Driving at night last week on freeway with headlights on bright(still dim enough that on coming traffic cares not a wit). Had gone some 20 miles or so, all was well when without notice headlights went dark.

Turned switch to off and back to on. Lights illuminated ok, but within 30 seconds dark again.

Repeated this cycle 3 or 4 times, then believing that perhaps curcuit breaker was overheating, hit dimmer switch and made it on home with no further problem.

Did long drive put enough stress/load on old circuitry that it overheated causing circuit breaker to do what it is supposed to do, or is circuit breaker merely old and itself exhausted? Or perhaps a bad ground, connection, switch causing this problem.

Switching to dim on the lights successfully gives me a clue that circuit is taxed and/or overloaded.

Appropriately within this page of threads is a thread discussing 'relays' to support lighting system. Is it time that I consider this, before I either burn the car down or have the lights go dark on some twisty mountain road. Will be contacting crackedback for relay options

Are there recommendations for dual headlight system for increased illumination and still retain the stock seal beam appearance. Prefer not to replace with the modern halogen or some such look.

that'd be my guess. I would replace the HL switch.

Take a look at your dimmer switch first. With all the wet weather and it's age and location would be surprised.

x2 almost always dimmer switch.

I have installed relays on my headlights for many years now. There are several advantages to relays for our Mopars. Everyone should seriously consider doing it. The only possible disadvantage is that you have to cut into the headlight harness.

i have found this to be true "most" times also.

Agreed, I would bypass the dimmer switch (on brights) & see if it still acts up.

My 79 quad lamp warlock did this years ago, but I had 4 hella bulbs, and new headlight switch fixed it.

Jim

I would test/clean the switch, but I would also invest in a simple relay setup if you are going to be driving the car at night on a regular basis. You CAN have good illumination, if you want it.

There is a person that makes quite a nice relay wiring system for your headlights that is plug and play, no cutting into your harness. I have the kit installed in my Cuda and it makes a big difference. Here is a link:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbt...tml#Post2231668

Thank you all for a torrent of ideas that I had not thought of.

Anyone have any thoughts on sealed beams that look almost stock, but have more modern brightness capabilities?

But you don't have cut any wires to do it. The harness in front can remain stock.

My combo that I am happy with in my 70 Challenger:

Relays (x2, for high and low)
Hella BiFocal H1s (x2, low)
Cibie parabolic H1s (x2, high)
Narva-Flosser Rangepower+50 H1 bulbs (x4)

My Charger does that at time,, I'm thinking Halogen bulbs causing trouble.. A friend of mine had that trouble put regular bulbs in the high beam,,, fixed the problem,,

I would (1) bypass the dimmer on brights & see if that is it (2) if not then replace the HL switch (3) then decide if you want to upgrade the headlights and or relay them (fix the issue at hand first). #1 clean all terminals/connections including ground paths.

Definitely fix the problem before considering relays. Suggestion from Shawge on light fixtures would be ok, but would definitely use a relay system.

The Hella's don't cause the trouble, they make the already existing problem noticable, because they want a bit more electrical power.

Headlights behind a relay have a number of positives;
- No more flickering
- Brighter headlights
- No more high electrical load going through the old/worn headlight switch
- No more high electrical load going through the bulkhead connector.
- No more high electrical load going through the fusebox.

Every 45 year old connector developes resistance over time because of copper/brass getting dark and polluted.
High current and resistance = heat.
Enough heat will melt the plastic around the connector itself and a dashfire is soon to happen.

Just renewing a headlight switch for instance only pushes a potential fire problem to the next point of high resistance.