[HALFWAY]

I have a couple of issues that I think are tied together. When I turn on my headlights the passenger side is nice and bight but the drivers side is dim. The brights, when not on are also dimly light but less than the driving lights. When I turn on the brights the passenger side is fully lite and bright but the drivers side go out completely. The second issue is when I turn on the lights the fuel gage drops below empty. I have also noticed that occasionally the dash lights will flicker. I have posted some of these issues before but I finally realized that these may all be tied together. I did swap the lights from the drivers side to the passenger side and they work just fine. HELP PLEASE!

This is a 64 Lemans.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[This message was edited by HALFWAY on January 24, 2004 at 10:23 AM.]

[HALFWAY]

I have a couple of issues that I think are tied together. When I turn on my headlights the passenger side is nice and bight but the drivers side is dim. The brights, when not on are also dimly light but less than the driving lights. When I turn on the brights the passenger side is fully lite and bright but the drivers side go out completely. The second issue is when I turn on the lights the fuel gage drops below empty. I have also noticed that occasionally the dash lights will flicker. I have posted some of these issues before but I finally realized that these may all be tied together. I did swap the lights from the drivers side to the passenger side and they work just fine. HELP PLEASE!

This is a 64 Lemans.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[This message was edited by HALFWAY on January 24, 2004 at 10:23 AM.]

[Ken French]

Check all your grounds. Whenever you have freaky problems like this, it's almost always ground related. Voltage is looking to go back to a good ground, if the ground is high in resistance, or not there, it will back feed into another area looking for ground. Hope you find it. Ken

[HALFWAY]

Ok I went through the ground straps and polished them up, the area to the frame, inner fender wells, block to firewall and even the ground wires in the headlight circuit, and added new star washers behind all of the connectors.

I pulled all the headlights and took readings. These are the voltages when looking at the front of the car, left to right:

Without brights turned on; 12.30 - 1.00 - 0.00 - 12.30

With brights on; 12.30 - 12.30 - 11.60 - 12.30

GRRRRRRR I hate electrical problems.

I guess I will go back out and start looking for other things, any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[Ken French]

The fact that your also having gauge issues with your head lamp switch, tells me to look at the grounds for your dash circuit. Also check your dimmer switch for bad connections. You can do a voltage drop test to verify the ground quality. This is a dynamic test. Perform this test with everything hooked up and turned on. Also, ohm check the wires, to see if a ground wire is broken. Make sure you ohm check with voltage shut off. In other words, you can disconnect the battery with this test. Ken

[HALFWAY]

The dimmer switch is new but I suppose that could be bad. I added a ground wire from the hedlight ground to the frame but that didn't make any difference. I guess I will start checking grounds under the dash. Maybe tomorrow, this stuff gave me a headache.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[HALFWAY]

When I had the dash apart and the wiring removed, during the restoration, it appeared that the switches and guages were grounded simply buy the fact they were installed touching the metal dash. I have a schematic, although it is difficult to read, and the only actual wire to ground shows from the instrument panelto the brake pedal bracket. Is there a best place to start looking? Everything seems to be working as far as the gauges and switches on the dash, so a starting place would be nice.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[HALFWAY]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pittsburgh 64:
Think of electric as water it flows from the spicket(+) to the drain (-).

**I understand the above statement it makes sense.

The gauges and switches do not need a ground.
The gauges have a 12v constant + then the - goes to the sending unit which is like a light dimmer switch but controled by the device its connected to. It only lets so much water flow through.

**I understand the above statement also.

The switch has a + from the fuse box to the switch then the switched + to the device.
The water flows when you open the switch.

**I am not sure I understand the above statement, are talking about a switch in generic terms or a switch in particular?

When you have lights comming on dimly theres a back up somewhere. The water will flow to what ever path it can find even through another device to ground(-).

**I understand the above statement.

Try to post a diagram and i'll be able to tell.
The three prongs to the light are +low beam +high beam and -. When you check you lighting voltages connect the meter only to the light bulb connector.

**What diagram are wanting to look at. How the headlight system is wired?

**The voltages I gave in the previous post are with the headlights removed and are from the light bulb connector.

Be patiant will figure it out. I've been a sparky for 25 years. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[HALFWAY]

I was trying to show each socket for 4 lights, 2 regular, 2 highbeam.

Without brights turned on;

passenger side regular 12.30
passenger side bright 1.00
drivers side bright 0.00
drivers side regular 12.30

With brights on;
passenger side regular 12.30
passenger side bright 12.30
drivers side bright 11.60
drivers side regular 12.30

I only checked one of the terminals on the three pronged connector along with the ground terminal I will check the other terminal and report those voltages.

