Only the most experienced T men need answer as I am absolutely stumped by this one.
Why won't this light come on like it should? Not even a glow.....
In South Africa we would say
"That light is on Strike!"
Well, if you are running with both the spark and throttle levers all the way down, you could be outrunning the light going forward. That would be because that is the left lamp and the light leaves it last meaning it hasn't left yet whereas the right lamp has the right idea and the light goes into it from the other direction.
Should I continue?
Thank you.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
I will shut up now.
Nailed it! Hahaha Happy Friday!
Wayne's theory has been shown mathematically, as the speed of light is "see" as in E=MC2 but the speed of dark is "no see." I don't think a T can go the speed of light, but definitely think it capable of the speed of dark.
Google has driverless cars & Erich has wireless bulbs?
The wireless network for the bulb needs to be re-booted
Did you check to make sure you have a good ground all the way to the battery? This can be a problem if you painted everything and then assembled it.
Things to check for bad ground;
Light socket bore in headlight housing must be free of paint.
Connection of headlight housing to fender bracket.
Fender bracket to frame connection.
What year is your car? If the car was a mag only car changed over to a battery system, did you rewire the headlight circuit from series to parallel?
What we have here is a connectivity problem!
The bulb needs to connect with other bulbs to learn what it should do.
See if you can entice it to join a forum or twitter to learn what other bulbs are doing.
If it is shy it can lurk until it stumbles across the answers!
The contacts; bulb, socket and plug need to be cleaned. Socket not making good contact with lamp body. Bad grounds. Bad bulb. Wrong bulb voltage. Wrong pin/contacts, they might be 90 deg to each other, could be the piece holding the contacts in the socket has shifted or the relationship of contacts of the bulb not correct to the socket.
Fred,I bet you liked Cool hand Luke didn't you
The bulb is definitely not making good contact with the socket. I don't think just cleaning the contacts will help though. You don't have enough voltage to jump the gap. Even 12V won't help here!
I was going to post a question about magneto light bulbs on my 1916. It seems the vendors sell a light bulb and tell you it's a magneto lamp, when in fact it's a 24 volt bulb. Probably old military. It just makes the head lights glow. Speeding up the engine means nothing. The magneto is AC the bulbs are DC. Does anyone know where to find correct AC magneto bulbs? My magneto puts out at speed 20 volts.
Erich,
I have found that some double contact bulbs and sockets have contacts that do not line up.
Put a voltmeter on the two contacts in the socket to verify power and ground are present in the socket.
Check the actual resistance of the bulb as well.
Be_Zero_Be
When I taught auto mechanics , I would paint the bulb contacts with clear finger nail polish .
That would make them work .
Egads, I'm half blind, but even I note the bulb is not in close proximity to the socket, but it sounds like half the posters here didn't get the joke!! (although they offered good ideas for good headlight connections). Kevin, I don't know if you're kidding or not, but incandescent bulbs don't care if it's AC or DC (please folks, avoid the obvious puns that statement leads too!!), however they are sensitive to the voltage and amperage.
This has been an illuminating thread. . . .
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
David - You just took all the fun away!
Is this a test to determine the eyesight of our most respected T men?
I fell for it also, Good One Erich!
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who look carefully at the picture, and those who don't.
Problem is your T is equipped with disc brakes on the rear and that last fast stop left you with lampnal detachment.
Checking eye sight???--- What picture!!!.
Bob
Probably the water pump is putting to much pressure into the car and pushed the bulb out.
Honestly, here I can see the value here that is not found any other place. We have both learned and laughed. Priceless indeed.
Fred,
Sorry about that!! But looks like the fun is still going on, just turned a corner!
Hmm, this could be an ad for AC brakes--Stops so quick, it'll pop yer eyes out!!
Um, on second thought. . . .
Arrrrrrrrrrrgggg !!!!!
