Yet another headlight conversion

[steve lyle]

I've never been happy with my Sprint's headlights. There were several issues:
1) The headlights, sealed halogens, seemed quite dim to me
2) The 'failsafe' system didn't work. The headlights, when off, stayed down. When on, they stayed down until the car hit a bump. Unless I stopped the car, got out, pushed down on the top of the pod to raise them, or asked someone nearby to do that for me (how embarassing!). Once up, they would stay up.
3) To fix #1, I upgraded to LED's. These were in sealed beams that were heavier than the old halogens, so #2 became an even bigger problem. Hitting a bump wouldn't do it, it invariably took manual intervention.

The consensus seemed to be that my spring had weakened. And maybe I needed two.

But, #4, the nature of the vacuum system, with limit stops at either end, meant pretty significant impacts on the body when raising or lowering. So my car had cracks extending from the upper/inner corner of the headlight opening to the bonnet opening.

So I wanted a more reliable, lower stress, means of raising/lowering the pods.

Spyder has their option at several hundred pounds. Lots of people have posted about converting modern motors from Celicas or Miatas to do the job.

But I thought one of the neatest cleanest solutions was one posted by Gale Ensign and Dave Anderson. Gale has a Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLdt4Bhnto, and Dave has a page at https://www.prevanders.net/elanheadlight.html showing their implementations.

The actuator is from Progressive Automations. Model PA-14-4-35. It has a 4" stroke, and can handle 35 pounds, $109.00. I also sourced the double pole/double throw relay used to reverse the polarity of the motor leads from them, item AC-27-10-12, for $18, and a mounting bracket, BRK-14, for $8.50.

If there's a trick in this mod, it's accounting for the fixed stroke of the actuator. My car had a vacuum pod stroke I measured at 3.19". If you just hook up the linear actuator without changing the geometry of the rest of the system, you'll drive the pods into the stops with 35 pounds of force, likely cracking something. So you have to lengthen the crank on the steel rod between the pods. My high school math calculated this to be about .63".

It seems that Gale and Dave did this by bolting an attachment on to the crank. I did it by cutting the end of the crank off, welding a bit of bar stock to the remainder, and a bit to the cutoff end, and then bolting the two pieces together such that the tip was now extended that .63". Elongating the bolt holes a bit gave me some adjust-ability.

I wired up some test leads and a switch to the relay and motor so I could control the actuator, then with the actuator contracted test fit it to the car, bolting the mounting bracket I ordered to the same mounting bracket used for the vacuum pod. I needed about 1/4" of spacers between the brackets to extend the actuator mounting hold to the crank, which I made out of 1/8" bar stock from Lowes. Then, with the actuator still not connected to the crank, I extended it, manually raised the pods, and then connected the actuator and crank. Voila, everything fit without conflicting with the body of the car, or jamming the pods into the limit stops.

For the wiring, Dave and Gary put their solenoid under the dash. I chose to put mine on the left fender well, above the relays for the lights and horns I already have. I made a small bracket to mount it.

The solenoid needs an "always on" power source, I already had one for the headlights, and a signal source that's "on" whenever either the hi or low beams are on - so I used the marker light circuit for that. With no signal, one set of output leads from the relay are + and - and the actuator contracts. When the signal is +, the other set of output leads go the opposite, and the actuator extends. The two sets of output leads are joined, and connected to the motor leads.

Once everything was hooked up, I removed the limit stops - in the down position I was getting a rattle of the pod against the stop.

So now my lights go up, and stay up, whenever I need them. Granted, it does take 2 or 3 seconds each way. I still want to make an emergency rod, to use in case the actuator fails for some reason. Removing one cotter pin and one nut can remove the actuator, then I can manually raise the pods, insert the rod in place of the actuator, and have headlights on an emergency basis.

I also took this opportunity to 'fix' some things. The PO had rivetted the headlight buckets to the pods, so now they're attached with sheet metal speed nuts and sheet metal screws. And I modified the headlight trim rings, using and old trick I picked up from the MGB guys - filing off the flange of the ring at the weld point. Now, to install the rings, you fit it at the top, then line up the filed opening in the flange with the spring at the 5:30 point of the bucket and push it on, then rotate the ring so the spring is covered by the flange. To remove, rotate the weld to the 5:30 mark, and lever it off.

