headlight flicker

[blumule]

I bought some aftermarket headlights on ebay. The brand is autopal. they are standard 12 volt halogens with the clear smooth glass. ever since installing them they flicker or cycle off and on. did i need to upgrade my wiring? Dont know the watts, but their supposed to be brighter than standard. The bulbs are replaceable rather than sealed. Should i be looking at a bad ground, bad wiring, or did i just overload my circuit.

[fordman]

my guess is the headlight switch is flashing off and on. you'll need to contact the seller about how many watts they use up. to see if he left out the fact that they may need to be run on a full 12 volts or not.

[1972hiboy]

Ive had the contacts on my hi-lo beam selector switch get dirty and caused the headlamps to flicker or go out until I jammed on the switch a few times......

[blumule]

i switched my hi beams several times to no avail, and my headlight switch is new. i think they are a higher wattage bulb and overloading me.

[Mancar1]

That may be watts going on. (couldn't help myself) Let us know if that is the case.

[Thunderfoot]

Pretty sure you are overloading the circuit with those bulbs, the stock lights are just marginal on the poor wiring in our trucks. You will need to rewire the headlights with relays off the battery to use them.

[blumule]

to my surprize the new bulbs are 55w and 60w for hi, so that shouldnt be a problem should it? I need to mention that i also put a jumper wire in to my switch so my parking lights stay on with my driving lights. Im now thinking this could be the culprit. Whats your thoughts on this ?

[Thunderfoot]

Where did you do the jumper at? did you jumper it to the headlight wire or to the rear tail light wire??? It needs to be to the rear tail light wire, the park lights and tail lights are on a different circuit breaker in the light switch from the head light circuit...

Also, 60W would normally be fine (for the most part) with all good wire and connections, but with the wire being 40 years old and corroded connections it degrades the continuity and puts more load on the circuit... here is where I figured out the max load a good light switch circuit breaker should handle. http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 4&#p313744

If your lights are flashing using the low beam then I would look for any bad connections/grounds in the light wiring, but if it only does this using the High Beams then I would look into either the light switch being bad, or a connection or your wiring just wont handle it... Like I said, even the new wiring was underrated in our trucks, just measure the voltage at the headlights and you will see...

[blumule]

i jumped the yellow-black parking lights to the brown tail lights. so thats good. it flickers in both low and high mode . It just seems to me like im overloaded . I guess ill put my old lights back in and see if it stops. I wonder watt the whats are on my old lights? Sorry , that was fun too.

[fordman]

there is a formula for converting amps volts and watts. i would find out what amp the headlight switch breaker is. that would tell how many watts could be taken through that breaker. i want to say that 10 100 watt light bulbs could be used on a 10 amp breaker. or did he say 100 amp. i cant rememebr what rex told me at the time.

[Thunderfoot]

there is a formula for converting amps volts and watts. i would find out what amp the headlight switch breaker is. that would tell how many watts could be taken through that breaker. i want to say that 10 100 watt light bulbs could be used on a 10 amp breaker. or did he say 100 amp. i cant rememebr what rex told me at the time.

As I pointed out above http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 4&#p313744

[fordman]

sorry. i didnt read your post that far down.