69 headlight questions
 

Hey, I am huffing through some projects here and decided to check the headlights etc. Anyway, here is the problem.

When I pull out the light knob on the dash, the 3 left headlights are on the the 1 on the outter passenger side is off, then I click the high beam button on the floor and the 3 go out and the 1 that was off before turns on.

How are the headlights meant to run? Are all 4 suppose to be on at the same time and then all 4 turn on the high beam when the button is clicked? Or are two suppose to be on at the same time and when the button is clicked, are all 4 suppose to turn on (to simulate high beams)

I am just wanting to know if this means a wiring problem or just the low beam is burnt out on the 1 and the high beams are burnt out on the remaining 3.

thanks

When the switch is on the two outer lights should be on. When you turn the brights on the two inner ones should come on for a total of four lights on.
Pull the switch, clean up the connections, and put it back in. Then pull the headlights, clean those connections, and then try it again.
If that doesn't work you may want to try replacing headlights. Sometimes if one is bad it will cause the others to do weird things.

When you say switch, do you mean the knob on the dash or the thing on the floor?

Nevermind...I assume you mean the floor thing. Ebay calls it the switch. :)

Darth,
I would assume he meant the dash switch. BTW, IIRC you had trouble with dash lights (lack of instrument panel lights)? If that is the case that trouble is also likely due to the dash switch.

I was looking forward to it being the easier of the two, being the foot one. I guess take a look see at them all. I assume I have to pull the knob off to get the silver panel off to see the wiring. Is it just a straight ans gentle pull to get the knob off?

I would love it if this killed two birds with one stone. Wow would I be pumped.

No. Reach up under the dash and locate the h/l switch. There is a small spring loaded button that depresses about an eighth inch and that will allow the knob and shaft to be removed. Then unscrew the small round nut and the switch will come out the back of the dash. Not that simple. I would check the headlight grounds first.

my vote is grounds also..

"Well the headlights was another sight, we had 1 on the left and 2 on the right, but when we pulled the switch, all 3 of 'em come on"

Ya, I got around to looking at this closer. I am pretty sure the problem area is the driver's side outter headlight, the connections are super junk on them, and it it just dim both for the high beam setting and low beam setting. Where are these grounds we speak of?

Also, I remember for my bike, I did a sealed beam to H4 conversion, no extra wiring just plug and play. Is this the same for this car, or would I have to rewire some stuff?

You would need to wire in some relays, but yeah it wouldn't be too difficult since there are pre-made kits available.

Kind of making some progress on this dilema. I think the main issue was some of the wires were plugged into the wrong prong, plus bad connectors, plus the prongs on the back of the old sealed beams were sodered (spelling) into place and were very nimble. I bought two new high beam/low beam sealed beams and I just have a couple more questions about the way everything is suppose to be looking like when it interior switch is pulled.

Okay, so say the interior headlight switch is pulled right out and just the outter two sealed beams are on, is the blinker light below the headlights suppose to be on(but not blinking of course)? Also, the inner sealed beams appear to have a teeeeeeny bit of light on them...I mean I am talking a small amount, and by no means would I consider it on...it's just a small bit of light on the coil at the front of the beam

Otherwise if this small but of light on is acceptable, then the headlight dilemma is fixed

well, unless that teeny bit of light on the inner sealed beams is something to worry about, everything is hooked up and works perfectly.

I can't thank you guys enough times for all your help. Now onto another tread :(

It's a sad day in paradise. I thought I was going to finish my time before work on a high. After two long months I finished the front end suspension. I then decided to hook up the licence plate light and knock off another thing required to pass the provincial inspection. I only had three damn things remaining which were the licence plate light, the rear view mirror, and bleed the brakes.

So I go to hook the licence plate light up and it didn't light. Prior to it going away for painting I was able to touch one wire to the power and the other to the ground and it lit up. I didn't hook it up at that time because there was no bumper (they were going to put it on after paint).

Anyway, there was no power there so I thought I would take a look at the headlights and taillights. The headlights have the same damn problem as they did almost a year ago when I started this thread (1 inner headlight is on and 1 outer is on when it is low beam, and 3 headlights are on and 1 headlight is dim when it is on high beam). And to make matters worse all 4 blinkers work when it is on low beam and only the driver's side works when it is on high beam. AND the taillights don't work, AND the horn doesn't work.

Wow....they unleashed some electrical gremlins on me here, making things worse than when I first got the car. I haven't hated this car for a long time, but the hatred is back :)

I am going to study the repair manual and see if I can find the issues, but this has taken me a long time to get to where I am and I am pissed beyond belief that this has happened.

i seem to take two steps forward and 1 step back. Thanks for listening to my rant.:censored:

EDIT: it is funny that it was exactly 1 year today that I fixed the issues and posted in this thread

Darth, I admire your tenacity! As you may recall, I advised you to sell the car right after you bought it and stand by that recommendation, but you have amazed me with your perseverence. What you are dealing with is a car that has been abused from day one
and that has never had an owner that gave a flip about fixing anything that was wrong with it
till you came along. It is amazing how bad a shape a car can get in when idiots drive it for
45 years! Don't give up now, you are too far along not to go ahead and finish it. Feel free
to rant....if you didn't you might have blown out your ticker by now. Personally I think you deserve some kind of medal for what you have been through!

Ya, the temptation was there to sell it, but like I stated earlier I would rather spend some more money to get this running right vs selling it and losing money on it (and selling to asshole tire-kickers and hearing "what is the lowest you will take".). I would have lost money on it due to the fact it isn't/wasn't good enough to pass the provincial inspection. In the end I won't have spent a tonne of money to get it up and running, but I will have spent 1.5 years on the frozen ground in the garage.

I don't like it, but it is good to learn because I have 3 other vehicles. I haven't paid anyone to work on my vehicle for about 5 years now, and the more I learn the less I pay people to work on my cars. :)

On another note, I have diligently watched the "roadkill" episodes by Motor Trend, and electrical issues like this make me HATE Finnigan and Freiburger. They have an electrical issue, and look at it for 5 minutes on the side of the road and fix it there.

This makes me re-think the fact I offered my uncle to buy his basket-case 69 302 Boss. No thank you!

Got the headlights to work perfect. That wiring diagram works like a charm. The blinkers only seem to work now and then, like when I turn the blinker on it will not work then it decides to, and then will quit about 20 seconds later (likely a bad blinker relay, but seems odd it is at the same time I fixed the headlights). Oh well, it is still great to make progress

I have the headlights, front and rear turn signals, brake lights, and hazards straightened out. That wiring diagram works like a charm. I just have two issues I was hoping someone could lead me in the right direction.

1) The taillights don't seem to work. Going by the diagram it looks like it just runs one in the same with the blinkers. If the blinkers and brake lights work, shouldn't the tail-lights work as well? This one has me stumped

2) Judging by the wiring diagram, it looks like the front and rear side markers are to consistently run with the headlights. One of the previous owners hooked it up with the blinkers. I am right to say all side markers are with the headlights, correct?

See my bolded 2 cents above. I hear ya on the electrical gremlin deal, I could have driven mine last summer if not for one of those. (still haven't found it.)