And now for the pics. Sorry about the rotation issue.

The crank extension.

The shims to extend the actuator to the crank in the down position.

The relay placement.

Actuator installed.

An easier way to get the trim ring on, and especially, off.

[h20hamelan]

My quick comment, I have purchased and am planning on running projector lights.
For me, the nice part of this, is they will raise not as high as needed for a big lamp.
The +2 will be dual projector, and hope to have it looking like BMW 850.
For the elan, also will use linear actuators. Off the instrument panel lamp switch with a twist.

Haven’t decided yet how to have daytime running lights. Presumably will be LED, front and rear anytime the key is on.

Ive sort of cheated, by collecting for free (I’ve bought a few) many various projector and HID lamps for 13 years. I have good stock and idea of what will work.

Some of the recent LED sealed that will fit the Elan seem good, certainly not great like HID and projectors.

[smo17003]

I'm pleased to see that others are going the actuator route rather than electric motor. Having seen Mr. Gale's video a few years ago it's been something that I have planned to incorporate into my restoration, and I have already started by purchasing the actuator, DPDT relay and a few other pieces of hardware. Cost so far is less than £100, most of it from Ebay/Amazon.
I realise that I will lose the headlamp flash function, but for simplicity of operation I'm happy with that trade off.

My car is a UK S4 so it has the original pair of vacuum cylinders i.e. without a bar linking the two headlamps as per the single cylinder failsafe version. The car is currently away for repaint following replacement of the front end and other GRP repairs. I will use the old front end as the guinea pig for my version. For the bar I will (partially) copy the failsafe version, including linking each headlamp pod to the bar with a pair of RH/LH threaded rods and rod-ends (rose joints). For the actuator to bar connection I intend to use a LH threaded rod-end at the actuator, a LH/RH threaded rod and a RH threaded bush inserted perpendicular into the link bar. This, along with pretty much the same mounting that Steve Lyle is using for the actuator, should give me plenty of fine adjustment to get the correct length of stroke.
The actual bar is 19mm OD steel with UNC tapped brass inserts at each end. I have read a few topics that say occasionally the two inner headlamp pivot bobbins are not always exactly inline with each other, which will cause the bar to bind on the pivot screws. If that's the case, and it's minimal, I will add a U/J into the bar, or worst case scrap the bar and just use two actuators acting directly on each pod - we'll see.
Incidentally I also came up with a length of .63" using my English Technical School maths

I was intending to wire the relay directly to the light switch and hide it somewhere behind the dash, similar to Mr. Gale, but looking at what Steve has done that does seem to be much tidier.

Steve, the description and photos are great, but could I be really cheeky and ask you to draw out the wiring diagram and post a photo? If I read it right the DPDT relay is connected via the headlamp relays and sidelamp (marker) wiring, so doesn't actually go anywhere near the dashboard switch. Or am I wrong?

And the trim modification is something I will definitely try, I already have enough sleepless nights worrying about scratching the new paintwork.

Cheers

Mike

[steve lyle]

Mike,

Hope the attached helps.

Numbering the relay contacts 1-8, from the upper left to the lower right.

1-4 are the switched contacts going to the actuator. 1 and 2 are in contact with 5 and 6 when the relay is switched "on", (i.e., contact 7 is at +12v), and 3 and 4 are in contact when the relay is switched "off" (i.e., contact 7 is at 0v). I might have 1/2 and 3/4 reversed, if so, simply switch the actuator leads between them.

Contact 5 needs to be at +12v constantly - i.e., a direct path to the battery. I believe the standard Elan wiring harness has a blue wire that feeds power to the headlight relays. At least my car does, I just spliced a lead into that wire and fed it to 5.

Contact 7 is the switch contact. It needs to be at +12v when you want the pods up, i.e., when the headlights are on. The way my car is wired, when I pull out the headlight switch, the headlights come on (either hi or lo beam, depending on the dip switch), and the marker lights come on. Using one of the headlight wires (blue/red or blue/white) is a bit problematic, since we want the pod up if either is on, but we don't want to join them. So I used the marker light circuit, red on my car, spliced into it and fed it to #7.

