Need Low Beam T-3 for ‘67

[L78fanatic]

Drove my new to me ‘67 today for the first time! About time right? Well, I am slowly finding things that need attention. Good news today is I found the wipers actually DO work! I didn’t think they worked but the car wasn’t running...DUH!

So much of this car is original it’s a time warp. I think the low beam on the driver side might be an original bulb actually. It does light up but very weak compared to the other side. I do not want to replace all 4, just the one low beam. I need one for a ‘67, ad they do vary between years & models.

Any ideas? Thanks!

John

 

[Nashville Cat]

Is the low beam 2 prong and high beam 3 prong ? How do you ID which light ?
Ebay is probably the best shot

 

[Nashville Cat]

They have 2 or 3 prong lights for sale about $42 ea on ebay

 

[L78fanatic]

They have 2 or 3 prong lights for sale about $42 ea on ebay

I know it's the low beam and it's on the outside...inner lamps are high beam (but you probably know that already). I'll have to look at the prongs. I'd think the low's have 2 prongs, but don't know. I'll check & look on ebay. I know there is a difference in the bulb design from '67 & earlier from the later T-3 bulbs ('68 onward).

 

[L78fanatic]

Low Beam is the #2 Sealed Beam and it has a 3-prong plug on the back. Kinda makes sense now that I think about it, as the outside lamp works on both low and with the high beam.

I'll look into the ebay one. If I recall right the early T-3 sealed beams had vertical stripes inside the triangle, later ones are clear (no stripes). I have one triangle with vertical stripes on the passenger side high beam lamp. Have you heard this before? I'm thinking that the one sealed beam is original to the car maybe, or replaced when the old style beams were still available.

 

[cheveslakr]

There's at least 3 different versions, and I know the 67 and the 69 are different and both have vertical lines in the triangle. The nubs that prevent the light from rotating in the cup are different. I've had terrible luck keeping low beam T3s in working order so now I just buy the set of 4 repops.....they're fairly reasonable and are brighter than factory offerings.

 

[cage2592]

^^^ Completely agree.

Not to mention when I did buy one, the colors were never the same. One would be brighter/dimmer or a different Kelvin color white. I switched to LEDs

 

[Nashville Cat]

When I was driving my 66SS from 1976 to 1988 , I think I swapped in a set of Halogens.
They were brighter and a direct swap. Sylvania H6024

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/sylvania/sylvania-h6024-basic-sealed-beam-headlight-bulb-pack-of-1/syl0/h6024

 

[Shaner]

I have some t-3's. Let me remember where they are and I'll post pics.

 

[L78fanatic]

Thanks all, but I really want to keep this car as original as possible....the guy on eBay sells original T-3's. I was about to buy 2 but the position of the nubs has me worried. They aren't cheap at $42.50 ea. but that includes shipping. One has the stripes in the triangle (high beam)...like the one on my car.

How easy is it to check the locations of the nubs? Take the sealed beam out?

Also, I just read in an old TC thread that the older sealed beams from 1960 to 1967 did NOT have vertical lines in the triangle and the 1970 on had the vertical lines. Does that make any sense. I had heard the reverse was true. If that is true, then possibly 3 of 4 of my headlights might be original or repros. One (high beam) has vertical lines.

 

[Nashville Cat]

If you drive your car at night, why put a 50 year old headlight in ? It could fail at a bad time.
The repos are undetectable to 99.999% of people.

 

[cheveslakr]

Strike what I posted earlier......Jeff H really gets to the nuts and bolts of these issues......

GM T-3 headlights - New info

www.chevelles.com

 

[L78fanatic]

Strike what I posted earlier......Jeff H really gets to the nuts and bolts of these issues......

GM T-3 headlights - New info

www.chevelles.com

Thanks Man! I just finished up emailing back & forth with Jeff! I'm all straight now. Glad we found that post on TC. My only problem is now that I want to get rid of the ribbed high beam along with the weak low beam, so they all match. Still considering used original sealed beams to match what I have. I will likely never drive this car at night anyway! Funny thing, my original '67 Chevelle (L78) was built in KC on June 9th 1967, so it likely had all ribbed T-3 sealed beams from the factory, but I'll never know. I never had to change out a bulb from new! Ha!