Thanks for the help.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[HALFWAY]

Yes there is a ground wire for each side that screws to the flat piece of metal, on either side of the core support, behind the headlight mounts. I polished the connectors and sanded the area to bare metal were they attach I also added a temporary wire from one of the ground wires to the frame, where the inner fender well to frame ground is. When I tested the voltages the headlights were removed then I turned the headlights on and used a volt meter to test. I put one test lead in the ground side of the socket and the other in the hot side. I did this when the brights were off and on. That is how I got the readings above. I will test the system as you suggest this evening and try to get a diagram of what I find to post.

Again thanks for the help, I know this is difficult over the PC to diagnose.

Just for information the car was completely disassembled, sandblasted, painted and reassembled, so I don't think corrosion, dirt or rust is a factor, but the wiring is the original. I marked everything carefully when I took them out and other than the headlights and the fuel gage dropping when turned on there doesn't seem to be any other electrical problems. I wll tell you that I live on gravel roads and have noticed when going over bumps I have seen the bright headlight, on the drivers side, come on and that is also when I have seen the dash lights flicker slightly and the fuel gage rise almost back to its position when the lights are off. But since I was in the car I couldn't tell you if the drivers side lights came on fully or if they were still dim.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[george kujanski]

Make doubly sure the grounds at the headlights and parking lamps are in good shape. The metal connection from the core support attachment point back to the battery negative must also be good; add atemp wire from the headlight ground back to the battery to see if it improves. Make sure the bulb contacts in the sockets are good. A poor connection back to the ground wire will cause the same type of problems.

Lights being dim, and going off when the opposite side goes on is typical of bad grounding.

George

[HALFWAY]

I have attached a diagram of what I measured last night. The headlights were removed and the ignition was not turned on, when measured. I tried the suggestion of running a temporary wire from the headlight ground to the negative post on the battery with no change, it was removed before taking any measurements. After taking measurements I installed the headlights again and this time when the brights were activated the drivers regular headlight stayed on but the drivers bright did not come on. The passenger side regular and bright headlight were normal. I also noticed that the fuel gage did not drop when the headlight switch was turned on or when the brights were activated. When the ignition was turned on, the gage dropped slightly but not below Empty as it had been. Maybe we are getting closer????

[This message was edited by HALFWAY on January 28, 2004 at 10:36 AM.]

[HALFWAY]

I have tried wiggling the connectors will the lights were, fairly vigorously, but I think I am going to try a small thin nail file and shine up the terminals inside the connectors. I am also getting new headlights, they are T3 lights and are the original and do look a little frosted. The brights are new.

I don't have another dimmer switch so I will try these other things first then try another dimmer switch.

I will let you know either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks again.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[Bob with the 66]

Another thing that helps is dielectric grease. Just a dab on each connection helps preventing corrosion.

I had a ground problem during my assembly and a wire wheel in a dremmel tool, star washers and grease solved the problem. My problem was brake lights and the bad ground was in the front light harness. (just a thought)

All good things are worth waiting for. "Yeah right", I want them now!

"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity".

[HALFWAY]

I removed the individual connectors from the headlight plugs, shined them up and reinstalled them. There really was no change. When the regular headlights were on, the drivers side did seem a little brighter and when the brights were turned on the drivers side regular headlight dimmed but the drivers bright still didn't come on. I also disconnected the ground wire from the battery and checked continuity from the ground side of the bright plug to the negative wire and had 0 ohms on the meter, so it appears that the ground path is good. I guess I will start working my back from the light sockets, through the firewall and into the dash area to see if I can find the problem. I have also considered adding more ground wires like you have in your pics, thanks. Man this is driving me nuts, especially when the lights all woked when I first re-assembled the car. At least I have regular driving lights at night but since it has been so cold and snow on the ground I haven't been driving it either. I guess it is time to remove the drivers seat and crawl up under the dash and poke around there. It may be a while before I get to it so if anything else comes to mind let me know and I will keep you all informed on my findings. Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

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Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because by then, you're a mile away, you've got his shoes, and you can say whatever the hell you want to about him.

[engineer]

64 dashes are grounded by a metal bracket from the metal steering \ pedal support upto the dash. It is above the support and impossible to see. The problem you have with some voltages at the brights when the high beams are off means the dimmer switch or wiring is bad, because that is the only place where the high and low beam wiring is connected.

[HALFWAY]

Well, this issue has raised it's ugly head again.

No bright beam on the driver's side. I swapped the driver's and passenger side lamps to ensure the lamp was not bad.

I wish I remembered how it was resolved 17 years ago.

Checking grounds again and possibly a new dimmer switch.

[Bill Hanlon]

Originally Posted by HALFWAY

Well, this issue has raised it's ugly head again.

No bright beam on the driver's side. I swapped the driver's and passenger side and possibly a new dimmer switch.

Shouldn't be the dimmer, as both sides are fed from the same contact.