I have halogen seal beam headlights on my '39 coupe with '40 fenders and the 30 amp circuit breaker trips after the've been on for about 10 min. Do the halogens draw that much current? If so, what amperage breaker is appropriate? I do have an alternator. A really dumb question....How important is it that the positive be connected to the copper terminal of the breaker? The above condition was observed with the positive on the silver terminal......I haven't had a chance to run with the lights on to see if it makes any difference.
If it was me, I would install my amp meter inline with the power wire either coming into or out of the circuit breaker to see what kind of draw my lights are pulling. Then I would check my ground wires and also the size of my wire to the headlights.
Take the wattage of the light and devide it by the voltage supplied. That will give you the amp draw. You donot only have to worry about the circuite breaker but also the switch and the wiring to the light. If you indeed have the correct breaker or fuse then you probably want to look at the ground. A poor ground will also affect you in adverse ways.
ditto on the add relays. avoid being stuck somewhere without lights, etc, or maybe worse, a car fire.
Had headlamp switch over heating before I installed 2 relays also got more power for lamps by installing feed to relays close to the alternator.
can i assume your breaker looks like this? if so the 12 volt power from the battery goes to the copper color lug , the load gets connected to the silver. you may have it backwards. i don't know if it really makes a difference , but is worth checking out 30 amps should be fine , i have only a 20 amp on the halogens on my `36
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