Posted by Torvald [172.71.151.36] on Monday, January 16, 2023 at 16:54:49 :
Greetings all. I am finally to the point of building the wiring harness for a ’51 FF PW ground–up rebuild. I have a couple of questions concerning the headlight and turn signal wiring.
First some background. The stock wiring diagrams show the headlights connected to the ignition switch at the same terminal that connects (thru the ammeter) to the battery. The turn signals connect (thru the flasher) to the ignition switch at the Accessory terminal. With this wiring the headlights can be on without the key in the ignition, but the flashers (and turn signals) require activation by the key. I’m thinking that a better arrangement might be to have the lights activated by the key thru the accessory terminal while the flashers are always connected to power. With this arrangement the lights turn out when the engine is turned off (preventing accidental battery drain) while the flashers may remain on (handy in an emergency). The problem may be that the key switch cannot handle the high amperage drawn by the headlights, etc.
So the questions are:
1). Does anyone know whether the ignition switch can handle the amperage of the headlights along with the other accessories?
2). Has anyone tried this wiring arrangement, and how did it work out?
3). What thoughts do you have on the subject?
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