Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 09:05:07 -0500
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Need Help with Headlights
In-Reply-To: <EAD86E93-6487-4007-B4EF-B2856EDD97FB@mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 06:56 PM 1/3/2012, Robert Stewart wrote:
>Need Help Please
>1988 Vanagon GL, Rebuilt Engine w 6,000 miles on it. SA Grill Kit,
>Upgraded Relay Kit.
Point to or send a diagram for how the relays are wired?
>have no lights, no brights, no low beam, nothing. The high beam
>indicator is on no matter if you pull the stalk back or not. Nothing
>at all. Pulling the stalk back does not activate the lights. I did
>not smell anything burning, nothing popped or made any kind of sound.
The high beam indicator is driven from the right--side high-beam
power inside the fuse/relay panel (Bentley 97.127 track 66 up into
the panel on internal connection 56a and across to 97.130 track 110
just below the fuse). If it's on all the time then that *strongly*
suggests that your high beams are powered all the time and that
you're missing a ground.
Do you mean "on all the time" or "on whenever the headlight switch is
on regardless of ignition switch position" or what?
>Power Going from the Stalk on the TOP & Middle Connectors of the
>turn signal unit. I also get a power signal on the left side of the
>stalk connector.
Wire colors/terminal numbers please?
>The turn signal worked [works?] fine when the lights are off but
>since this recent issue the turn signal when signaling to the right
>just causes the turn signal light to stay on, no flashing or
>anything on any of the right side lights. If you turn off the main
>headlight switch the turn signals all work just fine. - Strange.
Get the switch out of the picture by unplugging it. Use jumpers on
the connector to simulate the action of the two switches (dimmer
switch 97.130 track 104-5, turn signal 97.131 track 116-7).
Side note: I had a mechanic friend of mine wire the low beams to be
grounded directly from the headlight wiring at the bulbs, it worked
on both bulbs for a week then the drivers side light stopped working.
I checked the bulb and it looked perfect, the ground was still
intact. Very strange indeed.
A voltmeter is your friend here. The voltage has to get to the light
at system voltage, be expended across the light filament and exit the
light at ground voltage. If you see zero volts at the power side of
the light it's a supply problem. If you see +12 on the ground side
it's a ground problem. If you have +12 on one side and 0 on the
other it's a bum light.
Bob, you've got a strange and conflicting set of symptoms. My
suspicion is that there's an issue with the relay wiring, possibly
including wires melted together inside the harness; but the only real
solution is going to be to get out there with the Bentley diagrams
and a voltmeter and track it down. If you can't read the diagrams
you're in trouble, so start on 97.4-5 where they explain how to read
them. Then go to my article at
http://www.vanagonwiki.net/wiki/Wiring_diagram_improvement to learn
how to decode what you're looking at. We can help some, but you or
someone is going to be spending some quality time out there with
bell, book and candle I mean voltmeter. You might consider this an
insurmountable opportunity. If you haven't got one, a little torpedo
heater like this one from Lowes
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=154996-88644-RMC-FA60L&catalogId=10051&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=3255484
will take some of the sting out of it.
Yours,
David
