No High Beam Headlights

[Jim Harding]

Without a wiring diagram to aid my troubleshooting, I'm throwing out a problem that maybe someone can point me in the right direction.
Last night, I tried to put on my high beams, but instead of seeing the road up ahead, everything went dark. No high beams. If I pull back on the stalk I can get both the low and high beams to work at the same time, so the bulbs are good as is the wiring getting to the front of the car. I seem to recall that with the headlights off, I could still pull back on the stalk and get the high beams to 'flash', but that function doesn't work now.
I haven't looked for a blown fuse or other cause yet, just trying to get some feedback on where to look first.

- Jim -

[clayfoushee]

Jim, Page Naumoff............I believe he had a similar issue early on with his new car. We were returning from a cruise last year at night, and if my foggy memory serves me correctly, he started having a similar issue.

[Jim Harding]

Thanks Clay, I'll give Tony a call this afternoon.


'edit' - Problem located in the connector between the turn signal stalk and chassis harness. All OK now.

[Naumoff]

Good memory Clay,
My issue was with the low beams and I believed it to be a load problem from the Tri-bar head lights over heating the throw switch brass piece in the column and warping it breaking the low beam connection.(this is only a theory) It would only do it after running the headlights for about 20 minutes and then they would go out. Push the lever forward and I had high beams. Pull it back to flash and I would have both. When put back into the low beam position I would have nothing.

Well after many attempts to fix the problem I wired the headlights to a relay and just bypassed the column dimmer switch to a Lucas dimmer in the dash.
I could of probably wired some relays in to keep the column dimmer switch but this was an easy fix.
And so far it is working like a champ.

Jim You are an electrical guru and you fix it already.

[Jim Harding]

Tony,

My problem was very similar to yours, except it was with the high beams. Push the lever forward, nothing. Low beams OK. Pull the lever back and both beams.

Yesterday I confirmed the problem was still there, and then seperated the connector. Checked voltage and continuity and all was well.(?) Reconnected the connector and everything worked. First thought was a poor connection, but after sleeping on it last night, I think my first guess was wrong. Connections had to be good to work when pulling the lever back... there are only two power out connections leaving the switch, one for low beam and one for high beam. Now you have me thinking that maybe the switch is the problem. I have some relays that I may put in line and let the lever switch handle the coil power.

[davebetts]

I had similar headlight issues, not to mention the supplied sealed beams couldn't find a moth in a summer night.
Installed new headlight switch (on dash), wired two relays to power source, threw sealed beams away, installed Hella reflectors, installed two 55watt Hella bulbs, and WOW. The light from the same wattage (55 watts) is unbelivable. It's all in the reflectors. These are European style (illegal if your going through NJ inspection) and only put light down on the road. Lens are flat and non convexed as sealed beams appear. I like the look. If you pull up to a garage door, at night, it's completley black above 3-1/2'. All the candlepower goes to the road and the sides. I live in deer country and those suckers look like Moose in the dark at 50 mph.
I could take pictures and give Hella #'s if anyone has the interest.
Very inexpensive upgrade for such a saftey gain. Good vision is a good thing!

[Naumoff]

Jim,
You should check the plastic switch housing. One of the things I did was make sure the housing was not keeping the switch from its full motion. Mine would not let it seat all the way in low beam position. Maybe yours is the opposite. Easiest way to pull the housing off is to loosing the two column clamps. One on the cowl brace and the one under the hood on top of the foot box. You should have just enough slack to pull the steering column out to let the switch housing clear the dashboard. For screws from the underside. Then you can see how the little bugger works.

Dave, I went with the tri bars for brighter headlights. And they are. I like them very much.
Clay did mention how bright they are the other night.