Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 09:05:08 -0700
Reply-To: Charles McGehee <chasm@ELLTEL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Charles McGehee <chasm@ELLTEL.NET>
Subject: Re: '91 Westy - Yikes, lights! NOT
In-Reply-To: <20010916.063815.-328499.2.kdlewis@juno.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
I had the same problem. No lights between Joshua Tree and Big Sur, so no
night driving. I took the switch out in Big Sur State Park (it was dark
due to the California power shortage) and cleaned the contacts with a
pocket knife. No problem since. Fortunately, the switch is clipped
together (not glued or sealed), so it can be opened rather easily. Be
careful, though, since there are a half-dozen or so tiny springs in it that
can and do fly in all directions. There is also a steel ball bearing that
helps the rocker switch hold its position which I lost it in the leaves and
gravel of the camp ground. Very frustrating. The switch worked anyway, and
I replaced the ball when I got home with a bearing from a bicycle
wheel. When I took at apart at home to replace the bearing I also cleaned
the contacts again with some fine sandpaper. It was clear, by the way,
that some of the contacts were burned from sixteen years use. If you do
take it apart, do it slowly and carefully noting the position of the
pieces. It's somewhat of a Chinese puzzle to put back together again.
Good luck.
Charles
'85 Westy
At 06:38 AM 9/16/01 -0400, Kenneth D Lewis wrote:
>Bob;
> First check the ground clusters behind the fuse block. These tend
> to corrode due to leaky windshields. Most likely is the under-engineered
> light switch. Check out my web page on how I added relays to cure this
> problem. On an electrical competence level of complexity between
> five(deals with complexe electronics daily) and zero(doesn't know which
> end of a soldering iron to hold) I rate it at three and a half.
>On Sat, 15 Sep 2001 23:49:08 -0600 Bob Stevens
><<mailto:mtbikerbob@MSN.COM>mtbikerbob@MSN.COM> writes:
>First time poster/reader....yur all a blast...good info. My problem: my
>headlights go out periodically on long trips. I'll go into a gas station
>to fill and turn things on and only get parking lights. No wipers or right
>stalk lever functions at all. Pulling back on left stalk and holding it
>gets me brights. Lights come back on usually at end of day of use of
>vehicle, when it gets dark. Weird thing happens: if I hold the left
>stalk/high beams on and mess with the right stalk, the wipers finally come
>on then I can turn on the headlights with the dash switch.
>This happened a year ago an I replaced both stalk levers and have only
>recently been getting this light thing again. Whaddya think?
>
>
>
>
>
>Bob Stevens
>Don't count the days,
>make the days count!
>
>
>----------
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