Everything Dims!!!

[TomoHawk]

Where exactly is that ground strap ap the back of the engine?

thx.

[hls30.com]

TomoHawk, the neg. battery cable attatches to the unibody, and then to the engine-it is the ground strap!

Will

[Xargon321]

The battery was fully charged by my local autoparts store, its a optima gelcell putting out around 1000+ cranking amps, i need to get the lightbulbs out and check those as i think they are the problem as it show up only when the lights are on.

Neg. battery cable grounds on the body before going to the engine?? it doesnt on mine but i have a 260, dont know if its any differnt tho.

i check my hayes manual and it doesent show the 260 grounding on the body like the 240.

i installed the radio i used the stock wireing except the speakers

i had to repaire the console harness and the po butcherd it. the only other wire its the memory wire but its ran right to the battery

[Xargon321]

the headlights are halogen if that makes any diffence

[EScanlon]

Halogens, for the most part are a higher wattage than standard replacement bulbs.

Due to the additional wattage requirement they need, they tend to dim when not bein "fed" properly.

2¢

Enrique

[Xargon321]

but would that cause everything else to slow down at idle with them on? when i turn them on it brings my idle down a little cause of the load on the alt

[EScanlon]

Exactly.

The idle speed of your engine is set by the idle screw on the carburators. They provide a given amount of fuel that allows the engine to operate at a given RPM.

The alternator generates electricity that in turn goes to the regulator where it is distributed between powering whatever electrical devices you have turned on, apart from the engine, and recharging the battery. Please note that usually the alternator is not sufficiently powerful enough to recharge a dead battery to full cranking amps. For that you usually have to use an external battery charger.

When you turn on additional items that require electricity, the demand on the alternator increases. That increase translates into additional torque required by the alternator to produce that amount of electrical current. The additional torque is in turn transferred to the engine via the fan belt that rotates the alternator. Now the engine must overcome that extra drag. Since the amount of fuel it is receiving is still the same, the engine slows down (RPM drop), just as if you'd let off the clutch partway while still stepping on the brake.

If you are running higher wattage lights on the standard wiring that the car has, you run into yet another problem. The wiring is set up for 50/40 bulbs and not the higher wattages on replacement H4 or other types of bulbs. The additional load through the standard wiring then generates heat which in turn causes a higher resistance through the wire. Both of these then cause additional power loses due to the heat / resistance. The alternator gets bogged down even more.

Since there is a given amount of current that the alternator can produce at a given RPM, some items get "short-changed" and do not receive the amount of current they need to operate properly. That is why when you accelerate, and the amount of current being generated meets and exceeds the demands being placed on the alternator that you see the lights brighten up again.

The fix for this is difficult to diagnose properly. You can turn up your idle speed setting. You can change out the light bulbs. You can turn off extra items not required to reduce the load.

OR

You can live with it.

Hope this helps.

Enrique Scanlon

[Alfadog]

Can you change to a more efficient/bigger alternator?

[Xargon321]

what about my turn signals they make my lights dim a bit even when im going down the road? are the wattages on halegens standardized? if so what are they?

i have my idle about 900 so the problem isent to annoying at the moment, my radio isent cutting out anymore.

any chance of building a harness to run the lights off of the battery directly and useing a relay to turn them on when the switch it hit? im very handy with a soldering iron so doing it myself is not a problem

also they dim at idle with just the lights on and nothing else.

[ChrisA]

Hi Guys, I bought a Painless Wiring headlite kit a few years ago. It uses 2 relays and connects directly to the battery. The headlight switch doesnt have to handle the load anymore. It just switches the relays. I think it has performed really well. When the lites are on there is less of an amp draw. Was very simple to install also. Got mine from jegs.com. Here is a link: http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=3698&prmenbr=361

[EScanlon]

Xargon:

Your turn signal flasher may be:

a) plugged in backwards. This may sound crazy, but I had the same problem with a 76 Merc Capri II. Swapped the leads and bingo problem solved. Now, it doesn't make sense electrically, but it solved my problem.

the wrong type. Many people inadvertently buy the "Heavy Duty" type thinking they are built for longer life, whereas they're built for shock type environments. This means that the internal components are just a bit heavier, hence more current to heat up the element and get it to click.

Regarding the relay method. ChrisA mentions one method, and if I recall H4Lights also has a method. Both of them, from what I hear, are very good and allow you to completely bypass the combination switch from powering the headlights themselves. The combi switch is probably one of the biggest headaches as far as the car's circuitry.

2¢

Enrique

[ChrisA]

Originally posted by EScanlon

Xargon:

Regarding the relay method. ChrisA mentions one method, and if I recall H4Lights also has a method. Both of them, from what I hear, are very good and allow you to completely bypass the combination switch from powering the headlights themselves. The combi switch is probably one of the biggest headaches as far as the car's circuitry.

Enrique is right, I have had zero problems with the combi switch and I am running high watt h9007 HB5 bulbs since I added the Painless Wiring kit.