failed light switch

Ok, you should be able to find it soon...

I had a look at my 80/81 electrical guide. There is a yellow wire that branches off the lt blue/red, apparently at the "lights" relay. It feeds fuses G and H. You blew fuse G, which feeds a yellow/black circuit:

LH Front marker light
LH Front park light
"Lights On" indicator
Cigar lighter light
LH license light
RH tail light (yes, it shows it swaps sides)
RH Rear marker light

There you have it...
 
Started checking things out. Only thing I found that was questionable was the jack was hard up against the side marker light, pressing hard on the wires. Moved it and continued to check other wires back there in that circuit. Put a fuse back in and it DIDN'T blow. So, not 100% sure I found the cause but the symptoms are gone........test drive time.
 
Good sleuthing...

Just the other day I noticed the driver's side lights on my Vanagon out. Found a blown 10A fuse, replaced, same result. Thought to myself, does the trailer harness have anything to do with it? Looked inside the license plate door, and saw that one of the license plate screws was pressing into the trailer harness where it was coiled up for storage. Shifted things a bit and no more blown fuse (after I replaced it, heh). :sigh:

Sounds like your problem may have simply been the jack grounding or shorting the power to the side marker. Wouldn't it be great if that were all it was? I hope you've found the trouble! :hmm:
 
Well, PROVE IT! Put the jack back, Jack...

... I mean Jeff... and see if it causes the same fuse to blow.

If it doesn't... then the problem is probably still there and just hiding and waiting to "getcha" when ya least expect it.
 
I did find the right front (wrong circuit I believe) blinker/light wouldn't come on with parking lights, simply pulled the bulb and put it back and it worked, but I doubt that had anything to do with it. I sorta wish I found the glaring error. Still wonder at the 26 amp fuse in G, dork. No wonder wires were melting and $100 switches getting fried. Dork Dork Dork. Bad PO bad. (I probably should have checked amperage on all fuses as a matter of good inspection on old foreign cars with jaded past, I'll give myself one Dork)

Switch update:
I cut back the melted brown, put on a new spade but the connector was melted so bad I had to open it up in that corner (cut the connector open so I can feed the spade through and manually connect that one lead, no big deal. Spliced in in-line fuse where the melted lt/blue red was coming off the connector, new spade there too. I will leave the fuse in there. Switch seems to operate fine and headlights are on relays so hopefully it remains happy for a while.
 
Fuse advice..

I usually go through and replace all the fuses on a car purchase. I restore them to stock amperage where needed. Very rarely do I find the wrong amperage in there, but it does happen. Glad you found it!
 
Just a thought...

When I first brought home White Fang, Black Tooth's distant cousin... he had one headlight that would not go up and another that went up and down contiuously... amongst 100 other problems.

I decided rather quickly that it was best that I remove ALL lights and test them, clean up their bases and contacts, replace those that were burned out... and then with a dremel tool and fiber brush... cleaned out all the sockets.

I also removed all the fuses, dremeled all the contacts, re-tensioned them, and cleaned up all the fuses too. I also cleaned up all the ground-blossums and their respective wire terminals.

When I put it all back together I was left with only one problem to troubleshoot.

Get that kid of yours to help... a great father-son project!
 
Took first night run. Lights are brighter (relays helping here I would imagine) and all systems go, no heat to be felt on wires, no fuses blowing. It's all good. I got lucky finding the problem (assuming I did indeed find it). I must now aim the things as they point too low.
New switch, rebuilt to match old one seems to work great. I did use the old cover plate, with the light emblem, not the word "Lights", because I am obviously a purist.:eek:mg: PO added switches to allow headlights to remain down with running lights also working well.
Another little odyssey completed. Really really enjoyed driving the car today too. It is running very well (as far as a noob can tell) Seems plenty peppy and drives nicely, despite needing new rubber and probably some attention to suspension.
 
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