MTFCA Forum

Am considering doing this. Anyone having done this that would share your knowledge. Seems to be a lot of info on doing this with the later electric headlights but I can’t find anything on the forum for gas headlights.
Keith

I saw an ad for a '16 Speedster on Craigslist recently that appeared to have an LED lamp in place of the burner. I did not talk to the seller but it has been done.

Keith, LED's are directional. To get light going forward in a gas lamp, the LED would have to be directed backwards onto the reflector at the rear. The usual ring of LED's used to make bulbs for electric lights would scatter light in all directions. The halogen bulbs with their point source of light are a better option.
That said, someone may well have come up with a new design by now, of which I am not aware.

Allan from down under.

This is something I was considering. I have LED headlamp bulbs in my 35 V8 and 76 VW Camper, I may experiment with them in a gas headlamp.

I would encourage you to make the gas headlight work with gas. It really provides a completely different feel and experience for both you, and any onlookers.

Keith-
You could adapt a socket to thread onto the base for burner like this:
You would have to do some research on what LED you would want to use.

Or as Greg suggests, you could use acetylene as they were intended:
I think that acetylene lamps running on acetylene kicks up the "cool factor" a couple of notches.
Of course, YMMV...

: ^ )

Keith

Jem, The later lights you mention have parabolic reflectors which operate quite differently from the glass reflector at the back of a gas headlight. The light is reflected in different ways. The gas light reflector relies on a near pinpoint light source to reflect that light forward. I know of no LED configured to do this. Converting to conventional electric or quartz bulbs is likely to be far more satisfactory.

Allan from down under.

As Allan says, Mangin mirror reflector.

Gas is about as simple and reliable as it could get using a Prest-O-Lite setup .

I’m working with a 11 Torpedo. No place for a acetylene tank. Would need to use a Carbide Generator.
Keith

An E type tank would fit.

Keith,

I asked this same question a while ago, and got the same basic answer. Nobody has done this because it shouldn’t be done. Do whatever it takes to run your gas lamps on gas. Or if you think that you would like the convenience of electric lamps, stick with the halogen conversions that have been available for decades, and add a generator or alternator to support the high electrical load. There is no point to considering the use of highly efficient bulbs that require so much less power that they could be run on an easily hidden, isolated motorcycle battery without any additional electric modifications to your brass car.

If you wanted new fangled technology like electric headlamps, you should have bought something much more modern, like a black era T.

Keep crankin’,
Eric

We converted the acetylene lights on our 1913 T to halogen a few years ago. Sockets and bulbs were purchased off of the internet at very reasonable prices. We removed the original burners and made socket holders on the lathe from brass. The socket is 3/4 of an inch in diameter and the socket holders are threaded on the bottom end and screw onto the original burner stand. An original, period runningboard tool box was purchased from a forum member and it is used to hold a 12V deep cycle battery.