Need help with chrome headlight

B

bigbutterbean

Active Member
Its a chrome bullet headlight, single screw-in bulb, runs on one D cell battery. It currently does not work, and I really want it to. My first thought was to try a new bulb. Any suggestions on where to find one. Also, there was some corrosion on the contact spring. I was able to remove some of it. Any suggestions on how to clean it the rest of the way? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
bigbutterbean said:
Its a chrome bullet headlight, single screw-in bulb, runs on one D cell battery. It currently does not work, and I really want it to. My first thought was to try a new bulb. Any suggestions on where to find one. Also, there was some corrosion on the contact spring. I was able to remove some of it. Any suggestions on how to clean it the rest of the way? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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My guess would be the local hardware store for the bulb. Take it in with you, I'm sure a sales associate could help you out. As far as the corrosion--is it rust or is it from battery acid? If it's battery acid, some baking soda and water will take it right off. How bad is the corrosion? Battery acid is known for causing many an electrical component's death :x Try a new bulb. . . have you tried a new battery? If neither of those work, your light *might* be toast :x
 
the light was off of a bike found at a scrap yard....info on bike, it was a grantsport aquarius 10 speed women's bicycle, sold by grant's department stores. grant's closed their doors for good in 1976. dont know if the light came with the bike originally or was purchased separately. grabbed the bike for vintage parts, the light being one of the parts i wanted. i bought brand new batteries to test the light. not sure what the corrosion came from, but it was green. there was no battery in it when i got it. the light bulb appears to be ok from what i can see, but i dont know how to tell if a filament is burnt out. i read somewhere that a rubber pencil eraser can sometimes clean corrosion off pretty well. gonna try that tomorrow. if i knew where to get these lights cheap, i would just buy one. the cheapest i have seen was on ebay for 20 bucks and im half tempted to buy it, but i need other parts too and only have 26 bucks to spend.
 
if you have a battery and two small pieces of wire, you can test the bulb. strip the ends of the wire and hold (or tape) them to each end of the battery, then touch the positive wire to the contact on the bottom of the bulb, and the negative wire to the metal of the bulb housing.

even better is to gut the whole light, by a cheap LED flashlight for a coupla bucks, rip it apart, get some wire, superglue, electrical tape, and rig it all up inside the old light.
 
bigbutterbean said:
not sure what the corrosion came from, but it was green.
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That sounds like battery acid to me. Baking soda and water should take it right off. Get a small steel "toothbrush" or some steel wool to help out. You can get a steel "toothbrush" from the hardware store four a couple of bucks.
 
Been soaking the contact in vinegar. Seems to be working. Gonna put it back together soon and see what happens. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
I now have the headlight working, but it doesn't seem to be all that bright. I am thinking a new bulb might still be in order. Still, I am very happy that I was able to get it working. But man, what a pain in the butt! Took me about an hour to reassemble and get it working. I have large hands, and those tiny parts are difficult to get into a tiny space when you have big hands. I am still kinda amazed though. My electrical knowledge is even less than my mechanical knowledge, lol.
 
those lights never were that bright to begin with. they're basically so a driver sees you, and not bright enough for you to see the road. i mean, it's just a tiny 6v flashlight bulb, right?

that's another reason to modify it for LED's.
 
Yeah, its a tiny bulb. Bairdco, I appreciate your advice, but I think I will keep it the way it is. Modifying this light is out of the question for me, because I don't know anything about those types of things. I'm not gonna try to do something that complicated with no knowledge of how to do it. Maybe nothing is wrong with the bulb and the light just isn't that bright, like you said. It seems adequate. I took it outside and shone it around. I could see the light from it on the street sign a block away. No streetlights in my neighborhood. And the darker it is, the brighter the light will be.
 
i understand. one thing to do is clean the lens inside and out, and polish the mirror surface inside. if the mirror part's wasted, get some chrome paint and give it some smooth coats.

also, if it's the old bulb, you can clean that, too.
 
I've always used Radio Shack to replace my bulbs. They have drawers there with many different kinds of bulbs and whatnot. Over the years I've run many different 6/12v generator kits and bulbs can burn out quickly if you overvolt em for too long.

If your light is only powered by a single D-cell, then it's only getting about 1.5v. No wonder it's not very bright! You might want to consider replacing the bulb with an LED. They are brighter than standard incandescent bulbs at that level.
 
Actually, I got some bulbs at wallyworld. They fit in my headlight, but they are made to run on 4 batteries. They can run on 4 AA or 4 D batteries. So my idea is to get a battery holder, the kind you put 4 AA's in that has the leads, put that inside the headlight and hook the other light bulb up to it.
 
4 batteries equals 6 volts, why not try to power it from the white wire off of the engine? Your idle speed might go down due to the additional load, but its easy to just test it out and see.
 
I don't want to run anything off of the engine, because I don't want to take the chance of blowing up my ignition. Others on this very site have already done so, and I'm not one to "follow in the footsteps of fools". Secondly, I don't know how to install the components necessary to draw energy off the engine and still keep the right amount of spark going to the engine. Also, a light running off the engine won't have a steady beam due to the varying rpm's of the engine.
 
Well, my buddy helped me modify the headlight today. I got one of those battery holders, connected one wire from the battery holder to the switch, and then my buddy soldered the other lead to the light bulb. It works pretty good. Its about as bright as a 6v flashlight, which is actually what I was using for a headlight before. But the bullet headlight looks a whole lot cooler!
 
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