Need emergency headlight switch solution

Mike Richmond

Mike Richmond

True Classic
My son reports headlight switch failure (second one :shock:) and he is presently driving from Santa Barbara to LAX for a red-eye flight back East. He comes back, unfortunately, after dark tomorrow evening.

I'm thinking there might be a 'hot wire' solution for the headlights, which are on relays (I did that mod).

Any ideas?

MikeR ('86X)
 
Headlight Fix

Hi Mike-

If your headlights are on relays, you should be able to jump the output side of the low beam relays (terminals 87 and 30) to get the lights to come on.
Rolf.:)
 
Mike

If it's only the switch that's bad then he should be able to jump one or two connections on the plug that goes to the switch. The question is, which connectors. I've looked at the online wiring diagram and it's not immediately obvious. I could figure it out, but it'd take some time and I wanted to at least get you a preliminary response.

If he's mechanically/electrically inclined the easiest thing to do would be to remove the light switch, disassemble it, and determine which contacts are connected when the switch is in the on position.

If I had my car here I'd run some checks and tell you for certain. If it's really an emergency I could go out to the shop and try to figure it out. Or perhaps someone with a better working knowledge of X lighting specifics will weigh in. Where's BobB when you need him?

Lemme know if you need more. If he's really going to try to fix it himself tonight I'll try to help. But he will need some way of jumping connections.

///Mike
 
Good point Rolf, but realize that is the load side of the relay so the jumper would need to be of the appropriate gauge for the current drawn by the lights. Also, that will not get him park or marker lights, which could be dangerous.

///Mike
 
More on the switch

Last time I had the switch go out on my '87, it was only the headlights,the markers and all still worked. As for safety I would use 14 gauge wire, and if you were concerned, use an in-line fuse with the same wattage as the car's fuse.
Rolf
 
For the headlight beam you have to connect the black and the brown wire to the green wire.

The parking light, which is also the backlight, sidemarkers etc. you have to bridge the blue/red with the white cable.

The light pots will come out on bridging black or brown cable to the blue/white cable.

These colors are the same on old and newer switches. Good luck. ;)
 
If you got the relay mod from me,

You can get your lights working by grounding the male plug side of the harness and powering any of the other 2 pins for hi-low beam. Current to the relay coil requires very little current so any wire gauge will do.

If you don't have the wire mod, you might be better off going to your auto hardware store and pick up a couple H4 headlight sockets and wire the low beam (direct) to the headlight (from the battery) as a temporary measure. Don't forget a switch...

Sounds a little desperate though.... :help:
 
Tell him to check the high beams and see if they work. My X has a low beam "gremlin" that makes them go out on occassion, but the high beams still work. If they function he can hand adjust the lights to point down more and just use those....in a pinch of course.

I also had complete headlight failure once and popped the switch out of the dash, disassembled it and cleaned the slider contacts in it. Worked after that. I did this while stranded at an exit after they went Ka-poot. Took about 30 minutes. Getting the switch out is a PITA though.
 
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