The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Turn signal bulbs blowing

My rear turn signal bulbs have blown a couple of times. I converted to 12 volts and the correct bulbs are installed. The truck has a 12 volt alternator. The output at the battery with the engine running and headlights on is 14.0 volts average. Without the headlights on, it is showing 14.8 volts of output. Is this right or am I getting too many volts and thus blowing the bulbs? If it is too high, how do you tone it down? It has an internal regulator. I've completely by-passed the old voltage regulator that used to be mounted on the firewall in the 6-volt systems. Thanks. Rick

You may be useing low quality foriegn made bulbs. You may be getting water in the light which burns out a hot bulb. 14.8 is higher then the charging voltage should be but would not cause the bulbs to burn out that soon. It will shorten the life of all the electrical components. The voltage is built in the solid state regulator & the only way to change it is to replace it. That is another part that can be cheap foriegn made. It is possible the battery is at fault also but not likely.

Rick,

14.8 is at the top of the scale, but it's OK. This wouldn't be the reason your lamps are exploding. I'm with Wrenchbender on the cause of the problem. It sounds like it's either poor quality bulbs, some type of severe shock to the filament or maybe water splashing on a hot lamp.

Stuart

To add, when you replace bulbs never touch them with your bare hands, use rubber gloves or a clean rag as the oils on your hands tend to over heat the bulbs and shorten their life dramatically. I have seen it happen too many times so I wanted to offer my .02...