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But the rules were changed so that only applies to vehicles registered after 1986.
My understanding is that the Historic Vehicle representitive bodies lobbied the Govenment & successfully negotiated the exemption on the grounds that older vehicles with less capable electrical systems than current could usefully upgrade their lighting capabilty & keep within the limits of the existing electrical systems. On post '86 vehicles fitting Led replacements is an automatic MoT failure, but for earlier vehicles the upgrading is allowed subject to the upgraded lights meeting all other requirements (dazzle, beam pattern etc.).
As with all things, buying a product from a reputable UK supplier (rather than the cheapest "thing" from Ebay) will most likely get you a replacement Led lamp fit for purpose i.e designed to have the Led elements in the same place as the filaments in a standard lamp to give a correct beam pattern (it is the position of the light source within the reflector that gives this, not the type of light source). For early vehicles (pre war),the lamps were not focussed anyway (frosted lenses) & "dipping" was provided by moving the lamp within the housing (or moving a shutter within the lamp housing). The 60W 6v system of an Austin 7, for example, is very limited in the size of the headlamps it can operate - an Led replacement would provide better lighting within the capability of the dynamo.
I have a replacenment Led headlamp to hand to fit to my MZ, bought from here
a drop-in replacement for the original (P45T IIRC) 45W lamp, but lower current draw such that I should be able to run with the headlamp on at lower speeds without discharging the battery - the MZ has a 60W dynamo, so 45W headlamp + 5W tail lamp + 4 x 1.2W instrument lamps doesn't leave a lot spare to charge the battery. As the bike is '78 registered, as long as the beam pattern is OK it should not fail the MoT just because the lamps have been changed to Leds.
Nigel B.
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