increase justify a relayed circuit?But this also seems like a heck of a load for the generator.Is there a sealed beam headlight that uses less power (lower watts)?Finally, does any know the conversion factor from CP to watts?Snyders, for example, says that their 32/50 CP bulbs can be a little hard on the battery.But they don't say anything like that in their sealed beam adapter kits, nor is a relay mentioned in the kit.
Thanks for your advice.

Follow Ups:
Re: Sealed beam conversion doug handran September 10, 1998 at 19:18:55(0)
Re: Sealed beam conversion Paul September 10, 1998 at 18:52:26(0)

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