Be_Zero_Be (LOL)
Erich - You should pull and rebuild the engine immediately. It's not safe to drive in that condition. Don't forget to change your thrust washers to brass/bronze also!
Bob, are you a pirate??
Arrrgh!! matey!
What's a Pirates favorite letter?
Nope, not R, It's the C!
Who's the first ever techno-group??
Pirates!! They had I-patch!!
Moving right along. . . . .
AC brakes? Would that make RM brakes DC?
Dave, I will keep that bulb and change out the model T to a better one with a tighter socket.
A big thank you to all who have shared here, both humor and valuable information. Even the funny ones have presented some creativity I am truly amazed by and am duly impressed. I appreciate every comment.
I still think it may be that water pump as I can see a hint of moisture in there behind the glass.
P.S. "U-Haul" was born in Ridgefield WA.
Air-Conditioned brakes?
What would be PC? That would be printed circuit for an old electronic tech.
David,
Wasn't there an adult pirate move rated ARrrrrrr !!
Be_Zero_Be
I'm reluctant to answer your request for help on this one. Mostly because my help wouldn't be considered expert.
And besides, I'm afraid someone will tease and embarrass me and pretty much treat me bad.
Da bulb ain't gittin no juice. Go down to the tavern and buy some more.
OK Bob, ya got me on that one!!
Mike, I hope your tongue is firmly in cheek, very few of us here want to embarrass anyone--unless it's a good friend we are teasing. Oh, BTW, there's a lot of good friends here, even if we've never met in person!!
Bulb's been deep 6ed, at the bottom wit' the fishes.
If You run on "MAG", it is O. K. to have AC brakes, but if you run on "BAT", you need DC brakes!
Just my very humble opinion.
Is your acytelene supply low? Bud.
I will have to check and see in what position the moon is in.
Sometimes a "FULL MOON" can cause some very crazy behavior.
To this day, I wish I could remember how that happened. It was my friends car and this was an actual problem we ran into. One headlight worked, but not this one. We did actually start looking at some of the actual suggestions noted above. I figured it was a ground issue. While checking the bucket bolting location, I bent down to look under the light bucket and first noticed the little beads of moisture behind the glass. Then, at some point I scanned down and saw what the real issue was. I am still impressed that I held it together and asked my friend to come over for a look. We both had a great laugh over it. He wasn't sure how it had happened either. Worked way better with the bulb in the standard location (we did need to remove some paint under the mount to get a good ground).
Regarding this forum:
The bottom line for me is that no question is to small. No person ever was born knowing everything about these fantastic historic model T cars. We all run short of the knowledge we need at some point and this is the place to ask.
I am a book person so I tend to collect books about these cars and the answer can often be found within one of them.
Another good way is to do a google search with the heading "MTFCA forum...(insert question here)...." But if you are not computer savy or don't have any T books or still can't find your answer (it happens all the time) then this is the place.
Some folks share a strong opinion about what they would do or what they like/don't like. An answer is always here even if you have to sift it out of the accompanying opinions.
Lurk if you wish, but don't fear the posting.
P.S. I do love it when a post makes me laugh out loud (not uncommon here) and I bet we would soon abandon a forum that was exclusively scholarly in content. Informative but boring. Not here. Thank you everyone.
Try using a volt meter. Do you know how to use it? You can get one from Harbor Freight. I couldn`t do any trouble shooting elect. with out one. Just read the directions,let me know if you need help!!
Rick, for this problem shown in the photo, a camera or eye glasses would work better since all you have to do is look to see the answer.
I thought he just put it back that way. I thought he needed help. All his tires must not be touching the ground.
Rick, I have that HF voltmeter as well as a few other types and they are indispensable.
Soooo, maybe I pumped up the tires to much and popped out the bulb?
Erich,
Ahh, "Paul Harvey time" ie: "The Rest of the Story"--if we had known about your tires, this problem would have been solved right away!!
OK, I'm probably exceeding my limit on "smart aleck" remarks for one thread. I'll go quietly!