Beehive wiring question

[jstenner]

I finally got off my butt and removed the later tail lights someone had installed in my Pre-A years ago. Until I find some originals I like, I'm installing a set of repo beehives. All four lights are dual pole with dual filament bulbs (that's all that's made as far as I can tell). My question is how to wire the inner (brake) light. A single wire feeds it and originally the ground is through the bolts. Do I just pick a pole and stick my single wire in it leaving the other pole empty? Or.....

TIA,

[jstenner]

I suppose if I span across to the second pole my tails would be brighter.

[bbspdstr]

Jack,
I'm lazy right now so I don't want to look it up, but does a pre-A blink the outer unit as does the later teardrop? The turn signal interrupts the brake light on all after the pre-A and the inner bulb is a 'running light.'
There are only two wires to each unit, one on each side for a brake/turn and one for 'running' lights.
Maybe if the wiring is similar, you could use the inner and outer dual repro units as running lights on the low wattage contact of both and the higher wattage as a brake light on one and a turnsignal on the other (of the two high wattage contacts).
Dual filament bulbs obviously have the higher and lower parts, usually the higher is 18 or 25 watt and the lower filament is usually 5 watt. Sure you can wire them together so if the higher watt burns out sooner, the lower wattage will still give a glow and maybe even blink if enough resistance to the relay.
Still, the two together don't make 23 or 30 watts of light...but I'm not an electrical engineer, just another guy who has also been stuck with a repro dual socket unit when in need of a single contact socket.
I've never tried it, but theoretically, a single filament bulb has it's contact in the center of the base, so it may touch both of the socket contacts so the wiring wouldn't matter, just the wattage of that bulb.
Maybe if I'm snowed in tomorrow, I'll check the Leoni and Factory diagrams......or shovel.

-Bruce

[jstenner]

Based on the 50-55 Workshop Manual the outer lights are tail + blink and the inners are brake. I hooked it up as it was connected when the teardrops were installed and everything is working EXCEPT, the inners are blink and the outers are tail + brake. I have a color coded diagram and it looks like my yellow wire, which is currently routed to the inner set should be going to the outer set instead. I'm heading out to the Florida Owner's Group Gathering in the morning, so I'll leave it as is for now and fix it when I get back.

Sure looks pretty with beehives! That's been bugging me for years, LOL! I might even take pics from behind now

Thanks for your help!

[Phil Planck]

On my PreA with repro bee hives I ran a wire to the non-operating low wattage terminal so I had 4 tail lights.

[jstenner]

Probably not a bad idea. Not exactly bright are they, LOL!

[S.J.Szabo]

Funny, when I set up the beehives on my T-1 A, I had to scrounge swap meets to find the double-pole sockets found at the front to use at the rear. Now, it's all one can get.

As a practicing non-conformist, I had a different plan for the tails and went so far as to run extra supply wires to assure sufficient and independent supply. My approach was to run all four as run/stop/turn to make sure my intentions could be seen.

The cherry on top (and center) was to wire the shine down reverse light as a stop. True, the lens color is achieved with translucent tape, but the early red lenses were as hard to find then as they are now. Still, it works quite well none the less without having to jury-rig some modern appliance.

Of course, this approach is anathema to an authenticist, but might have some appeal to a pragmatist.

$.02 worth.