1969cutlass4d

so at about the exact same time, my low beams and my back lights for my gauges went out. not sure if they are connected to each other, but wanted to put that out there just in case.

now when then high beams are on, all 4 come on, but if i hit the dimmer switch, none of my lights are on, which I figure my low beams are just out. Now the problem i am concerned with it, when the high is on, there is no noise, but when I turn the high beams off, there is a clicking I can hear, and when touching it, I can feel the clicking at the light switch. and when I turn the brights back on, the clicking goes away.

will this go away if I replace my two lights? or is there something else I need to replace?

oldcutlass

Sounds like the light switch is bad, it has a built in circuit breaker. Od that the hi beams are not affected.

1969cutlass4d

so is it a 7 prong switch? any place you recommend to buy from?

oldcutlass

I'm not familiar with your exact switch, and you can get one at your local auto parts store, just compare it carefully to make sure its correct. Check voltages first.

oldcutlass

After thinking about it a bit, check your dimmer switch, it may have some issues with the low beam circuit causing the circuit breaker in the headlight switch to act up since you hi beams work fine.

MDchanic

I disagree. If the internal circuit breaker is being triggered by the low beams, then it should also be triggered by twice the current from the high beams.

I suspect a short in the low beam wire.

Trace down your low beam wire, from the high beam switch to the lights and see whether the wire is pinched by a screw or has a bare spot touching ground, or something like that.

- Eric

1969cutlass4d

how do I check it?

oldcutlass

First I would disconnect the low beam wire off the dimmer switch. Then I would turn on the lights and see if there is voltage on that terminal and if the light switch is still acting wacky. If its not and you have voltage then you need to find the issue from there to the headlights. If it is then its probably the dimmer switch.

m371961

Have you done anything lately that may have pinched the low beam wire?

1969cutlass4d

nothing i would have done, but who knows what the shop I had to take it to did.

1969cutlass4d

so does anyone think it could just be my switch? as its the only thing that controls my headlights, besides my park/headlight/panel dimmer/interior switch and as my running lights are still good, but my panel lights are out.

MDchanic

Have you done any of the troubleshooting that we recommended?

Or do you prefer to figure out what's wrong by replacing parts until one of them fixes it?

- Eric

oldcutlass

Or its not actually a part, but a shorted wire.

1969cutlass4d

so there are three prongs on the dimmer switch, so which one is the low beam? and how exactly do I test to see if there is voltage?

oldcutlass

Do you have a volt/ohm meter? I don't have a 69 Olds schematic, the one I have is for a Chevelle, The wire colors I show are ( high beam ) tan, (power feed from light switch) light blue, and (low beam) light green. Remove the tan and the light green wires and turn on the light switch and then touch each to the light blue wire. You should get high beams when touching the tan wire and low beams when touching the light green. If your head light switch does not go wacky its in your floor switch. If it does then you need to move forward towards the lights.

joe_padavano

All GMs with a floor-mounted dimmer are wired the same, so yes the Cutlass wiring is same as a Chevelle. The connector to the dimmer is one piece, so you can't easily remove the wires individually. The easy thing to do is to simply use a piece of wire or even a bent paper clip to jumper from the blue power feed wire to the green and tan wires in the connector, one at a time.

oldcutlass

Forgot it had a connector...

m371961

Or first do a visible inspection. Follow the wire harness from the right headlight as it goes across the radiator support to the left side, across the fender to the firewall and look for trouble. Follow the harness from the dimmer switch.
Or spend money replacing parts that may or may not be bad, increasing your spare parts inventory.
Doubt headlight switch is problem as you have no trouble with high beams. Dimmer switch is easier to replace then headlight switch.
Actually, I'm just duplicating what MD-Eric has been saying.

1969cutlass4d

thanks for your help guys, I ended up going to a local parts shop that let me try some parts out, replaced the dimmer switch and the light switch, neither of those were the problem, so it was a short.

I was coming back into town and she just died on me. that is where I found one of the problems.
1st. the head light on my passenger side is broken at rear solder connections, it was grounding out on the housing.
2nd. My battery that I got with her, is to big, didn't notice it before but I am guessing the shop I took it to shoved it all the way back because I have always been careful with that big battery when placing it in. but the battery was resting on the high light wiring pushing it to the ground.
3rd. the hardness was rubbing on the choke cable under the brake booster, which again...was the shops fault.

the reason it died on me all the sudden was because the main power leads to the distributor (that the shop replaced as well) did not have the correct connector so it would not stay seated to cap.

but, all I need to do now is replace my pass headlight (just picked it up), put in my new lokar throttle cable, and get a new battery that fits right.

MDchanic

I knew you'd find the short.

Glad you fixed it!

- Eric

oldcutlass

glad your heading in th right direction.