So, no, the relay doesn't need to be physically near the headlight switch in order to be controlled by it.

6 and 8 just need to go to ground, so I made up a short loom with two female crimp connectors and one bullet, and plugged the bullet in to an available ground (black) circuit bullet connector in the bow of the car.

Makes sense?

By the way, my cross-car bar has no threads at the ends, just an unthreaded hole slightly larger than the pivot bolts, fwiw.

[smo17003]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply and yes, it does now (sort of) make sense to me. However, I read it that you are using the pull (vacuum) switch to complete the headlamp and actuator circuits. If so, how does the off/sidelamp only/sidelamp+headlamp rocker switch function on your car? Does your vacuum switch have a micro-switch attached, mine doesn't, it's pure vacuum? My intention was to by-pass the pull switch completely (same as Gale?), and connect to the sidelamp+headlamp terminal on the rocker switch (or possibly at the dip switch if it's easier) so that the pods are raised when the rocker is in the third position. Any thoughts?

And I wasn't aware that the bar was unthreaded - that's very helpful to know.

Cheers

Mike

[steve lyle]

Mike,

Yes, my vacuum switch has a micro-switch on it, that's connected to a relay that powers the headlight power to the dip switch and powers the marker lights. So one pull does it all. I don't have the option of controlling the headlights and marker lights separately.

I believe you should be able to wire your implementation the same way I did. We both have a switch that powers the marker lights. Different switches, but we both have one. Connect that marker light circuit (red on my car, likely the same on yours) to terminal 7 on the relay. That way you don't have to find space behind the dash for the relay, or run new wires from behind the dash to the front of the car.

It sounds like you can switch on just the marker lights without switching on the headlights. Or vice versa. Using the marker light circuit to switch the actuator of course means that there is no point in turning on the headlights without the marker lights. If you want to do that, you'll need to tap into the power circuit to the dip switch, and run a new wire to the front of the car (if that's where you put the relay). You can't use the hi or lo beam circuits (without adding add'l relays) because you want the pods up for both of them.

I presume you have relays for your headlights. If you do, you have a wire to them that is always seeing +12v (i.e., is not switched). Connect that circuit (blue on my car, presumably the same on yours, I believe that was British std at the time) to terminal 5.

If you don't have headlight relays, you may need to run a new wire to the relay to provide power (and then this would be a good time to add them). Connect it to the brown circuit, add a fuse (10 amps should do it, I believe the actuator draws 6 amps) close to where you tap into brown, and you should be good.

Regards,
Steve

[smo17003]

Steve,

Yes, we have differences between the UK and US cars. On UK cars we can switch on just the marker lamps, or we can switch on the markers plus the headlamps, but not the headlamps on their own. This is done via the 3 position rocker switch (off/marker/marker+headlamp) - does the US rocker lighting switch function differently?
To others reading, I know that the headlamp flash system also works via the rocker being in the 'off or marker' position and the vacuum being pulled, but the flash function will be deleted.
We also have the hi/lo relays so it seems, as you suggest, that I can tap into the circuit between the lighting switch ' headlamps on' terminal and the dip switch. There is already a wire that goes from the rocker switch to the (redundant) flasher relay so it would make sense to utilise that one. Once again, thank you, it really is very useful advice that you're giving. Hopefully, in a few months time, I'll also post some photos of my actuator setup.

Regards
Mike

[pharriso]

Steve,

Yes, we have differences between the UK and US cars. On UK cars we can switch on just the marker lamps, or we can switch on the markers plus the headlamps, but not the headlamps on their own. This is done via the 3 position rocker switch (off/marker/marker+headlamp) - does the US rocker lighting switch function differently?
....

Regards
Mike

No, that is exactly the same as the Federal Sprint...

[steve lyle]

Steve,

Yes, we have differences between the UK and US cars. On UK cars we can switch on just the marker lamps, or we can switch on the markers plus the headlamps, but not the headlamps on their own. This is done via the 3 position rocker switch (off/marker/marker+headlamp) - does the US rocker lighting switch function differently?
....

