OzzyTom

G'day from DownUnder Australia. :seeya

There's quite a few Vette fanatics on the south side of the world too!
I'm finishing up some restoration items on my 68 convertible and I have a question for all the C3 gurus.....

The fibreoptic system installed on early C3 vettes, to provide driver with feedback on status of light bulbs.....

There's a set of three on the gear shift console plate, for the tail lights and licence plate. That's self explanatory.

But at the top of the console, under the instrument bezel, there is a plate with 6 lenses. The replacement lens purchased from Ecklers has the lens colours as clear, blue, red , red , blue, and clear (from left to right)

The plate is labelled Left Lamps (3 lenses) and Right Lamps 3 lenses

The question is, which lens refers to which lights. :confused:
I am assuming the clear refers to the Lo beam head lights and the Blue for the Hi-beam headlights. Is this correct?

What do the red lenses refer to..... Is it the parking lights? or the rear brake lights?

Any info to shed "light" on my problem would be appreciated

Sorry if this has been dealt with elsewhere, but I couldn't get a search result, and am a newbie to this site.

Thanks in advance

cheers
OzzyTom :chevy

zwede

G'day mate

The outside ones are parking light/turn signal. Then Lo-beam and the inners high beam.

OzzyTom

Thanks for the quick reply, zwede. Nice 71 coupe. 434 mouse, yumm.


The fibre optics on my 68 are unreliable, and I'm fitting some leds under the respective lenses and driving them from the appropriate switch source.

I guess the next question is, when the original fibreoptic cable system does work, does the lens for the rear tail lamp get brighter when the brakes are applied?

Anyone out there with an operational fibreoptic system ???
I could increase the current drive to the rear lamp indicating led to mimick the original operation of the brake lights if this is the case.

cheers

OzzyTom

Sorry Zwede... You've got an LS5 454 Rat.

I got a bit lost as I was delving into some other threads and was reading about 427V8's 434 smal block when I got an email prompt for a reply.

Should read the sigs properly in future.

Another question regarding the fibreoptics......

How bright do they shine when working properly....
I get the impression they are barely discernible in the daytime, and have a very low intensity due to the losses inherent with the fibre link.

Would you say they are visible in daylight, maybe just visible in the shade?
or only really appear to be seen at night time?

cheers

zwede

Yes, the red rear fibers get brighter when brakes are applied.

They are very dim... atleast mine are. I can barely see them during the day and not at all if the sun shines into the car. Work well at night, though.

blackbirdpilot

how are u planing on triggering the LED's to light? By trigering them when the power is sensed from the switch, they really wont provide any other function other than to add another light to the console and show you when the light is on. Similar to the high beam indicator on the speedo head, or the signal inticator in either pod.

The puspose of the fiber optics system is to be lit by the actual lamp itself. If it dose not iluminate on the console, then you know that your lamps is out.

Now if you were to rig up a system to sense power at the lamp in series, then if the lamp did not light, the lED would not light. This would be and "electronic" version of the fiber optics system in my opinion.

Good luck.

Grinchia

Bubba has gutted my fiber optics somewhere along the way, and I'm considering a similar technology switch to LEDs. When you get it together, would you mind posting the details for the rest of us? Or E-mail me if you like.

-Roy

grinch@iw.net

OzzyTom

You're absolutely correct, BlackbirdPilot. The original fibreoptics do provide functional visual feedback. But so do my eyes. When I'm reversing out the shed in the dark I can see from the driver's seat whether the parkers are lit, and the reflection from the rear lights on the roller door provides me visual confirmation that the rear lights are OK, and if I switch ON the headlights, I can tell if they are working. I am simply be using the switched 12 v for the respective LED drive for a visually appealing sense of originality when I'm cruising, without the headaches of maintaining the original fibreoptics.

If anyone is fanatical enough to develop a fully electronic system, then sure, a short length of nichrome wire in series with the headlights might provide a suitable trigger, without dropping too much voltage for the lights. Or possibly using some optical sensors (LDR's) coupled to an adjustable threshold detect comparator... but if you're going to go to that trouble, may as well thread some new fibre-optic cable through to the lights and do it as per the original.

cheers

OzzyTom

G'day Roy,

I used 3mm high efficiency LEDS from a local electronics store... Jaycar Electronics (in Australia) but any decent store will stock LEDs. Problem was that there must have been different batches in the tray, 'cause the sensitivity of the LEDs was quite different, necessitating individual resistors to be selected when in position in the Lens holder to simulate correct (or at least even) intensity. Also, the lens holder for the LEFT TAIL light has a 90 degree prism (to clear the auto gear selector mounts) This LED requires more drive to match the intensity also.

The resistor values I used were specific to the LEDs I purchased and fitted. So you may have to play around with values. I have fitted them into the console and wired them directly from the switch / cable sources. It does NOT provide functional detection of light status, but does mimick the correct operational visual effect.... brighter parking lights when indicator blinking, and Tail Lights go brighter when Brake is depressed.


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NHvette

It may be tough to find Down Under, but Cadillacs and Buicks are a good
source of used fiber optic parts. My '89 Buick Park Ave has the rear optics
mounted at the top of the rear window, so you see them in the rear-view mirror.

Hunt around the junkyard, and you might find some suitable optics that can
be transplanted for cheap $$.

:seeya

Pat71vette

If you want the stock ones a little briter, pull the end off by the light and scrape off the color dot and put them back in, you will notice them briter

C3C4Z

On my 71 it seems the ends are too short on some of the lights. Is there an easy way to splice into the existing cable?? Could I use a piece of hose then glue it to freshly cut piece and in that way make it longer? Would it transmit enough light for the main piece to pick up the signal and light the dash?
Just curious. :confused:

SWEET74

Would a 74 have fiber optics?

standup

I don't know about an easy way to splice, but I do know you have to be careful because the cable is glass and you can crush the fibre and reduce light transmission..........the splice is commonly joined with heat shrink tubing....not glue......hope this helps :cheers:

standup

I think '71 was the last year for fibre optics.........at any rate you'll know you have it if you have one of these at the top of your shifter console:

standup

Just saying G'day Aussie mate :cheers:

Interesting about the LED setup.......it would be neat to see how that works in the flesh....

Nice choice of C3 too.........Verts rock :thumbs:

OzzyTom

Still trying to work out how to post pics, hope this works:

I've already fitted the leds to the console, and didn't take a photo of the lens setup prior to installation, so sorry about no pics.

If I need to pull the console out again, I promise to take some pics.

A jpg of the schematic.

OzzyTom

That seemed to work. Now how can I personalise my avatar?
The choices seem a little limited.

OzzyTom

G'day standup,

Yeah, I lusted for a chrome bumper vert vette for 30 years before I got one.
They're not real practical when raising a family, but now that the kids are educated and employed and have their own cars, I can start acquiring some real toys. I've had mine for almost 6 years now. It was a Miami car originally and landed in Australia in 1993. Had a conversion to right hook, and an excellent resto done by a C3 guru. I spent 2 years looking for a decent original looking vette to buy. Almost gave up and bought a Cobra replica. But when I found this one, it was love at first sight. Had to have it!
Have had a few problems, but the beauty of these cars is thay are so easy to work on, compared to late model cars. Another bonus is that Chev parts from our local GM Holden parts bins are in a lot of cases identical. At a fraction of the cost of importing parts from the US.