when I turn on my headlight switch no lights come on, but when I turn on the high beam floor switch all 4 lights come on. Any ideas as to how to fix this?

 

When you say no lights do you mean the interior lights don't work as well? Are you sure both low beam bulbs are good? Maybe the low beam filaments in the bulbs are gone. They would still work on High Beam.

 

thanks Craig, good suggestions. Not sure as this is my brothers car in Indy and I am in Ohio so I will ask about that. I'll let you know what happens.

 

I had a bad dimmer switch in my 71 that killed all the headlamps when I hit the high beams.

 

My thought as well. Replace the dimmer switch. It's not much money ($10) and easy to get at, and I'll bet that 90% of problems like you describe are due to a faulty one.

 

It could be one of several things. The dimmer switch could be bad, both low beam filaments could be burned out, or the wire between the dimmer switch and the headlights could be bad. There was a thread here several months ago with a similar problem that turned out to be a bad terminal in the firewall connector.

 

By the way, this is a classic example of where a little troubleshooting should be done before buying any parts. Check for voltage at the headlight low beam connectors first. If you have voltage, the bulbs are bad. If not, check for continuity across the dimmer switch terminals. If the switch is good, then the wiring is bad.

 

I had a similar situation when I was replacing the front bumper and front grillwork on my 68. In my case, it was simply the grounding wire was not tight.

 

I'm having this exact problem. Was driving last night, took an aggressive corner off a turn lane red light, got a little sideways, straightened her out and out go both low beams at the same time. High beams make all 4 lights come on. Haven't t/s it yet, but my first thought was to check the voltage going into the low beams.

 

That is exactly what you should do first. The only possible causes are both lights are burned out, dimmer switch is bad, or there is a break in the wire from the dimmer to the lights.

 

Hey guys, having this exact problem. Gonna troubleshoot as advised. Did two of you resolve the problem and what was it? —Billy

 

My issue were two fold...the front harness somehow came loose at the firewall, disconnected on the hard turn mentioned above. Got home and checked it out and found it. Other problems with turn signals was I had reversed the wires in one turn signal plug after restoring it.

 

Thanks. Oh wow. I’ll start with checking my turn signal wires which I just put back after reassembling the front end. —Billy

 

Thanks guys. I checked things out and got no voltage between the high beam button and the low beam lights. So ran a new wire and now it’s working. —Billy

 

The turn signal wire issue was a seperate problem, blinkers did work ok except on the one where wires were crossed. On that one blinker stayed solid when selected, no blinking.
So not actually related to the headlight issue. Sorry for the confusion.