Headlight information

[Old is Gold]

I have this headlight on my 67 Sears Spyder. Can't seem to get it functioning at this point. Just wondering is there a headlight similar to this style/shape that is strictly battery powered and does not need a generator?

 

[Archie Sturmer]

Yes, fairly inexpensive.

Pardon Our Interruption...

Lots of options.

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[acg_schwinn]

Yes, absolutely; they're generically known as ball headlights, and you'll find them all over eBay, both vintage originals and modern reproductions (the latter using LEDs instead of an incandescent bulb). Yours looks to be one that was made in either Hong Kong or Japan back in the day, and sold under a number of house brands for various stores and aftermarket distributors, with the brand name of choice lithographed onto that little aluminum plate that's fitted into two slots on top. Other common brand names included BikePals, Cycle, and a few others that I will remember shortly after I hit the Post Reply button.

If you're good with fiddly bits when disassembling, and it's not just a rust bucket inside, you can probably do a good job of getting it working again, as well as shining up the outside. (I usually use Turtle Wax or Dupont White Polishing Compound, followed by Meguiar's Cleaner Wax.) The usual point of failure for these is the rotary switch on top, where the brass rivet contacts inside get so oxidized that the bulb won't light. You might get things working again by shining up the rivet contacts with a clean pencil eraser, followed by a light fingertip wipe with Vaseline petroleum jelly to keep the oxidation from returning.

If that doesn't work, you'll need to remove the locking pin from the center of the switch shaft, lift off the spring retainer cap or washer, pressure spring and brass rotary contact, get the contact areas nice and shiny again, and reassemble. It will be fiddly to press down on the spring to get the locking pin back in place (needle nose pliers are helpful), but it's doable. Clean up the bulb socket, contacts, etc. as needed and try it again.

I rebuild these all the time and they're not hard to do, but if yours has other damage beyond that obviously snapped off switch lever, I would agree that finding another would probably be a better use of your time. Good luck...

 

[Old is Gold]

So if I want to try and find an actual vintage battery powered light, what brand names should I search for?
Thanks

 

[Hoagie57]

Delta / Schwinn /

 

[acg_schwinn]

Delta / Schwinn

^^^This^^^

Delta was Schwinn's battery headlight supplier into the 1960s, including most notably the original "Pumpkin" light (the one without the lighted amber side markers). Enwell of Japan supplied Schwinn's ball headlights from the late 1960s into the early 1970s, especially the gorgeous big 2-cell headlight 05 721, with a fluted glass lens for good beam dispersal.

Schwinn then transitioned to Cat Eye of Japan as one of several lighting suppliers going into the 1970s, and Cat Eye was the manufacturer of the later pumpkin light, adding lighted amber side lenses but otherwise leaving the design virtually identical to the earlier Delta version.

This 1971 consumer catalog page is a good representation of the era:

In the headlights above, 05 720 (single D cell) and 05 721 (two D cells) are Enwell headlights, and can be found for sale under their own brand (Enwell or Crown) as well as Schwinn. 05 712 is the later, second-generation pumpkin light as provided by Cat Eye. Generator sets 04 115 and 04 140 are by Union of West Germany, and 04 100 is by Soubitez of France.

In the taillight section, 04 175 is from Union (it's the same as in their Deluxe generator set, but with its own mounting bracket and an extended power lead), 04 180 and 04 181 are from Cat Eye, and 05 835 is... I think... from Enwell.

One cool thing about the Enwell-branded versions of their Schwinn 05 721 light: in addition to selling that specific light under their own brand, they also had a two-bulb, High- and Low-beam version (their model 552), plus one with a built-in electric horn. Schwinn, for whatever reason, didn't want to offer either of those, instead just sticking with the basic single-beam model, although that is really nice all by itself.

 

[Archie Sturmer]

If you don't wish to give up on the generator style, sometimes vintage "Crown" parts become available.
As another member infers these 1960-70's accessories may have been manufactured at the same place, but with different distributors' names applied.

But vintage parts and accessories may have a price premium, over that of the modern LED lights?

 

[acg_schwinn]

If you don't wish to give up on the generator style, sometimes vintage "Crown" parts become available.
As another member infers these 1960-70's accessories may have been manufactured at the same place, but with different distributors' names applied.

Yes! In fact the Crown brand seems to be an upscale brand version by Enwell. For example, you can find a Crown version of their Schwinn 05 721 ball headlight, identifiable by a white rotary switch on top in place of the usual black one, and using a brighter #41 bulb in place of the usual #14, a 0.5-amp bulb in place of the usual 0.3. You can tell the difference in bulbs by looking at the glass envelope of the bulb and the color of the insulator inside: the high-power #41 has a larger glass globe and a white insulator inside; the standard #14 has a smaller globe (about 11mm) and (in vintage bulbs) a blue insulator.

P.S. In looking at that headlight shell in the generator-set photo above, that looks as if it might be the same as that in the photo by @Old is Gold, which in turn may be a house-branded battery version of the Schwinn 05 720 single-call headlight. @Old is Gold: does your light take one battery or two?

 

[Old is Gold]

Great information. Thank you very much guys.

 

[acg_schwinn]

Great information. Thank you very much guys.

You're welcome... One thing I just noticed in your headlight photo is that yours has a gray knurled plastic knob on the latch release (left side of photo), which is used more often on generator headlights than battery models. Is your headlight actually a generator model? If so, it would have a power terminal on either the lower left or lower right side of the outer shell, no internal battery tray, and the top switch is used as a beam selector between the two bulbs inside. On a battery model, the top rotary knob acts as an On/Off switch. What do you have there? One or two more photos of the whole thing would be helpful.