LED light bulbs : One thing leads to another

[vivienz]

I have a 1960 Bugeye with the original 948cc engine. Amongst the modifications it has had an electric fuel pump, electronic ignition and an alternator fitted. It is also negative earth. The car had been running well when I decided to fit LED bulbs and electronic relay.

Although I had suppressed HT leads for the ignition the LED bulbs were not funtioning correctly and I was advised to fit a fully suppressed set and this led to an unforeseen problem. The electronic distributor had a 45D main body but a 25D cap that had been 'modified' to fit. I decided to fit the correct 45D distributor cap with new leads but it made no difference. I then called in an auto electrician to see whether he could solve the problem but if anything he made matters worse as the lights still do not work and the car now won't even start.

The symptons are as follows :

When the ignition is switched on the fuel gauge needle shoots up beyond maximum. The side lights and and dash lights work including the indicator warning light but the indicators do not. When the indicator warning light is functioning the fuel gauge needle is moving in sequence.

I have so far tried 2 sets of fully suppressed HT leads, I've fitted new new rotor arms to the distributor and the spark plugs have been cleaned and checked to see whether I can get the car started. I am wondering whether the electronic relay has been cooked and ditto the electronic distributor but I am really flailing around in the dark not quite knowing which direction to go next.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Bill Young]

Tell us about the "electronic relay". What is it, and how did you wire it into the car? Why do you think the installation of the electronic relay and LED (headlamps?) would mess up the ignition system?

Bill Young, Columnist
Healey Marque magazine
St. Johns Florida
sjahc.com

 

[Jim_Gruber]

I’ve wired in Headlight Relays to Spridgets before and the relays do not care if you have traditional bulbs, aHalogen Bulbs, or LED headlight bulbs. All the relays are doing is switching on the power when you turn on the headlight switch. Google Headlight Relays AND Daniel Stern. He’s written a number of articles on the subject that are easy to understand and follow. I will be very curious to your response to Bill Young’s question as to why headlight relays and LED Headlight bulbs have anything to do with Spark Plug wires.

 

[Bayless]

If the fuel gauge goes beyond full then check the wires connected to it. If I remember right, the one that goes to the tank is either disconnected or broken somewhere. The gauge also requires a ground wire but I'm pretty sure it goes the other way if it is broken.

 

[vivienz]

Thank you for your replies. The LED bulbs were bought from Classic Car LEDs and were specific to the Bugeye / Frogeye. The electronic relay is a 12v unit for the hazard flasher to maintain a constant flash rate even if the load on the circuit changes. It also provides an audible click.

The reason I suspect a problem with the relay is that I know that it was correctly wired but the lights were not working correctly - the indicators were not flashing.

I suspected a problem with the distributor and/or leads because these had been changed, or at least the distributor cap / leads had and the car now wasn't starting, whereas it had been previously with the old ones. These were the only things that were changed on the car that I know of, however the auto electrician might have done something I am not aware of.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

So the approach I took with upgrading to LEDS and Installing with a new Harness was to pull in Harness, Test with the 1157 / 1156 Bulbs until I knew I had a good connection and then swap to LED Bulbs. I connected directly from Battery to the new Rear Harness Wire. I did the same thing with the new Front Harness, I know all of the signals work in the front separately from those in the rear. I have not connected the LED Flasher Relay but I purchased one with diodes in it, cost about $2.00 more than without diodes but the diodes keep the flasher pulse from back feeding to the other turn signal lamp. I was having an issue with a standard flasher with both L & R Turn Signals with Analog Lamps and Analog Flasher would flash together for the 1st Flash and then the correct Turn Signal lamp would flash. I complicated this with adding a Speedhut GPS Speedo with built in L and R turn Signal Lamps. On the initial flash or two both of the LEDs in the Speedhut would light for the first one or two flash cycles. Hoping that the new Electronic Flasher with Diodes and the new Wiring Harness will help to resolve the issue. At this point I know the Front and Rear Harness powered directly from the battery, no flasher or swithc connected first funcction correctly. A building block approach to testing as I go along.

 

[Bill Young]

If you had not already seen these articles we published in the Healey Marque, please take a look. I did these electrical modifications on my Sprite and they work very well. It is very important to have the correct flasher unit, for there are so many different kinds. I used the CEC EF33RL flasher.

The May issue is for adding LED lighting.

The June issue gets a little more complex adding 4-way flashers, strobe brake lamps and a beeper.

Bill Young, Columnist
Healey Marque magazine
St. Johns Florida
sjahc.com

 

[SaxMan]

I upgraded to LED bulbs on the dash and the turn & stop signals, but only went to halogens on the headlights. I do know you need to replace the flasher with one compatible with LED bulbs. It helped that I had Joe Parlanti, the owner of Veloce Solutions with me when I did the swap to iron out the bugs. We had some odd things happen, but nothing like you described. Joe is an LBC guy, too. He has a Sunbeam Tiger with a built Ford 302 V-8 swapped in place of the original 260. When he fired up his Tiger, my poor little Sprite was shaking in fear.

If you're going to go LED, I'd highly recommend going through Joe: www.velocesolutionsllc.com