I’ve been working on tackling as many issues on my 67 E-type OTS as I can before I have to return to work (left work a couple years ago due to medical issues.)
After getting my headlamps to function correctly and reliably, I notice however that “main” beam (which lights up the headlamp indicator on the speedo) illuminates the lower beam or light pattern on my lamps.
Conversely, the “dipped” position illuminates the high light pattern on the lights.
From what I’ve read, “dipped” beams should correspond with low beam for US based cars to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. Thus, the main beam would map to high beam for the USA. But this seems to be reversed on my car.
The flasher switch on the turn signal lever lights up the “main” (low) beam. Checking the wiring, it seems to be correct (blue\yellow to fuse 1, which triggers main beam, and what I guess is blue\green on fuse 2 for dipped. The colors are faded.) Thus, I don’t think these are wired incorrectly.
Since these are sealed beams, I don’t think the plug can be inserted in reverse for the lamps. Or could they be? The torture of installing the headlight glass covers and seals makes me dread removing them to check, but I suppose I’ll have to anyway to clean out spider webs that accumulated in the housing.
Is this how the lamps are expected to function, or… If not, the only thing I can think of is that the wires are reversed after the 8-pin bonnet socket, if that’s possible.
Dave, at some point you wires has been swapped.
Despite the semantics about the “beam names” your blue light in the speedo tells you that you have the high beams on and blinding oncoming traffic.
The light flasher shall cause your high beams and the blue light to come on.
When you say the flasher causes the low beams and blue instrument light to come on, it tells me the the wiring from switch to blue light is correct, but has gotten swapped somewhere around the dash area.
My guess is the dipped/high beam switch is incorrectly connected.
Good luck … Ole
Thanks all. Interestingly, my headlamp indicator light is red, not blue. The car was repainted and reassembled prior to my purchase, and so it’s likely the wiring has been touched. A lot of electrical items are unconnected on this car, and I’ve been working down the list.
Hopefully I can reach this connector block - I did try looking at the wiring backing up the bonnet connector and couldn’t see a connector block, but now I know what to look for. If I can’t reach it, I’ll be back!
Correct. It’s worth noting that as I recall, the color of the warning light is provided by the lens mounted in the face of the speedometer. All the warning light bulbs are clear. So, if you insert the bulbs in the wrong hole in the back of the speedo, you will get the wrong color light coming on…
On mine, the ignition light is a darker red jewel, and the headlamp (labeled as such of course) is a lighter red one. (yellow for the fuel light.) It looks to me that the color is impregnated in the plastic of the jewel and isn’t a filter.
I don’t know how it ended up with a red jewel for the headlamp status light socket. It’s not even the same shade as the ignition jewel.
I suppose it could have been replaced with a leftover red jewel of a different batch, but I don’t know why the previous owner(s) (2 from what I know) would have replaced it. It’s not a commonly available part as far as I know.
I’ll have to see if I have any notes that the speedo was rebuilt, which is the most likely sounding point where the jewel might have been changed.
The connector block is buried in the bonnet down near the left side hinge. Looking at the wiring diagram, I think it would be easier to swap wires either at the fuse panel terminal or at the dip switch. The flow of electricity goes from the rotary switch to the dip switch, then back to the fuse panel (where hi and lo beam each has a fuse), and then forward to the bulb.
I had a similar issue. In my case a PO (a cheap-skate business involved in selling E-Types) had wired the headlamp bulbs using individual wires rather than the now normal connecting block. Following a period in the care of another business which was replacing my bonnet under an insurance claim the wiring had one filament on main beam but both on dip. The clowns hadn’t checked their work. I have since replaced the cheap wiring ‘solution’ with the correct headlamp bulb tails.
Wonder if it has been rebuilt, I sent mine off to one of the companies that rebuilds them and it came back with a red lens rather than the OEM blue one. On the plus side the lenses are now shinny instead of the oxidized appearance they had prior to the rebuild.
Cheers,
LLynn
I have worked on 100 or more never seen a red light for h/light dip its always been blue, the red crown style are for oil [no or low pressure] and generator/alternator over/under charge. Likely the light sockets are mixed as they plug in to either. as far as the wiring goes i think the dip switch wiring is mixed up.its possible in the hood behind the left headlight connector but likely the switch. My 10 cents.
It’s difficult to reach, but I was able to identify the wires and locate the bonnet connector block. However, they don’t come loose with a moderate pull, so I stopped. If I break one of these wires I fear the bonnet would have to come apart to fix it, which I am not going to risk.
Looking at some diagrams, one (printed XKS Unlimited Master Parts Catalog) suggests the bonnet connector uses snap (bullet) type connectors, but pictures of the same part # show spade type connectors. More importantly, it seems like the connector may have some sort of clamping bracket to secure the connected wires. I don’t for sure since I can’t actually see mine very well, let alone disassemble it to verify.
If so, there’s no way I’m getting those wires out. In which case I’ll try swapping the wiring at the fuse block. The next owner I suppose can curse my amateur ignorance in wiring the lights “incorrectly…”
The 8 pin plug isn’t an rewiring option for me because mine are soldered to the pins on the plug. I’ve read some threads where I seem to recall the factory setup was wires secured with screws, but mine is soldered and from the looks of the plug face, original (or at least awfully old and used\abused.) I could not desolder the wires without slicing the plug cover open.
Regarding the red/blue headlamp indicator bulb - I did some reading and Anders Ditlev Clausinger writes in his book “Factory Original E-type” p.42 -
“At the bottom of the speedometer were three warning lights for ignition (red), low fuel (amber) and main beam (originally red, blue on later cars).”
I don’t think my 1967 registered Series 1 really counts as an early car, but perhaps there was leftover stock that was used or a specific Smiths part number that happened to be installed - but since others here have indicated they have two red and no blue lights, I have no reason to dispute Clausinger’s statement.
Of course I cannot have plugged in the status lights incorrectly, since 1) I don’t have a blue light at all, 2) the light is pretty clearly marked as “headlamp” and 3) the jewel is inset in the speedometer face, so putting the wrong light in won’t change it’s color. It would instead make my low fuel light or ignition light glow when switching to main beam.
The blue light makes more sense though so I kind of wish I had one. I wonder if that became more of a standard by the mid-sixties and Jaguar followed suit?
