So I'm making good headway on the restoration of my '49 M-47 Mercury. Got the fenders mounted with the stainless and lights installed. Front grill and lights installed. Everything loose until all the parts are on and everything is okay.
Thougt I'd hook up some wires to check the electrical. Switch to the first notch and yipee . The back lights are on and the front fender lights are on. So I pull to the next notch and the headlights are on. Hit the dimmer and all okay so walk to the front and the fender lights are off. Hmmm...
Back in a notch and they are on and out a notch and headlights on and no fender lights....
Is this the way they are supposed to work on a 6volt all original system ?
Greg M-47

 

I have always thought the fender lights are park lights. So on the F-1s' the park lights are off with headlights always high or low beam.......I could be wrong .......

 

That's what I was hoping to hear.The Mercury fender lights run off the same wire that would go to the grill lights on the Ford trucks. So guess that they are doing what they should.
Back at the truck thursday. Rear fenders to sand and test fit. And a trip to the tractor shop to search for some 6v bulbs. G-E63 6-8V 3C to be exact.
Thank you for the reply
Greg -47

 

Park lamps go out when the driving lights go on. Normal.

 

Most states have laws limiting the number of lamps greater than a certain brightness allowed on the front of vehicle at one time. I suspect that has been around a rather long time. I think that is where the parking light behavior stems from. I expect that is where amber-colored running lamps came from too.
Or, it could all have been due to a wickedly clever patent fight with devilishly sucessful lobbying. But, that would be a conspiracy theory, wouldn't it?

 

Freaked me out too when I wired mine.

 

Thank you again to all that answered my question. I had an idea that the lights going off was correct but nice to know it is. Just had breakfast and off to work on the truck.
Greg M-47

 

Greg what are you doing for signal lights ?

 

I noticed the same thing on my 54. So, I changed it so that the running lights are on when the head lights are on. I figured that the more lights that are on, the less likely that somebody would pull out in front of me. Jag

 

Since they weren't on a relay they were wired that way to prevent overloading the switch, circuit breaker, and wiring.

 

This is for you Allan. I'm going to hook up my signal lights at a later date. For now I'm going all original and scrambling to get my truck ready and safetied so I can get to a friends car show. I promised to show this year and I'm going to even if I have to flatbed it !!
I figured keeping it as simple as possible would make the safety that much easier as less stuff to be checked. I need rear fenders buy may go without the hood if it isn't ready.
Got all winter to work on the signals.
Greg M-47

 

Well, you don't need rear fenders if you put a flatbed on it. Just sayin'.

 

On the light brightness that was apparently mandatory during WW11, were you weren't supposed to run anything brighter on the front than 32 Watt Power. Later on sfter the war alot of people bought the 50 Watt for those who still had the Bulb type Headlamps.