Farmall head lights

Has anyone found a reasonably priced source for the 12 volt sealed beam bulb that fits the Farmall 100, 130 etc. pancake headlight. This is the bulb that has the socket of the bulb extending through the housing with the terminal screw exposed. I know that they are available on Ebay and other websites, but the bulb ($49.95) is as expensive as buying the entire light assembly ($54.95). I know "reasonably priced" is just like "beauty"; it is in the eyes of the beholder, but $49.95 for just the bulb seems a little over-priced. A 4411 sealed beam doesn't fit like the original sealed beam.

hi i have these bulbs in stock $45.00 each if you buy 2 or more they are $42.00

You can wire two identical 6 Volt lights in series for 12 Volt operation. The down side is if one goes out, you have no lights.

Hi Russell,
Why are these sealed beams so expensive? I can buy a 4411 sealed beam for less than $5.00. $45.00 for a bulb? Why would I do that when I can buy the entire "brand new" light assembly for $9.00 more? I just don't understand!

Depends on what your goal is. Exact original restoration, worker, or somewhere in between. I wanted cheap but close to original so I put in the 4411 wagner bulbs in the flat back housings on my SH. They do have a protrusion that I grind off on a regular bench grinder. My SC has the cheap utility lights from tracor supply. Again I just want light, this tractor is a worker and I don't intend to restore it at this time.

Don't know about you, but I would not want to turn them on if I spent that much on bulbs. I would go with modifying the $5 bulbs, and spend the extra somewhere somewhere else provided you can make them work.

Those bulbs have ALWAYS been high priced compared to other bulbs. Back in the old days we would sell the farmer a new set of aftermarket lights for less than he could buy the bulbs. We threw lots of originals away.

If you go to farmallcub dot com and look in the "How To" forum > Book of Knowledge and scan the electrical section you will find a couple of options for modifying those light buckets to accomodate the cheaper lights. I am in the process on one of those options at the moment myself. Pretty good stuff there. The guys have worked hard and put together a nice little reference library. Some of it can be applied to the larger offsets.

As far as price, they are very high. These bulbs were only used by IH from some of the Super-series to about 1958. I think Guide was owned by GM. I don't know if someone has to pay a royalty or something to use the "Guide" name that's on the bulbs that are currently being made. That would add a few bucks to them, too. I 'm pretty sure Guide made other bulbs this size for fog lights, but I think those may have been all glass and not the metal backed sealed beams, and I don't know if they'll fit the housing.

The replacement headlight assemblies that I have seen for these tractors look very similar to the original lights, but do not use a sealed beam bulb. They use a glass lens, reflector, and miniature lamp similar to the earlier letter series tractors. They look pretty close to the originals, but, like always, the "correct police" would have a fit over them.

If you don't care about the "correct police", you can always get the replacement lights, which use the 1143 12 volt or 1133 6 volt bulbs (a couple of bucks a piece), or find a set of lights of an older combine or something that uses the 4411 12 volt or 4511 6 volt bulbs.

4411 is one of the most common 12 volt round sealed beams that has been used for at least 60+ years by many OEM manufacturers and for aftermarket lights. With thousands of automotive, agricultural, industrial, etc. applications it is bound to be cheaper than a special application bulb.

AG

i do not know but that is all you can get them for i only make $2.00 a bulb if i sale them for 42 and that is not much of a profit