dsillies

One day both head light were working fine, the next day neither worked. I checked the connections and all seem fine. Any troubleshooting ideas?

Lady72nRob71

Do the high beams work? Does fiddling with the light switch cause them to work intermittantly?
What model and year?

I edited your title to clarify thet are not working.

dsillies

Just ran out to the barn to check. Highbeamms don't work and fiddling with the switch does NOT cause the lights to go on. It is a 1967 Cutlass Convertible. There isn't a fuse. THANKS for adjusting the title for claification.

MDchanic

Do the parking lights work?

Do the taillights work?

Do the signal lights work?

- Eric

dsillies

Eric-
Yes, all other lights work properly. It is just the head lights.
It seems the switch has gone bad. Before I spend $50 or so, I wanted other opinions.

Lady72nRob71

Next thing would be to check for any voltage at the floor dimmer switch contacts to ground. If you have nothing there at any terminal, then it is either the switch or the connection at the switch. Pull the switch and inspect the contacts. Sometimes the switch's internal circuit breaker fails.

MDchanic

I agree, it sounds like the switch. Possibly a bad internal circuit breaker.

Where did you get the idea that a new switch is $50?

$13.29 at Advance Auto Parts.



... and you can get them for $5 all day at any junkyard.

- Eric

Lady72nRob71

Fusicks most likely. 36 for the switch, 13 to ship...

Allan R

If you want AC Delco, they are 30.00 at O'Reillys. For the $$ I'd go with Eric's suggestion. They look identical.

dsillies

Great. I got the price from OPG...$44.99. It is the exact pics that you guy posted. A $13 fix is better than a $50 fix. I'll check the voltage and go down the Adv Auto part path. Thanks so much. I will let you know later in the week.

joe_padavano

Once again, unless you have money coming out your @$$, WHY are you buying parts before performing free troubleshooting? Get a test light or a volt/ohmmeter and check for voltage at the headlight sockets. If yes, check for ground. If not, check at the dimmer switch, first on the output side. If yes, then check the input side. If no on the input, check the main headlight switch. Verify voltage into the switch. It's your money and time, but I'm cheap. There is a circuit breaker built into the headlight switch and a short in the headlight wiring will trip this breaker on a perfectly good switch, so unless you are sure the switch is bad, you're just wasting money.

dsillies

Thanks Joe....Good troubleshooting path.

scrappie

There is a circuit breaker built into the headlight switch and a short in the headlight wiring will trip this breaker on a perfectly good switch, so unless you are sure the switch is bad, you're just wasting money.

Can that circuit breaker be reset?

RandyS

They reset themselves after they cool down.

rroth01

Allan .These days ..$30.00 Canadian is $50.00 U.S ...Cmon Keystone..
Do they still have The Peelers up there EH?

joe_padavano

Of course, if the short is permanent, they don't cool down...

Allan R

and that would mean shelling out for a new switch. We've now gone full circle on the what ifs.

Octania

Hmmmmm.... I'd take a used factory switch or new DELCO over all cheeeep chinee options. Not such a good deal.

Example- working on a '69 Cutlass a while back. Dismantling to refurbish.

Pull HL **** out. Depress secret button on switch. **** & shaft DO NOT come out. Repeat. Many times. Pull harder. Turn and pull. Pull so hard the dash might break. Push secret button before pulling ****, and after, and during. Still no joy.


Had to grind the shaft off to remove switch from dash.



Inspection reveals offshore repro switch/ shaft with INCORRECT FITMENT and angles to the retention feature. No amount of fiddling was EVER going to let that shaft come out. I broke the POS switch into pcs and put in a nice used one which fit and worked perfectly.

But, of course, do your basic troubleshooting FIRST, to pinpoint the problem.

It's not unheard of for both left and right bulbs to die more or less simultaneously so start with are the lamps OK.

Lady72nRob71

If there was a short in the HL circuitry, the rest of the lights would dim for a split second and a small click from the HL switch as the breaker opens. After it cools, the cycle will repeat.
If this behavior does not happen, then it is probably an open in the circuit.

MDchanic

Enough already.

Just unplug the headlight switch and short the big red wire to the blue wire.

If the headlights come on nice and bright, the problem is the switch.
If the headlights come on dim or not at all and the wire gets hot, you've got a short.
If they don't come on, and the wire doesn't get hot or spark, then you've got a bad connection between the headlight switch and the headlights, including, possibly, in the high beam switch.



This is NOT rocket science.

- Eric

joe_padavano

While I agree with Eric that we've already spent WAAAAY more time talking about this than it takes to replace everything in the headlight circuit, I do want to clear up this comment. My point of a short holding the circuit breaker open did NOT mean that the switch was bad. A hard short to ground in the wire between the switch and the headlights will open the CB and the switch will still be good. This is part of my point to troubleshoot before throwing money at the problem.