In another thread I wrote about measuring voltage drop, with the headlights on, across the left screw of the #1 fuse and the #7 and #8 fuses to see how efficient the under dash connections are. ERA cars have a Lucas toggle switch, a VW dimmer relay, and some connections under there. When I did that on my car the voltage drop was .7 volts, which is a little high. In a dark garage, if I jumpered across the same connections (thus bypassing all the under dash connections) the increase in light was noticeable, but not earth shattering -- but any increase in light is welcome. When I measured the amperage on the under dash circuit it came in at 13 amps, with about 2.8 amps of that going to the parking lights -- but all of that current passes through the Lucas toggle switch. The setup is probably just fine the way it is. But, with all of that current going through the Lucas dash switch, it would be helpful to know the rating of the switch itself. Now, the Lucas #31788 OFF-ON-ON switches have about five flavors of re-pops. The original OEM switch was only rated for 10 amps, but some of the aftermarket clones are supposedly rated at 15 amps and a couple even say 20 amps (but in the same literature they then also say 15 amps). The video put out by Holden-UK on Lucas toggle switches says they're all only rated for 10 amps, including the really nice ones that are licensed by Lucas and that cost more. So, I don't know what the rating of my switch is but, after looking at it all, it's so darn easy to do an upgrade that I just decided to change the headlight wiring to incorporate two SPST relays, with built-in fuses, that connect in tandem. I bought five of them off Amazon for about $15. ERA's wiring makes the upgrade about as easy as it gets. The skinny little BLUE/WHITE and BLUE/RED feeder wires to the headlights are readily visible from the engine compartment. Just cut them, run 12 AWG wires from each to the passenger side fender well, use the wires that originally ran to the headlights at either of the two cuts that you just made as trigger wires at the relays. Then run a nice fat 10 AWG wire from the #1 fuse connection around to the relays, add a ground, and mount them on the passenger side aluminum wall. Clean it all up so it looks nice and that's pretty much it. The lights are noticeably brighter and there is now only 3 amps going through the Lucas toggle switch -- surely it can handle three amps. Here's a pic of the dual relays. I had upgraded the bulbs years ago and the next time I take the headlights apart to clean the glass I'll upgrade the last little bit of wiring at the lights, which look to be pretty skinny. They're only about 18" long though. Other than the dual relays on the wall, you'd never spot the installation.
