The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Tail lights

My friend followed me home from a swap meet this evening, told me that my tail lights on my 52 aren't bright enough. I'm running some 12 volt 1157 style bulbs that are supposed to be extra bright. I've heard that plastic lenses allow more light through than glass, which I have, and was wondering if any of you all have any experience on this.

You can now get l.e.d. replacements for both the 1157 and the 1156 bulbs. Haven't tried them myself as my taillights seem bright enough. Up here they run about $10 a bulb, but they should last a lot longer than regular bulbs. Amazingly one of the places I've seen them is Wally World. (Wal-Mart)

Try putting something reflective behind the bulbs (aluminum foil or an old flashlight reflector) or paint the inside of the housing with white road paint. (The kind they use for the fog line, it has glass beads in it) Original housings are black inside. It sucks up a lot of light. Also make sure ground is good from taillights back to battery.

You also might get out your handy dandy volt meter and check the voltage available
at the taillight. Could be a bad ground or in the case of a generator charging system you may need to tweak the voltage regulator up for more output. Keep in mind that a 1 volt drop in voltage from 13 volts to 12 volts for example will allow your taillights to provide just 63% of their rated output! I would guess you are seeing that firsthand!

If that is the case. then the painting or adding of tin foil will help, but those are symptoms that are helping to mask the original problem. You need a full 12+ volts available at the taillight One solution is to upgrade to an alternator, which will provide a strong output at idle and low rpms, whereas the generator does not.

I would hate to see you get ran over, especially by a **** , I can't think of a worse fate.
I can read your tombstone now.....

I was crusing down the highway,
Had my baby beside me at the wheel.
When over the hill came a tin can ****
Fenders flying, he had no engate.
Next thing I know... there was a big crash...

Right then and there...I knew it was too late,
I had met my final fate... I got ranover by that tin can **** .
The one with the flying fenders and no engate.

Randy

I have the same problem with my 37 pickup rear lights. THe glass is so thick! well,I haven't tried it yet but here in Stovebolt someone suggested to paint the inside of the unit with chrome paint. I also have change to 12 volt and a 2057 bulb is and exact replacement for the other bulbs except the 2057 is brighter. I plan to try it this weekend. I heard it here on this site so you know it has to be true.

I painted the inside of my light cups with the rustoleum chrome. It worked good. Now my brakelights look like two fireflies holding hands instead of the one lightening bug they did before I painted them. It helps. I'm running #63 bulbs on the original 6V + ground system.

Interesting post there from Randy on the 1 volt drop = 63% output (37% drop). It now confirms that I will never understand electrons.

The tail lights on our 51 have plastic lenses, with one being what looks like an original. I fitted 1157 bulbs and sockets mounted base down. The tail light buckets are painted white inside.They are small but quite bright at night.I also mounted two period accessory brake lights , ya know the 3 inch style with STOP stenciled on the lens.So there are four brake lights in the rear.

Tell your friend that if he could tell that your tail lights weren't bright enough, then he was following too close.

God didn't make tail lights on old stovebolts bright. They were fine for the day.

Seriously, make sure all the connections are tight and the grounding point is purrrfect--no rust in the connections. All the voltage drop is supposed to be across the bulb filament, and when it ain't, then your 6v. bulb or whatever will glow at something less than 6 volts.

Awright! Enough out there about dim bulbs! And don't start no %$#&@ about Ohm's Law.

Make sure when you put your meter on the power to the tail light that the light is left in the socket. If you aren't pulling current through the circuit, you won't get an accurate reading of the voltage while the light is on.