Regards
Mike

No, that is exactly the same as the Federal Sprint...

Interesting - someone along the way must have changed mine, because I have no rocker switch or means to switch on the marker lights by themselves.

There was a 'dummy' rocker next to the pull-on vacuum switch, but there was no switch gear or wires behind it, just a rocker in a frame. I've since purchased a rocker switch from RDE to put there, and now it's my radiator fan override switch. Was that the original 3-position headlight switch? How did it work with the pull switch?

Ya learn something every day...

[pharriso]

Steve, I documented everything here - https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=30133

The Rocker switch is a simple 2 way one, operation of the rocker switch & Vacuum switch is as follows:

Vacuum switch in / Rocker Switch Off = No lights
Vacuum switch Out / Rocker Switch Off = Flashing Headlights
Vacuum switch in / Rocker Switch On = Side lights
Vacuum switch ot / Rocker Switch On = Headlights & Sidelights

I think this is exactly the same as non-Federal cars?

[smo17003]

Phil,

My UK S4 (1968) has a 3 position rocker switch. Because I haven't actually driven it yet please forgive me if I am making assumptions that are wrong, but I think it does differ to your 2 way switch.

Vacuum In/Rocker Off (position 1) = No lights
Vacuum Out/Rocker Off = Pods raise and headlamps flash (so far same as Fed?)
Vacuum In/Rocker On Pos.2 = Sidelamps (marker) only
Vacuum Out/Rocker On Pos 2 = (this bit I'm guessing) Sidelamps on, pods raise but no headlamps
Vacuum Out/Rocker On Pos.3 = Sidelamps on plus pods raise and headlamps on (hi/lo controlled by the dip switch)

There is no microswitch on the vacuum but there is one on each headlamp pod. One is for the flashing function when the vacuum is pulled. I think the second (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) is to switch off the headlamp if the vacuum is pushed back in without going from Pos 3 to Pos 2/Pos 1 on the rocker (it stops the engine bay being illuminated). I'm still learning every day about all things Elan, so like I say some of that above might be wrong.

Mike

[steve lyle]

Mike - looking forward to hearing about your implementation.

Phil & Mike - do you ever use anything other than "all on"? Part of me says it would be nice to 'fix' my car back to stock, with all the options. And part of me says "why bother, you won't use those options".

Regards,
Steve

[smo17003]

Steve,

Body is due back from paint in the New Year and I want to get the mechanical side of the lighting installed and working before the body goes back on to the chassis. I'm giving myself 6 months to get the car finished after that. I'm recently retired so I can throw the hours at it (hopefully).

One thing I didn't pick up on straight away is that when you said "marker", and I said "sidelamp", we're not talking about the same lamps. I have looked at photos of the US cars and you obviously have the amber markers on the front and rear sides of the car. I didn't realise that your cars don't seem to also have the small white "sidelamps" at the front (next to the front indicator/turn lamps) that all UK cars have. So, on this side of the pond, these sidelamps come on, along with the tail lamps (rear lamps), when the rocker is Pos 2 (sidelamp only). Probably best if Phil advises on how your "markers" should work.

Cheers

Mike

[pharriso]

Phil & Mike - do you ever use anything other than "all on"? Part of me says it would be nice to 'fix' my car back to stock, with all the options. And part of me says "why bother, you won't use those options".

Regards,
Steve

Yes, I drive withe sidelights on in the twilight hours, I rarely drive the car needing full headlights...

[pharriso]

One thing I didn't pick up on straight away is that when you said "marker", and I said "sidelamp", we're not talking about the same lamps. I have looked at photos of the US cars and you obviously have the amber markers on the front and rear sides of the car. I didn't realise that your cars don't seem to also have the small white "sidelamps" at the front (next to the front indicator/turn lamps) that all UK cars have. So, on this side of the pond, these sidelamps come on, along with the tail lamps (rear lamps), when the rocker is Pos 2 (sidelamp only). Probably best if Phil advises on how your "markers" should work.

Cheers

Mike

The red/orange side marker lights work as per your white sidelamps.... All on when the rocker is down in the on position.

Can someone else confirm that UK cars have a 3 position rocker switch for the lights next to the vacuum pull switch?