THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Hey Guys.

I took the Pinz out for a drive yesterday to test our the brakes, which work well now, and when I got home my neighbour noticed my PS headlight was dimmer than the DS. On closer inspection, it looks like there is a smaller bulb that is on, but the main low beam is out. The high beam works fine. Are there two bulbs in there for low beam, or is one like a driving light?

Thanks again for the help!

Berger

The headlight is very much a conventional system with dual filaments, one each for low beam/high beam. But the Pinz also has a small 5W bulb towards the bottom of the reflector that is used as the "parking light" which comes on when the switch is turned to either 1 or 2. The main 55W bulb filament only comes on at the second position. The parking light makes the headlights glow but won't put out any useful light to drive by.

Sounds like either your main low beam filament is out, bad connection to it, or one of the breakers is tripped or just not making good contact. The breaker issue is common as they are 30+ years old; sometimes repeated resetting will help to clean the contacts and get them working better again.

I have a breaker that occasionally (like once or twice a year) won't get power to one of the headlights until I poke at it a few times. The way the electrical system was designed for these trucks, tripping any one breaker usually does not kill all the power to a circuit (like the headlights) as one headlight is on one breaker, the other on another breaker, so that if one trips you would still have some lighting still working.

Poke at all the breakers first; if it still does not get bright at the second postion then remove the trim ring from the offending headlight, remove the clips that hold the glass in place and pull it out gently and check the connections; then remove the main bulb and check it. If you don't change the aiming screws then you can put it back in and it will still be aimed as it was before.

Thanks Jim!

Breaker #4 is the PS low beam.

I see lots of low priced 24v HID conversion bulbs of fleabay, anyone using these? Quality?

For what its worth, in my truck i currently have a left low beam bulb out...and it also causes the right low beam breaker to trip even though the right headlight, both high AND low beam work fine. So ultimatly breakers 4 and 5 trip simultaneously. Quite pesky.

None of my breakers are tripped, but I am still going to test the connection later today. I have been searching on replacement bulbs, and I am still not clear on what I need. If I want to keep the reflector, and do not want to make any modifications at all for the parking bulb...just plug and play...what bulb should I get?


Hella 78161 ?
H6024 ?

Well the h6024 is the replacement, but its the bulb and lamp combined, like a modern headlamp. They are brighter but the compromise is you lose the cool marker lamp. I personally have auxillary lighting so I don't need a brighter lamp. I just bought the direct replacement bulb from scott at EI for 7 bucks plus tax and shipping. There are numerous options available including an h4 bulb that's just the bulb, no reflector...but I think the marker lamp is unique and don't want to part ways just yet...