Slow progress

[Bob Gil]

Well I have been working on the bus again.

I got the fuel lines where it will pull fuel out of the tank and sned it back via the return line.  The as I was testing some other things one of the fittings desided to show the crack in it.  I will have to work on that tomarrow.

I went on to the lights.  I found all the wires to make them work. 

1.  The lower clearnce lights on the front will be wired with the four red clearance lights on the rear.

2.  The top light all the way around will be wired together.

3.  The head lights are wired on one rocker switch with on position being low beam and the opsite is high beam.

Now I have a question the last person that built this buss put 4 headlights across the bottom of the front of the bus.  Only the two middles ones are wired up.  Is that going to be a problem when I get it inspected?  Should i switch the wires around and make one set the high beams and one the low beams?  So all will be considered working?

This bus has been converted and reconverted and all so many times I don't think that the person that built it would be able to fix it with the dirgrams that they used to build it.  From Gasser to Diesel and then striped out at least twice and rewired and converted at lest that many time.  I am suprised I was able to find the wires i found as easy as I did.

[lyndon]

Bob, to pass an inspection, you will need both low and high beams working. Whether that will involve 2 or 4 lights depends on their design. If all of these lights function as both low and high beam, then 2 might be sufficient. But...

Older 4 light systems used 2 (always the outside 2, I believe) for low beam and all 4 for high beam. Then one pair lights will have a two separate circuits for low/high, and the other pair will have just one circuit for high beam. Since you said only one pair is wired for low/high from the rocker switch, I suspect this is not what you have, but at the very least, I would give preference to the outside set. But it wouldn't hurt to have the inside set light up for high beam only.

It's possible that one set was intended for daytime running lights, too. But I'd be careful about lighting all four at the same time with low beam selected, if they are all designed to be head lights.

Don

[JackConrad]

Bob,
   From the photo, it appears that the 2 outside bulbs should be both high and low beam, while the 2 inside bulbs should be high beam only.  Look at the back of the bulbs. If there are 3 male spade terminals, they are combination high/low beam bulbs (terminals are ground, high, and low).  If they have  only 2 male spade terminals they are high beam only (terminals are ground and positive). If the inside bulbs also have 3 terminals, you can use just the ground and high beam terminals.  Jack

[Bob Gil]

Wait a sec now guys this bus is not set up like it was designed when it was made in 68.  I would think that it would have had four headlights back then.  I also assume it would have the dimmer switch on the floor.  I did not find a dimmer switch on the floor but there is one on the newer steering column, but it is not wired up.  There is not really a dimmer switch!  Just a rocker switch that has the low beams on one side and the high on the other.  only one can be turned on at a time.  I am not sure if this is the best way to do it or not.  But it is the way some one else did it, I need to figure our if I want it to stay that way.  I can always go back and rewire them and split they to put the low beams on one pair of lights and the high on the other ones if nessaccary. 

The headlights that you see are from a 1988 FORD PICKUP.  That said they both have both high and low beams as a possibility.

Ain't it always fun to work with the mess that some one else left and you have no idea what you are dealing with???

I have not found much of this bus that I could relate back to the original builder it has been modified so much.  I can not go back to the original design of how it was set up.

I seam to remember that if you had lights on a vehicle they had to work?  I don't remember if that was just some thing that was in California or was a DOT rule.  I a wondering if having the two extra headlights hanging there will they need to work in one way or another to get around the rule?

I can always go back and rewire them and split they to put the low beams on one pair of lights and the high on the other ones if necessary.

But if I do, I know that when you normally turn on the high beams the low beams go off.   Is that a requirement or just a measure to save the amps not running both at the same time?

[Tenor]

I know that more light is better than less.  I'd hook them up to run each set individally. 
Outer set controlled by the column switch for low/high and another switch for the inner set, low/high.  It's like foglights with highbeams for those really dark rainy nights.  fwiw

Glenn

[JackConrad]

Bob,
   "normal" wiring is an on/off switch and a high/low switch.  What you have is both combined in one. Moving from low to high without stopping in the off position should accomplish the same thing as a dimmer switch. As was mentioned it would be better to have an on/off switch and use the dimmer switch in the steering column. The reason the high beams go off when you turn on the low beams is because the high beams put the light higher to see further down the road (more likely to blind an oncoming driver).
    On our MC-8 we modified the inside headlight "cans to accommodate a high/low bulb. We now have 4 low beams and 4 high beams. (Florida does not have vehicle inspections, so I do not know if this is legal). We do not do a lot of night driving, but I have never had anyone flash their lights at me when I am running on low beam. In addition to the extra light (which helps with my decreasing night vision), I have the redundancy that if I lose a low beam, I still have at least 1 low beam on each side. Our on/off switch is on the instrument panel and our dimmer switch is a toggle switch on the switch panel to the left of the driver.
   It is better to use a heavy gauge wire (#10) for the headlight wiring and control the lights through switch activated relays. Also, be sure to use automatic resetting circuit breakers.  Email if you want a schematic of my headlight installation or call me 863-993-3683 if you need more information.  Jack

[tekebird]

FOr most states with inspections, if you have a light  it needs to work.

[Tom Y]

Bob, Will the rocker you have handle the load? Or do you have it connected to a relay?  Tom Y

[Bob Gil]

the switch controls a relay best I can figure out it does not have big enough wire to do much more

[Bob Gil]

well I spent most of the afternoon chasing parts and getting ready to work on the bus.

I found the fuel leak, some one had screwed a pipe thread into a inverted flange fitting and caused it to crack.  I had the worlds shortest hose made to fix the problem but had a little trouble finding a r-70 fitting to go in where the other one got cracked was.  I got that all put back together and running.  I hope to have other things done and re plumb the fuel lines like they should be in the future.  I have way too many things that I can do in the mean time to kill my time.   (I still have the shore power cord to figure out and replace, and i found the water line was not hooked to the toilet, and the wires in the back of it had been taken apart.  This the first toilet I have ever seen that has a power switch to flush it.  The genset seams to blow too much smoke, I guess I can pull the injectors out and have they checked and see if that will help that. ) 

I found that one of the switches that I had knocked the wire off of controls the outer set of headlights. 

O I found some thing else that I don't really care for all of the lights are keyed with the ignition key.  You turn the key off and there goes all of your lights clearnce turn flashers and headlights, all of them.  I am going to have to change that I think. 

Do you think any of them should be keyed?

I got all the rear lights wired in and only need to get three of the top lights to burn to have it ready for state inspection.

[JackConrad]

Bob,
   Only exterior lights that were wired through the "ignition" (Master) switch from the factory on our MC-8 were the headlights.  Jack

[TomC]

It really doesn't matter which way you wire the lights-whether through the key or on all the time.  Also, the high beam switch can be any where within reach, whether it be on the floor, turn signal or even on the dash-just so they work.  Re wire everything in the simplest way possible and write it down as you go!  Good luck, TomC