1979 x1/9 (US), headlight/marker/"parking" light operation - what's "correct"?

[jrl665]

the 1979 headlight operation is exactly as described - the parking lights only work with the key off, or the headlights on. I changed mine so it works as follows.

with the key off:
switch in middle position: parking lights on, pods down
switch in headlight position: everything off, pods down

with the key on:
switch in middle position: parking lights on, pods down
switch in headlight position: parking lights on, headlights on, pods up

the actual wiring takes about 5 minutes and is totally reversible.

find the headlight relay. in my car the relay is labeled as "headlights, motor relay, parking lights", but the relay doesn't do anything except control the parking lights - pull the relay and the headlights and pods operate as normal.

1. disconnect the brown wire from terminal T of the headlight switch. insulate it so it doesn't short on anything.
2. make a short (~6") jumper wire with female quick disconnects on both ends.
3. disconnect the brown wire from terminal 85 of the lighting relay. insulate it so it doesn't short. replace it with your jumper wire.
4. connect the other end of the jumper wire to the spare terminal on fuse R.

that's it.

the factory wiring looks like this:

You can see that with the key on, the relay is switched so the parking lights dont get power until the headlights are on. With the modification, it looks like this:

Now the relay doesn't switch until the headlights are on, so there is power to the parking lights with the key on or off.
here is a picture of the relay with the green jumper wire in place:

and here is the other end of the green jumper wire at fuse R:

hope this helps.

Jim

 

[Fiataccompli]

Sweet! Looks like a simple way to do what I wanted on mine. Thanks.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Thanks Jim. That not only confirms that our systems are working as designed, but also explains why and how to alter it. Excellent work.

 

[7982X]

I learned something more here today.

Looks like I need to retest our 79. I was sure that it worked this way already & I doubt that a P.O. made this change already. (May be time for memory enhancement drugs)

As everything is apart, this can be implemented quite easily. Thanks for the info!

 

[Dr.Jeff]

However it would not surprise me if they are NOT all the same. Yours may very well have been made to work differently. Seems like Fiat made random changes all the time. So maybe yours has not been modified and truly does have different functions.

 

[7982X]

Here are the 81 wiring diagrams.....just took awhile to get them scanned in.

 

[NEG]

Thread resurrection! Just done the mod posted by Jim, it’s something that’s bugged me for a while. It works well although on my ‘78 Lido the fly lead needs to be ~9” or so to reach the relay. Thanks Jim!