Anyone using LED bulbs for Lucas 576’s ?

[iain1967s]

I am curious if you use the separate nternal reflector when LED ‘bulbs’ are fitted.

I know they aren’t required with pre-focus bulbs, but the LED clusters are more diffuse I think?

[casinogarage]

Hi, iain, here is Mk1's reply to my question for iodine bulbs with Lucas 700 :
"These reflectors are not necessary if you are using modern mirror tipped lamps. They were designed for BPF lamps which were pretty feeble not the more powerful halogen types available nowadays."
However, for LED bulbs that would be different !

[mk1]

I haven't seen a mirror tipped LED lamp yet & the light output is still usually quite a bit less than an equivalent halogen lamp. Assuming the LED lamp fits easily under the aluminium cover I'd use it in this application as it has a double benefit, it will help (a little) to throw the light back towards the reflector & (more importantly) hide the hideous LED lamp from view.

[spraybeateer]

Not sure for your application! but there are some interesting videos on YouTube
on LED bulbs and the heat generated by them.
They are mostly from your side of the pond!
These days most modern cars have retina melting LED headlamps, having gone to
Bingley Hall BMC show for the last couple of years (where everybody likes to show of
their latest bit of BLING) some of the minis fitted with either LED bulbs or lamps are a
Bloody nightmare coming towards you.
This is just my view from a Grumpy Old Git

[surfblue63]

By the way, is your car positive or negative earth. If positive you may not LED bulbs that will not work as most are made for negative earth systems.

This version appear that it would fit inside the reflector but there does not look like there is much of an LED.

https://www.bettercarlighting.co.uk/ind ... ductId=548

[mk1]

LED's do generate heat, but this is a fraction of what is generated by traditional lamps.

[Richspec]

LED's do generate heat, but this is a fraction of what is generated by traditional lamps.

and the heats in a different place, bulbs heat at the bulb, led's seem to come with mahooosive heat sinks on the back.

I've tried LED bulbs in normal boggo spotlamps and headlights and wasn't impressed and just stuck with uprated conventional setups, but led's for sidelights, tail/stop etc.

[mk1]

Couldn't agree more with Rich's comments above.

[iain1967s]

Thanks for all the feedback.

These are for a FOG-SPOT-SPOT-FOG "works" type lamp bar, part of my ongoing tinkering in the off-season per this thread. I had all the relays etc. wired up ready to go with the Lucas 576’s, and then realised that with the original Mk1 dynamo setup it probably wasn't the best idea to be adding 18 amps (4x 55w) of lights.

Maybe that’s the reason why the previous owner didn’t wire up the 4x 100w “KC Day-lighter” halogen lamps that were on the car when I bought it... the dynamo wouldn’t have a chance of staying ahead of the load, so the battery would soon die if they were used for any length of time.

I don’t want to change to alternator, as the car has a solid-state +ve earth regulator box. So I ordered some cheap no-brand Chinese "AC/DC" LEDs with B36S base from eBay. They are 4x 7w, just a couple of amps total load, so I probably don't really need the relays now

I am taking a gamble that because the advert says they also work on AC, they may have a bridge rectifier built in - if so, they should work on my +ve earth Mini just as well as on a -ve earth car. They are quite long though, so may not fit inside the Lucas reflector.

We shall see what chinapost delivers in 2-4 weeks... I'll do some experiments and report back my findings in the new year.

Update: The vendor replied that the AC/DC description is incorrect, so I ordered some non-polarized LED bulbs from another website.

[Guywilko]

Fit relays anyway, no point in running current through the switch and safer if bulb short circuits

[snoopy64]

Always had good bulbs and experience with these guys...

http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.c ... s-shop.php

[iain1967s]

Happy to say the LEDs fit in the 576 lenses no problem, and they work regardless of polarity so will be fine for my +ve earth car.

I already had a pair of 6RA relays ready, based on expected current for the filament bulbs. So I am also making the wiring loom of an appropriately heavy gauge (see photo) and will just swap the bulbs to LED and fuses to the lower rating.

That way, if me or a future owner reverts to regular bulbs (for yellow tinted etc) there won't be any smokey surprises...

[Spider]

A tat off the specific topic here, and I realise this may vary from Country to Country, but what's the general Legal Roadworthy position with either retro-fitting LED 'lamps' in to say H4 Headlamps and also fitting complete LED Units ?

[Richspec]

it has to pass an MOT test (if you have one i suppose)
LED units would have to be E marked and pass the beam pattern test, Bulbs would have to be E marked (not checked) but still need to pass the beam pattern test.

Whether these are actually tested depends on the tester of course!

[iain1967s]

In USA/Canada, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 defines the lighting specifications for road use.

Section S5.1.1.17 requires that any replacement bulb positions the filament in the same place as the original type-approved bulb when fitted to the original reflector housing [the point source of an individual LED is classed as a filament]. LED replacement bulbs are usually arrays, and don’t meet that requirement.

Safety Inspection rules are state specific, and may allow the entire headlight unit to be replaced with an LED version. For example, Virginia allows this if the replacement is DOT approved, and fits without changes to the wiring: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/ ... ection510/ whereas inspectors here in MA are only required to visually check the beam pattern is correct.

Headlights without DOT marking are not road legal, except in Canada which also allows “European” marked headlights. Maybe that’s why my Mk1 mini has Westinghouse headlights... None of this applies to auxiliary lights as far as I am aware.

[Spider]

Many thanks for the feedback guys.

There's so many complete units, and of varying designs or at least appearances, and on many, reading the fine print, while they are happy to mention they'll illuminate the hair on an ant's backside at 5 miles, few mention compliance. Given that there was also many HID Units kicking about a few years back, with similar blurb, this seems a grey area for LEDs. There's also very few complete units about that look like 'normal' headlights, most having the appearance of an alien !

[iain1967s]

Job done. Finished the cloth covered wiring loom, and soldered on the bullet connectors. You would hardly know there are LED bulbs in there

Now I just have to wire up the car side, and drill a hole in the front panel for the TLC socket. But that can wait for a warmer day...

[Spider]

I found this the other day and thought it might be of interest to anyone thinking of going down a conversion path

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFLmu2 ... c_1VzG__6Y

[iain1967s]

Finally got the nerve to bore a 1.5” hole into the front panel of the mini, to fit the Lucas TLC “bath plug” type connector for the completed ‘works’ style fog/driving lamp bar.

The fog lights are pushed in slightly toward the center by the overriders, I’ll probably add some spacers underneath the bar to get a little more clearance.

I plan to do the rest of the wiring using a period Wipac Rallyman switch, it will be easier to access when I have the engine out later in the year.